Citibank Sticks It to Customers -- and Congress

by Anne Landman — February 16, 2010 - 2:18pm
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fist of money Citibank is dodging newly-enacted federal laws aimed at protecting consumers from unfair credit card company practices. The new law prohibits credit card companies from raising interest rates whenever they like, on short notice or no notice, and for no particular reason. To get around this, Citi mailed out letters announcing it was raising its rates for all of its customers to its bad-creditor rate of 30 percent, and telling customers that they are eligible for a "program" that lowers their interest rate back down to the previous rate they had been paying. The only catch: if they miss a payment their rate will zoom back up to 30 percent immediately and retroactively -- exactly the kind of behavior the law sought to end. Citi believes their behavior is legal because they are calling their new policy a "program" rather than a "rate." Citigroup customers only have only two options: go along with Citi's new "program," or pay off any remaining balance, cancel their credit card and try to find a different company.

Main Source: 
The Washington Independent, February 9, 2010

Comments

citibank

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 9, 2010 - 9:53pm.

I have had a Citibank card for close to 20 years. They sent me an letter two years ago changing my interest rate from approx. 7% to 17% - and my options were to accept the new terms of service basically immediately, or opt out and have my card cancelled when the current card expired. It's expiring in two months and I've been informed that I'll have to reapply and my card will now be a new one with zero years history, as opposed to a nearly 20-yr history. Kiss my credit score goodbye.

Did I mention - never missed a payment and use the card regularly between $500-1000/mo (giving Citi, what 1.5% of my transactions via fees to the vendor)? Plus the occasional fees for not paying the entire balance a couple times a year.

Screw you citibank, why did the government bail you out just so you could screw your loyal customers??

I just got off of the phone

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on December 15, 2010 - 10:10pm.

I just got off of the phone with Citi. Everything you all have said just happened. Apparently I said No I don't want a 14.9% interest rate I want to keep my 5.9% last year. Now they have non-renewed my card for good and I never was told I'd be cancelled...not that we would want to stay with a rate like that. This is very shady and there has to be something that can be done legally?

Valuable information

Submitted by pru76 (not verified) on September 20, 2010 - 5:58am.

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Citibank is deducting money

Submitted by gecko morph (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 12:45am.

Citibank is deducting money from your account for some educational pursuit without asking you. I just want to know more on this issue. Thanks.

CITI cards are the worst bank ever !!!!

Submitted by Brizie (not verified) on September 1, 2010 - 4:56pm.

CITI bank is full of scum that's trying to make money however possible and they do not care a good, long time customer that pay on time and triple than minimun payment. The recommend that nobody consider this company for credit or anything.

lost $870 in rewards

Submitted by Andy S (not verified) on August 9, 2010 - 8:21pm.

Citibank closed my Business Card Account that was in good standing. Never had a late payment and paid my balance every month. Without warning they closed my account and took 87,000 rewards points. That's equivalent to $870. I called them and they said there was nothing they could do.

I spoke with Lisa and told here I had many cards with her and charged over 300,000 on my other cards that were not closed. I told her I would close my savings account, checking account and all my credit card accounts if they screwed my like this. She said she didn't care and could do nothing. Bye citi, I will never do business with you again.

the person I spoke to was:
"Lisa - Manager customer service, citibusiness cards, 1-800-750-7453
ID 7415"

I am closing all my accounts and taking my business elsewhere,

Slimy Creditors

Submitted by Sara Zerr (not verified) on August 3, 2010 - 9:23am.

I am disgusted at these creditors. I thought that when the government bailed them out it was supposed to increase the money supply but instead the banks are just holding the money and sticking it to the customers. Honestly, how is anyone supposed to rebound from this awful recession if we keep getting hit with low blows. I agree that creditors have a right to increase rates for those who don't make payments, but to increase it to 30% for everyone? That's absurd!

Thank you for the sensible

Submitted by Tax Attorney (not verified) on July 30, 2010 - 3:01am.

Thank you for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research about this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such great information being shared freely out there.

All this is just an

Submitted by Filing Back Taxes (not verified) on May 3, 2010 - 7:33pm.

All this is just an exploitation of customers. According to new law the credit card companies cant raise the interest rates whenever they like or on short notice or no notice or without any reason. But City Bank is doing the same in the name of “program”. Its really shameful for the bank like this to adapt such practices and make the concept of credit card a tool to make enormous money. I also canceled my card due to these reasons. Even after canceling the card and telling the reason for the same, I used to get the calls from City Bank again for the same credit card for a long time. Its just one type of mental harassment for a person like me.

Deducting amount from NRI accounts

Submitted by Srini (not verified) on March 8, 2010 - 7:35pm.

I have Citi NRI account for th epast 10 years with Citibank. Recently I noticed a deduction of INR1.44 for some educaiton cess and not sure why and its deducted based on the service charge.. When I called the customer service, they begging "sir its just one rupeee sir and its going for education..." Iam not sure whose education is going and where and when and how.. so I asked to confirm if I authorized to deduct the amount and they cannot able to provide a proper answer even after 4 days. Try to reach some managers and that indain call centers no managers at work! US Govt paying big bucks for bailout money to citibank and no managers!
Waiting for resposne from the managers and lets take a legal action on Citi! Its un-ethic to deduct amount without knowing customer. Its called cheating, robbing in plain words!