Chris had a pretty simple request. He writes that he wanted his credit card issuer, Citibank, to save a few trees and save him some legwork, and credit his rewards to his account instead of cutting a check. No one in the Citibank call center hierarchy had the power to make this happen.

I have been a Citibank credit card customer for almost 30 years. I spend thousands of dollars per month with my rewards card and always pay off my account in full. One would think I would be a desirable customer to keep, but they do not seem to want me.

I recently applied to get my rewards which totaled a bit over $680 back. I asked them to credit it to my account and they refused saying they will only issue a check by mail. I found this odd since every other rewards card I have will credit my account when I ask.

A month later my check had not arrived so I called back and talked with a supervisor named Brenda who said she would credit my account since I did not receive the check. A week later I still had not received a credit so I call back this evening. I was again put through to an “account manager” when I asked again to speak to a supervisor. This time I was told that they had mailed me another check because the other supervisors request to get me a credit was denied, because it was against bank policy and there was no way they could credit my account. I told her that if you value me as a customer you will get this done. She again told me it was against their policy to issue credits for rewards. I guess you no longer want me as a customer.

I have several other rewards cards. All of them will issue a credit when I ask because the other banks seem to value my business. Citibank obviously does not.

Maybe the nice people at executive customer service will value Chris’s business more.

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