Why Citibank needs a bailout

[CAJUNLAWYER]

In case you wondered why Citi is going broke and need the feds to bail them out (ture story):
Credit Card Exchange - Priceless
A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00 when she died, but now somewhere around $60.00.

A family member placed a call to Citibank.

Here is the exchange :
Family Member: 'I am calling to tell you she died back in January.'
Citibank: 'The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.'
Family Member: 'Maybe, you should turn it over to collections.'
Citibank: 'Since it is two months past due, it already has been.'
Family Member: So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?'
Citibank: 'Either report her account to frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!'
Family Member: 'Do you think God will be mad at her?'
Citibank: 'Excuse me?'
Family Member: 'Did you just get what I was telling you - the part about her being dead?'
Citibank: 'Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor.'

Supervisor gets on the phone:
Family Member: 'I'm calling to tell you, she died back in January with a $0 balance.'
Citibank: 'The account was never closed and late fees and charges still apply.'
Family Member: 'You mean you want to collect from her estate?'
Citibank: (Stammer) 'Are you her lawyer?'
Family Member: 'No, I'm her great nephew.' (Lawyer info was given)
Citibank: 'Could you fax us a certificate of death?'
Family Member: 'Sure.' (Fax number was given )

After they get the fax :
Citibank: 'Our system just isn't setup for death. I don't know what more I can do to help.'
Family Member: 'Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. She won't care.'
Citibank: 'Well, the late fees and charges will still apply.' (What is wrong with these people?!?)
Family Member: 'Would you like her new billing address?'
Citibank: 'That might help...'
Family Member: ' Odessa Memorial Cemetery , Highway 129, Plot Number 69.'
Citibank: 'Sir, that's a cemetery!'
Family Member: 'And what do you do with dead people on your planet???'

(Priceless!!)

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

In case you wondered why Citi is going broke and need the feds to bail them out (ture story):
Credit Card Exchange - Priceless
A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00 when she died, but now somewhere around $60.00.

A family member placed a call to Citibank.

Here is the exchange :
Family Member: 'I am calling to tell you she died back in January.'
Citibank: 'The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.'
Family Member: 'Maybe, you should turn it over to collections.'
Citibank: 'Since it is two months past due, it already has been.'
Family Member: So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?'
Citibank: 'Either report her account to frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!'
Family Member: 'Do you think God will be mad at her?'
Citibank: 'Excuse me?'
Family Member: 'Did you just get what I was telling you - the part about her being dead?'
Citibank: 'Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor.'

Supervisor gets on the phone:
Family Member: 'I'm calling to tell you, she died back in January with a $0 balance.'
Citibank: 'The account was never closed and late fees and charges still apply.'
Family Member: 'You mean you want to collect from her estate?'
Citibank: (Stammer) 'Are you her lawyer?'
Family Member: 'No, I'm her great nephew.' (Lawyer info was given)
Citibank: 'Could you fax us a certificate of death?'
Family Member: 'Sure.' (Fax number was given )

After they get the fax :
Citibank: 'Our system just isn't setup for death. I don't know what more I can do to help.'
Family Member: 'Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. She won't care.'
Citibank: 'Well, the late fees and charges will still apply.' (What is wrong with these people?!?)
Family Member: 'Would you like her new billing address?'
Citibank: 'That might help...'
Family Member: ' Odessa Memorial Cemetery , Highway 129, Plot Number 69.'
Citibank: 'Sir, that's a cemetery!'
Family Member: 'And what do you do with dead people on your planet???'

(Priceless!!)

 

[rewster]

Is this the person to whom I am speaking ?

 

[f150guy]

this kind of crap makes me furious

a little common sense goes a long way...
stupidity NEEDS to be, not should be, a chargeable offense, punishable by the offender being cloned and having do deal with himself or herself on a daily basis...

 

[Centenniel]

And those people actually breed...

 

[truckemup97]

The credit bureau(s) won't be any help, either. I was named after my father, who died when I was 16. About 10 years after that, I went to finance a car. They were very concerned with the fact that I had closed my Diner's Club account. "I've never had a Diner's Club account," I replied. "Oh, but it's written in the records, so you must have." Well, I bought the car, got it financed, then called the credit bureau. I tried to explain to them that this had been my father's account, and that I had not been of legal age when it was closed, or even born when it was opened. A couple of months later they said they could do nothing about it, as Diner's had affirmed the information.

 

[Tom M]

Six months after my dad passed away, the hospital in which he died sent him a questionnaire, asking how he enjoyed his stay at their facility, and if he would recommend it to his friends. I called them, and mentioned that they might want to check their records before they sent that sort of thing. Their response? "Who has time to go through all that?"

 

[f150guy]

I love mankind, it's people I can't stand.
-Linus Van Pelt

 

[Andy Griffith]

I "snoped" it.
It states it can't be confirmed, but is probable.

 

[riptrack44]

My VISA is through CitiBank. I've been looking for an excuse to change. I think I found it...

 

[glypnir]

It's not citibank, but I've got a similar problem with my mother's card, and she died in 2006.

For a while, they were charging for identity protection, I think.

 

[Spotteddog]

The only reason they're having trouble, is due to all the ammo I've bought using their card to get "free" airline miles. Then I plan on doing what everyone else is, stick the rest of you with my bill!

