OT: Citi Cards Refuses to Remove Fees Charged in Error

Margaret · 2010-05-25T15:57:46+00:00

I thought the following might be of interest to those who make heavy use of Citi credit cards....Be warned....Margaret***********************************************************************Citi Cards charged me a late fee when my scheduled payment posted one day prior to the due date (according to my Citi statement). Upon checking with my bank, I learned Citi Cards made no attempt to pull the funds as scheduled. (If they had, my Fidelity account's history would show either a debit or a "rejected - insufficient funds" notation. Fidelity has no record of either.)The real problem is getting the erroneous fee removed. Citi Cards requires a letter from my bank stating they have no record of any attempt by Citi Cards to withdraw funds. The problem gets stickier, because my bank account is a Fidelity SmartCash account. Fidelity uses various "member banks" to hold and process funds, in my case, XXXXX bank. Citi Cards requires this letter to be written on XXXXX Bank's letterhead. As I am not a customer of XXXXX Bank (Fidelity is), I can obtain no such letter from XXXXX Bank. Now Fidelity is willing to write such a letter (also explaining their financial relationship with XXXXX), but this does not satisfy Citi Cards' requirement!Supervisor Kim at Citi Cards tells me they only apply a returned check fee if a debit attempt is made and rejected. Even though their own transaction history shows no transaction was rejected, Citi Cards still requires this impossible-to-obtain letter from XXXXX stating as such! My account is with Fidelity, my service relationship and account history is with Fidelity, yet because my account has an XXXXX routing transit number, a letter from Fidelity is insufficient to have this $39 returned check fee removed.I have had accounts with Citi Cards spanning 30 years. I have an excellent credit history and always pay my balance in full each month. Further, I charge everything I possibly can, as it usually makes monthly bill paying simpler, and I...

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Jerry Boyle 16 years ago

OK, Andrew, I see the problem. I didn't know what you meant when you said you made your extra payment "in the middle of my payment month." You *are* talking about the time between the closing date of a statement and its payment due date and for you that period *is* an entire month (or just a couple of days less). So of course you are OK as is anyone with almost a full month payment period.

When I had my squabble with Citi 10 years ago that period was not a month - it was only 12 days. That left about an 18-day period during which payments were too late for the MDP for the prior statement and too early for the MDP for the next statement.

Just within the past year Chase VISA stretched my payment period from 21 to

28 days but I thought it was still the 14 days it was a few years ago. Since I pay my balance online as soon as I get my statement I (obviously!) pay no attention to this matter.

About now I'm feeling like a fool. Will you forgive my stupidity if I promise to put on my dunce cap and sit in the corner for an hour?

Jerry

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Andrew 16 years ago

Jerry - I'm fine. As to your statement, " Since I pay my balance online as soon as I get my statement I (obviously!) pay no attention to this matter.", I too try to pay and schedule the 'real' payment a few days earlier, but just in case I don't, I like having the backup payment MPD already posted.

FWIW, I just received a note from Citi yesterday telling me they are jacking up my interest to 23.99%. Obviously, I know this has happened to a lot of folks. Hopefully, since I pay the balance off in full each month, it doesn't really affect me.

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Notan 16 years ago

I, too, fully pay the balance each month, so I tend not to read the notices about rate hikes.

I should probably start, as one day they're gonna slip something in that *will* affect me.

With rates around 24%, at least for Citi, is there any question as to why folks are having financial troubles? Wasn't the Fed supposed to step in and help?

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Margaret 16 years ago

Same here. I guess I should start. If my payment got screwed up as it did this past month, those high interest charges would really hurt. While my Citi Dividend MC is at 21.99%, my Citi Forward VISA is only ~11.49%. IIRC, Discover's rates are quite high, but my Chase VISA is only around 13%. 20+% is ridiculous IMNSHO. Some changes were made to improve the situation for credit card users, but apparently they didn't cap interest rates. Or if they did, the cap is too high.

Regards,

Margaret

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Eric J. Holtman 16 years ago

Notan wrote in news:g-mdnRQGGvZqYGLWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

They are stepping in to help. They're loaning Citi money at 0% so Citi can lend to you at 24%.

That's helping Citi an awful lot.

Probably not what you meant though.

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Andrew 16 years ago

It's late, so I won't go into a long post, but what I think happened was indeed the new credit card laws DID kick in, and the CC companies can no longer get the benefit of revenue streams from the same source that they had before. So now, to make the $, they have to stick it to their better customers....either through higher interest rates, higher annual fees (the days of 'free' credit cards are numbered), or a increase the EVERYONE's interest rate. Personally, I do vote for the latter, since I can avoid that one more so than the other two.

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Andrew 16 years ago

I meant in that sentence when I said the same thing twice to say "either through reduction in programs such as incentive programs such as frequent mileage or hotels, higher annual fees (the days of 'free' credit cards are numbered), or a increase the EVERYONE's interest rate.". Told you it was late (!).

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Notan 16 years ago

Years ago, while going through one of many "energy crisis" times in California, San Diego Gas and Electric encouraged users to cut back on their energy use. The people complied, so when revenue dropped, SDG&E jacked up prices.

One way or the other, it's always the little guy that takes the hit.

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OT: Citi Cards Refuses to Remove Fees Charged in Error

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