Citibank Credit Card Complaint

Citibank Credit card department,

APR or interest rate North Carolina

In - - the bank arbitrarily changed the interest rate on Purchases from 18.99 % to 29.98 %. This change had no immediate impact on my monthly payment, because in - - I had a zero balance for Purchases. My balance of around $12000.00 was composed entirely of - special offers with an interest rate of 1.99 % ( see - - Statement attached ). I did not notice this change because I rarely looked at the statements, was not using the card, and the monthly auto-draft payment was stable at less than $200.00. However, in the ensuing years as - of the special offers expired and I began to use the card for purchases, this excessively high interest rate of 30 % turned what had been an efficient financial instrument into a toxic arrangement equivalent to a payday loan. ( See Statements from - -, - -, - -, and - -. ) I have contacted the bank several times over the past 3 years, requesting that the usurious 30 % rate be reduced to something reasonable like 18.99 %. They simply respond that there is nothing they can do. I suspect that my account was targeted for this 30 % Purchase interest rate because I was not using the card and had substantial balances at only 2 % interest. Banks should not be allowed to set rates at 30 % for customers who make all their required payments on time, as I had done from - through - - when they arbitrarily changed the rate.