 

[ALJ-28]

Now you know what is wrong with the world economy.
Don't tell anyone I said this, I will be getting billed for giving free advice.

 

[OFT]

Charley Foxtrot.

 

[Big Cholla]

I carried a Citi Bank Visa for over 15 years. I always paid the full balance off each month. I was in Bakersfield, CA on business and thru poor planning on my part on my return to LV wound up in Mohave, CA at 1 am in the morning with almost no cash. I stopped to fill up with gas at the only station open. I had to give my card to the attendant for him to have it approved prior to fueling. The attendant notified me that my card was refused by Citi Bank. I wanted to know why. I called the Cust. Service number on the back of the card. I was put thru the identifiers. I asked why the refusal? The Cust. Service guy told me that my card had never been used to purchase fuel at that time of evening or in that town therefore was 'suspect'. I told him that I had just identified myself according to their identifiers and now that he was satisfied to reinstate the card so that I could purchase fuel and go home. He stated that it was company policy that once a card was refused it could not be reinstated for 24 hours. I told him where to stick Citi Bank and their company policies. I used another credit card, got my fuel and went home.

I have given Citi Bank all the bad word-of-mouth advertising that I can since. I hope they crash and burn without anymore of our taxpayer monies going down the tube with them. ..... Big Cholla

 

[pharmer]

I've had the NRA Visa card for probably 15 years. It's serviced by the First Nat'l Bank of Omaha. Never a problem, never a nuisance charge, no annual fee and NRA gets a cent or two every time I use it. Only card I use any more, no annual fee and the points (they add up fast when you use it for everyday things- the grocery bill put me into the platinum) are redeemable for cash or gift cards. Joe

 

[benmcc]

will they make it past the next week?

 

[tom turner]

Wachovia is just as bad, though most folks like myself will never find out.

HOWEVER, via my college-age son's account I surely did!

He set up a debit card with them when he went off to college, on his own. They talking him into "pairing" it with his savings account so he'd have "Check Overdraft Protection," and guaranteed his overdrafts up to $1,500 in case he needed something in an emergency.

It sounded good to him, after all, we all knew at one time that debit cards do NOT work if you don't have the money in your account.

WRONG! Not any more.

He'd go on line and make sure he had a few extra bucks (starving college kids are that way of course), then he'd put $5 in gas, for instance, knowing that he still had a couple of bucks in his account. WRONG . . .

By holding his funds from us for a few days for them to "clear" (we also use Wachovia), and by sorting his checks largest to smallest, he would end up NOT having any money in his account.

Sure, ON LINE it showed our deposit in his account was there . . . but they consider it there BUT unavaliable!

So, they would sock him for seven or eight TINY checks . . . paying his "overdraft" from his SAVINGS ACCOUNT side of the leger. DOUBLE FEES:

1. They charge $20 to "transfer" fees from a person's "savings account" to his "debit account." ALSO . . .

2. They also socked him $15 more for "Overdraft Protection Fee."

Yep, $35 in charges when he's got plenty of money sitting in his account PER CHECK OR DEBIT TRANSACTION.

Let's see . . . 7 $3 transactions = $21 + 7 x$35 in fees TAKEN from his savings account.

Then, a few days later, he buys a coke and maybe a big mac. SLAMMED for $35 more.

A WEEK LATER a small card showing the latest fees arrives at our house . . . 600 miles from his college and I get on the phone frantically telling him to STOP!


BOTTOM LINE . . .

He comes home for Christmas, right after they'd "frozen" his account . . . and I go to the bank with him to straighten out the "confusion."

No confusion they say . . .

By that time they'd wiped out the $2,500 in his savings account in piss-ant fees and "protections" PLUS they said he owned them ANOTHER $1,500. Yep, they'd "covered" his account with the "Overdraft Protection Fund" . . . which they explained to me is ACTUALLY a LOAN like a credit card . . . and 22% APR.

BOY WAS I PISSED.

They told him it was his fault for not watching his account closer and explained their creative ways of accounting . . . which damn sure should be criminally illegal.


FOLKS . . . don't chime in and say the kid was a lazy fool, and that he should have known . . .

Folks, one day we'll all be old and unable possibly to follow whatever tricky accounting methods congress let's 'em do at that time.

AS I SAID IN THE BEGINNING . . . most of us would NEVER know our big banks are zapping folks like this, because we have balances plenty large enough for any rainy day that may come.

BUT . . . the poor, the fools, and the very young adults without a pot to piss in yet get preyed upon worse than a mobster loan shark . . . and it is all "LEGAL."

I've checked around . . . all the major banks are doing the same things.

Wachovia, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Bank of America are probably the worst at preying on any and all they can.

Banking, before national banks were allowed to come together, was an honorable profession. Not anymore. I truly don't know how the branch managers and other management in these banks can go home and sleep at night.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I have a friend who works as a local bank vp. He also says he tells his mother that he is a lawyer.

 

[Sven]

As long as none of you know where I work. . .

When I was first hired with the company, I was hired at the same time as 9 other people. One guy left after a couple of years -- lets just say he was not a "good fit". We all lost track of him until a few years ago I found out where he worked. You guessed it -- a VP at Citibank credit card!

I can't lagh too hard, he's making more money than I am. . .