Your Recovery Department - lies upon lies.

Maybe I am reading this wrong but if a bank account has a negative
balance that usually means it is in the red or over-drafted. There
would be no overpayment due to you but rather you would have to pay
them. If one account is being looked after by the Recovery Department
that may indicate that they have discovered fraudulent activity on
that account.

Your best course of action would be to go into the nearest branch to
talk to a live person face to face. Talking over the phone with
somebody who may or may not be with CITIBank is sketchy at best. And
if you speak to them in person they would be better able to show you
on their screen what activity they are seeing on your account.

This should be easy. Open your bill. If it shows that you have a
credit balance, call the 800 number right on the bill and ask them to
cut a check for you.

However, trying to accept that someone could unknowingly overpay a
credit card by %5k is a little tough to swallow. I think you are
being scammed.

I'm with Lisa. How did "CITIBank" "contact" you?

If in a mailed letter that a postal worker delivered to your door,
it's easy enough to verify the account number and other information.

If via e-mail or phone, it may very well be a scam. If you gave them
your account number, the scammers may have wiped out your account or
made enormous charges.

Type in the Citi address yourself. One that came off an old bill will
be a good one.

Good luck.

Are you sure the overpayment is valid? As I read this, I can't help
but wonder if there is some fraud involved, and that you aren't really
dealing with CITIBank. What info did they want over the phone?