Citi Card - I made a mistake - can I get anyone at Citi to wave late reporting

[PaulUhoh]

Hello all!

I found out today that I made a pretty big mistake.  I had a Shell credit card issued by Citi that I almost never used (maybe once in the last year +).  I was sent a new card around mid-year in 2013.  I decided, I should at least use the card once, and I did so in October.  After using the card, I forgot about the purchase.  Unfortunately, I do not get paper statements from Citi for this card.  Also, I found out the hard way, that I do not get emails for that card either.  

I started getting calls from Citi a few days ago, but I figured they were sales calls concerning my Citi Forward card. Afterall, I rarely use that card either and it has a zero balance.   I checked that account online and saw nothing unusal, so I ignored the calls for a few more days.  Today, I got tired of the calls and called Citi back.  Unfortunately, that is when I found out about the long forgotten Shell charge.  My original $60 charge was now $120.  I am not so worried about the late charges, although I'm certainly not happy to have doubled my bill.  I told them I wanted to cancel this account has it has a very low credit limit compared to other cards I have and it offers no rewards. I closed the account and paid Citi the entire $120.

To make a long story short, I asked if they had any sort of forgiveness policy as far as credit reporting goes, but the foreign call center representative did not seem to understand what I was trying to ask.  He told me I would have to contact the credit bureau.  I know that is not the correct answer.  This has me very upset as I did not have any derogatory information on my credit report prior to this.  So, my question is, does anyone know if there is anyone I could contact that might be willing to change the reporting status as a gesture of goodwill, or am I going to be paying for this mistake for some time to come?

Thank you in advance,

Paul

[enharu]

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@PaulUhoh wrote:

Hello all!

I found out today that I made a pretty big mistake.  I had a Shell credit card issued by Citi that I almost never used (maybe once in the last year +).  I was sent a new card around mid-year in 2013.  I decided, I should at least use the card once, and I did so in October.  After using the card, I forgot about the purchase.  Unfortunately, I do not get paper statements from Citi for this card.  Also, I found out the hard way, that I do not get emails for that card either.  

I started getting calls from Citi a few days ago, but I figured they were sales calls concerning my Citi Forward card. Afterall, I rarely use that card either and it has a zero balance.   I checked that account online and saw nothing unusal, so I ignored the calls for a few more days.  Today, I got tired of the calls and called Citi back.  Unfortunately, that is when I found out about the long forgotten Shell charge.  My original $60 charge was now $120.  I am not so worried about the late charges, although I'm certainly not happy to have doubled my bill.  I told them I wanted to cancel this account has it has a very low credit limit compared to other cards I have and it offers no rewards. I closed the account and paid Citi the entire $120.

To make a long story short, I asked if they had any sort of forgiveness policy as far as credit reporting goes, but the foreign call center representative did not seem to understand what I was trying to ask.  He told me I would have to contact the credit bureau.  I know that is not the correct answer.  This has me very upset as I did not have any derogatory information on my credit report prior to this.  So, my question is, does anyone know if there is anyone I could contact that might be willing to change the reporting status as a gesture of goodwill, or am I going to be paying for this mistake for some time to come?

Thank you in advance,

Paul

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Try writing goodwill letters to Citi. Physical mail, as inefficient as they may be, are usually the best way to resolve such issues. 

In the meantime, you can try calling Citi's EO and also their credit department. Sometimes they're willing to cut customers some slack, but it will depend on their policies, the account and your internal score with the bank. Some banks will never negotiate about these issues; they will only remove derogs from one's credit report only if it is due to an error on their end. 

Best of luck!