topic Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions? in Rebuilding Your Credit

Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

bluescale — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 15:52:10 GMT

I've put together a first draft of a goodwill email to Citibank. Since this is my first attempt at putting one together, I'd love to get any feedback. Is it too long? I've taken a few (very minor) liberties with the facts. Other than that, this is pretty much how things went down.

Dear Mr. Linville,

I'm emailing you today in regards to a Credit Card account I opened with Citibank in 2007. This was one of many cards I've had with Citibank, dating back to 1997, when, as a college student, I received my first credit card. I've always been very satisfied with Citibank's consumer products and customer service. I've sent several letters to the General Correspondence mailing address in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but I have yet to receive a response. I write to you today to ask for your assistance.

In 2008, like many Americans, my wife and I felt the effects of the global economic crisis. Unlike many Americans, we had the wherewithal to quickly adjust, tighten our belts, and weather the storm until the economy recovered a bit. Unfortunately, in August of 2008, my account with Citibank went overbalance and 30 past due. At the suggestion of your customer service team, we enrolled in a consumer credit counseling service, Money Management International (MMI). During our time in credit counseling, we made all of our payments on time or early. In fact, as our income increased, we were able to make additional payments to our lenders, and finished the program one year ahead of schedule (July of 2012 instead of July of 2013).

Early in 2011, I learned of the free annual credit report consumers are entitled to. When I pulled this report, I was shocked to learn my account with Citibank showed 31 consecutive months of 30 day late payments. I immediately called Citibank, and spoke to a very helpful woman who explained that, while I was paying in accordance to the terms agreed upon during debt counseling, I had never covered the initial overage amount ($219, I believe). This is why my account continued to be reported as 30 days late each month. During that phone call I made the necessary payment to cover the overage, and asked if the many late notices could be removed. The representative I spoke to was very understanding, but made it clear that no adjustments could be made until I had completed the terms of my credit counseling. She suggested I contact Citibank once my obligations were met.

Now that I am a year removed from credit counseling, I'd like to appeal to you to have a goodwill adjustment made to my credit reports for the numerous 30 day late records. I whole heartedly acknowledge that this due to my mistake and a misunderstanding of how my account would be handled while in credit counseling. I understand this is probably not a request that you'd normally consider. I hope you can appreciate the unique nature of this situation, and will consider making an exception in my circumstance.

The account in question is [account number]. As the account has been closed since I entered consumer credit counseling, and since I completed the program a year ago, I do not have the complete account number available. The number above is what is listed on my credit report. Hopefully this will be enough to locate my account.

I'd like to thank you very much for your time and your consideration. If there is anything I can do to help you make your final decision, please don't hesitate to contact me at this email address, or at [phone number].

Kind Regards,

bluescale

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 13:36:24 GMT

Citi has denied me 5 times to remove a 30 day late on a 0$ balance account. Is that a specific Citi contact you addressed this to>?

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

bluescale — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 19:31:24 GMT

CEO of their credit card division. I'm going to guess at his email address. Chances are, it will be read by an executive admin or go to an executive team, which is exactly what I want.

http://www.citigroup.com/citi/about/leaders/jud-linville-bio.html

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

bluescale — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 19:58:07 GMT

So today I pulled the trigger and sent off the goodwill email. About 4 hours later, I received a call from executive customer service informing me that she will review my account to see if there's anything she can do for me. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Focker69 — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 21:02:26 GMT

Any updates with this?

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 22:03:47 GMT

I sent out a tweet calling citibank douche bags etc. They messaged me back and wanted my phone number to help. Their social network people escalated it to the executive level and I got a call back the same day. They say they are working on it, but they don't usually take things like that off because if they do it for me then they have to do it for everybody. So what?? Do it for everybody then! Everyone who asks at least. Good luck!

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

bluescale — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 22:24:42 GMT

@Focker69 wrote:
Any updates with this?

Whoops! I didn't mean to leave people hanging. I posted about this in another thread:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/My-Citi-GW-experience/td-p/2251903

To make a long story short, yes they did help me out .

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 23:12:17 GMT

Can you send me the email address as well?

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

negril2005 — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 13:44:41 GMT

This is good news. Would you kindly also PM me your email contact? Would greatly appreciate it!! Thank you

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 02:17:49 GMT

can you send me the info as well? please

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 04:28:28 GMT

Please PM me also.

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Pigeyex — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 14:40:44 GMT

I don't have an e-mail address, but I did just get a GW success (total deletion from all 3 bureaus) just by sending a similar letter to the address listed on my credit report. FWIW.

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 23:59:13 GMT

Could I get the contact information for Citi bank I'm in the exact situation. Thank you,

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

bridgetkaryn — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:04:54 GMT

Can anyone send me the info too for Citi? would give my left arm to have a CO from 2010 removed... paid CO at that!

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

IvDogg — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 02:21:35 GMT

My personal experience with citibank is that they're completely hit or miss.

My wife and I both have Citicards, mines is closed and paid, I believe they closed it for inactivity, had it for about 3 years and only missed 4 payments on it for really stupidly low amounts like $10 here and there, even had one 60 days for $25 (happened because I forgot to setup autopay while I was away for military training)... I'm easily on my 10th GW letter in less than 2 months, tried writing everyone I could there, email, fax, etc. Still working at it without success.

My wife's card had a maxed out $3800 limit at many times, easily 15+ 30 days lates, 5+ 60 day lates, and at least one 90 day openned about 5 years ago. Account is closed with a balance of $1000 we're still paying it off. It only took 2 very generic GWs 30 days apart and we got a letter saying they removed all negative history from the account. Sure enough, I checked her CR and the account was perfect. FICO score took a 50 point jump after this.

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 12:30:45 GMT

Can you pm me the email address as well?

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

IvDogg — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 09:10:34 GMT

No need to PM, I just mailed my GW to their regular correspondence:

Citibank, N.A.
PO Box 6241
Sioux Falls, SD 57117-6241

...

Like I said in my last post, it's just luck, I tried writing every address/person I could find at Citi. Just 2 basic letters worked for my DW.

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Anonymous — Tue, 20 May 2014 06:37:27 GMT

Could you please send me the contact info as well. Thanks in advance.

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 03:04:51 GMT

Could you also send me the Citi info as well. Im going to attempt to email them my goodwill letter first and if that fails then ill snail mail them a copy. Thank you

Re: Goodwill Letter to Citibank...Suggestions?

EW800 — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 05:33:46 GMT

I realize that this is an old thread, however just wondering if anyone would be willing to PM the e-mail address referenced in this thread.

Thanks so much!