Complaint Review: Sears Citibank Credit Card - Internet Internet

We at Citi understand that bad things happen to good people. However, there is no way for Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. to reverse a documentated late payment to the credit reporting agencies. This was not a bank error, but unfortunately you defaulted on your credit card contract with one of our private label companies, Sears.

Citi policy is to review your credit history once a late payment is received. One of several things may happen: Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. will raise your current interest rate to default pricing (currently 34.99% APR), close your Citi account and demand payment of your Sears private label card balance in full, or reduce your credit line to 25% of the current limit or to $200, whichever is less. Citi takes account defaults seriously and your account is now a credit risk to the bank.

Please contact Citi credit card services toll free at (800) 274-6660. Please have your account number handy when calling. It would be in your best interest to pay down your balance immediately. Our account collectors are waiting to assist you 24/7. Please call today!

And as always, thank you for banking with Citibank. We appreciate your business.

not to make excuses but I am a working mother with 3 children, and Sears wasn't on my todo list)
- Your report is full of excuses.  Here is a question that perhaps you can answer.  Your claim is that you don't have enough time to take care of things such as your accounts because you are working and have 3 kids.  Okay..during that two month period think back at how much time you spent wondering what to watch on TV?  Was watching TV more of a priority to you than dealing with your bills?  How much time did you spend "surfing" the Internet?  Was surfing the Internet more of a priority to you than dealing with your bills?

It is also very interesting how you didn't have enough time to change your information, yet you have plenty of time to contact the corporate headquarters and complaint.  Oh wait you only came up with the time when you found out your actions actually effected you.

(I changed my number two months ago) forgot to call Sears about my new number
- EXCUSE.   The fact is that you were delinquent, you didn't change your number and want to blame them instead of taking responsibility.  Everyone who is late, over their credit limit has an excuse.  Of course you feel that you are a "special" case and they should make an exception.  Unfortunately everyone else thinks they are special as well.  So you are being treated just like everyone else.  You also seem to infer that if it was a human who called you the result would have been different.  Well the human would have gotten the same disconnected number.

I never received A Letter from Citibank informing me that I would be reported to the Credit Bureau.
- EXCUSE.  You may not have received a "letter" but you did receive your statements, and this was in your agreement that you received.  Besides that, they report your positive information to your credit report why would you think they would need to give you special notice that they would also report your negative information?

I was told the reason was I was making weekly payments to my acct, if that makes sense.
- Actually it does.  It is probable that your weekly payments were being applied to two different billing periods, so the ones in each period were not enough to cover the minimum payment due by the due date.  Paying your credit card weekly, daily, or even hourly doesn't matter.  The ONLY thing that matters is that you make at least the minimum payment before it is due every month.  If you are truly too busy to be able to remember to pay your credit card bills you have too many and you need to cut the number down.  So having them "loose" a customer may actually be the best thing you can do for yourself.

I will have this lateness on my report for 7 Years.
- If you want to take anything positive.  That is if this is the only negative on your report, the effect will be fairly short term.