For anyone who is interested in a Citi USA account, be warned that their online payment services are not the best. 1. You cannot make an online payment on the card for the total balance on the account. You can only pay what the statement balance due is. So, if you have a $0 statement balance, or *no generated statement* (i.e. before the first statement drops) - you CANNOT pay anything online, regardless of what the real balance is. And if you have a statement balance of $100, but a total balance of $800, you cannot pay anything above $100. This means that if your grace period runs out before your statement cycles (25 days?), you are *forced* to pay finance charges until it does cycle. And even then, you have to wait until the weekend passes for the online system to update the statement. The only way to avoid the finance charges is to mail the check in, or do a check over the phone for $9.95. I tried to pay a balance of $910 off via online, but it wouldn't let me because my statement balance is only $98. So I called, and they said "mail in a check". But the last time I mailed in a check (for this exact same problem last month), they credited it for the wrong amount - costing me finance charges when my statement cycled! So, today I escalated to a supervisor who (this is a first) was very sympathetic and agreed that the online system is seriously screwed up (he even told me other problems with the online service that I had been unaware of). Anyway - he took my check over the phone and said that he will credit the $9.95 transaction fee. He said that he'd pass on my suggestions to tech support in addition to the ones he'd already made. :-(
Citi's online system won't even let me register hubby's account to pay online. The system keeps saying credit card number invalid, but when I call customer the account number and account is fine. I have been making payment via snail mail (I really hate that though). Dani
Marci, are you talking about citionline accounts?? My platinum statement wasn't due to come out til 3/28, but I went ahead and paid the balance that was showing, it went through posted the same day??
Get a checking account that offers full online payment capabilities. That way, you call the shots. I like Citibank Online a lot, I'm sure many others are just as good. Saar
Dani and Momof3, This is not Citibank (i.e. www.accountonline.com). Their online site is fine, and yes, Citi is now posting payments the same day that they are authorized. They just did it for my mom's account, and it is a great improvement over the former 3 day wait. My post was talking about Citibank USA (visit www.hhonorscard.com "cardmember services", and you'll see the huge difference in quality). Their online system is *archaic*. Saar, yes, I suppose that you are right. I do have a free business checking account with free billpay services, so I'll look into that for Citi USA purposes. It's crazy that they won't let you pay "in cycle" for the full posted balance.
