Credit Cards

[westcafe]

My son is in college and he got his first credit card this past July. It is with citibank. He has a credit limit of 2500.00. He informed me today that he had a balance of a little over 600.00 that he has been paying on. He got his new statement online today and it showed that there was a payment of 612.00 applied to his account and that he had a credit line of 3700.00. Well he didn't make a payment and doesn't know why there was a CLI. What should he do? Of course you know what we want him to do, but I don't want them to straighten this out and have him miss a payment in the mean time and hurt his credit. Any suggestions?

Thanks

[smallfry]

This sounds strange. I would find out if there was any activity on the card he doesn't recognize. If a payment is due he should most definitely go ahead and make one. I would call Citi and find out what is going on. No need to mention the CLI though. LOL. 

[westcafe]

They are not showing a payment due because there was a 612.00 payment made. There is no other activity on the card besides a payment being made.

[smallfry]

You need to call. Unless the mistake is on their end they will likely freeze the account.

[ByrdMan]

He definitely needs to call ASAP. He should also print this activity out, for future proof. He has to get this straightened out and he has to be the initiator of the action. Otherwise, I can see a big mess happening, when CITI figures it out themselves. He should maybe also check his bank account to ensure that something goofy has happened there, like a $612 payment, automatically generated by CITI. GL

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westcafe wrote:
They are not showing a payment due because there was a 612.00 payment made. There is no other activity on the card besides a payment being made.

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[westcafe]

There has been no money withdrwan from his bank account. I will advise him of this and have him call on monday. I would hate to have this turn into a big mess for him beacause he is learning to be responsible for his own finances and credit. When you say "freeze his account", what does that actually mean?

[smallfry]

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westcafe wrote:
There has been no money withdrwan from his bank account. I will advise him of this and have him call on monday. I would hate to have this turn into a big mess for him beacause he is learning to be responsible for his own finances and credit. When you say "freeze his account", what does that actually mean?

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IF Citi comes to the conclusion that fraud is involved they will most likely close the account number and issue him another card. What day was the supposed payment made? If it was on Friday it might not show up in his checking account until sometime Monday. Can he cover this ACH if it does hit his checking account? He doesn't have to wait until Monday to call. His bank might have info on any pending ACH payments too so I would call them today as well. If his due date is close I would advise he at least make a minimum payment now to cover himself. 

[westcafe]

Well there is no fraud concerning him. His statement came out online on the 21st showing this payment was made. I don't have the statement in front of me to show the actual date of the payment, but it was before the 21st. So at this point if they were taking a payment from his bank account it would have already come out I would think. He doesn't have enough in there to cover this payment if it were the case. Can't wait to get to the bottom of this without it hurting him. I advised hi to make the minimum payment asap.

[hotsaka]

i would call em up but seeing how payment was so close to the balance are you sure that a realative(someone who knew he owed $600) didn't pay it off for him

[RenoFico]

I had a Great Aunt pay on my account many many years ago while I was in school. This was before online account access, of course it was easier then to do something like this, now there are layers of security. I would check with some relatives as to whether they shined some generosity on your son.

Message Edited by RenoFico on 03-01-2009 01:36 PM