The credit card division of the Philippine unit of Citibank has been running a radio and online ad campaign featuring testimonials from purported clients whose lives have allegedly been saved by having their Citibank credit cards handy. The radio feel-good spots always end with the satisfied client saying their names and the final line “…and this is my Citibank story”. A recent post in the Citibank “What’s your story ?” site (”home to beautiful, moving and memorable stories about the Citi Card that beg to be told”) equates God with Citibank.
Almighty GOD is the greatest savior, but so is CITIBANK.
Well, this is my Citibank story.
I’ve been a credit card holder of Citibank, for both VISA and Mastercard, for well over a decade. Around October of last year, when my Mastercard was due for renewal, I asked for the waiver of my annual fees, which includes an extension card. I’ve been a “good” client, never having had even a single past due account all these many years. Maybe not good in Citibank’s view, as this means it has never earned any interest from me. So Citibank refused to waive my annual dues.
I then decided to cancel my Mastercard, in one of my intermittent attempts to impose fiscal self-discipline and simplify my life. Citibank agreed, after I settled any outstanding transactions, which I promptly did. Except for the annual fees, which I patiently explained to its customer service representatives, was the crux of the whole issue. The annual fees are advance payments for my continued membership in the prestigious Citibank family for the coming year. Since I was canceling my credit card immediately, it didn’t make sense nor was it fair for me to pay annual membership fees for next year.
Citibank apparently believes differently. Each month since November 2007 until the present, I have been billed for my membership fees with corresponding finance and late charges. Each month, I patiently call customer service to explain my predicament, and each month they promise to reverse the charges, just as soon as they validate their records. I haven’t used the card since I decided to cancel it and, to make sure I kept my resolve, punched holes in it and cut and mutilated the damned thing. I then buried it in our backyard.
But the statements of account keep coming. It’s been eight months since, but every time I dial 995-9999, I get the same line, that they will backtrack and reverse the charges.
I got so fed up with Citibank that I decided to cancel my VISA too. For some unexplained reason, VISA acted on my request pronto and my last statement revealed that I overpaid my Citibank VISA by thirty-four centavos. You think Citibank offered to refund me my thirty-four cents ? Not a chance. I’m thinking of suing them for the return of my overpayment, just for the principle of the thing.
In the meantime, Citibank Mastercard keeps sending me a monthly statement of account, with compounded interest, for an accountability I never incurred, arising from a canceled credit card.
And this is my Citibank story.
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AdB
Not the first one I hear where Citibank is concerned.
The stupidity — they spend so much on postage not counting the backroom salaries that they pay to recover something they will never recover.
The Warrior Lawyer
God knows when this will end, ADB. And their customer service reps have such odd names, I wonder if they use aliases. Yesterday I was talking to somebody named Dollz.
Jane
Uh oh. I am a Citibank cardholder. Maybe the only good news in all that is that I have a Visa and not a Mastercard.
Hope Citibank reads this and acts on it PRONTO!
thegreatest
sorry to hear that. The thing is, as with most other credit card companies, it’s the fault of their staff and management, and not due entirely to the company policies.
Not to say they’re blameless, it’s the lack of training, internal bureaucracy, and just plain incompetence that leads to this.
I hope you get to resolve this issue soon, and that it doesn’t escalate to a mistaken blacklist or worse, a collections issue, esp for a debt you did not incur. That is an even worse headache.
witsandnuts
That happened to one of my friends also. CTB finally reversed the charges after ages. Worse is, they still bill for the annual dues to a dead accountholder even if they were long been informed about it.
The Warrior Lawyer
@ THEGREATEST, someone who introduced himself as a collection agent actually called my office and harassed me about my account. I told him off and he never called back. I’m waiting for Citibank to sue and save me the filing fee. I’ll be ready with my counter-charges
@ Jane, a credit card, used judiciously, can actually be a great convenience. But it’s hard not to abuse it, what with so many tempting goodies to be had with just a swipe of your plastic. Of course, the reckoning comes soon after.
@ WITSANDNUTS, I’m not at all surprised. Citibank is loathe to let anyone go, even those who should be allowed to rest in peace.
niz
hi. am juz wondering. are they really suing the people who havent been able to pay? are the auto generated lawfirm letters saying that the matter is on court now true? or just bluff.
because on the company side, i believe that for every credit they extend , theres always a doubtful accounts set up for it. and write it off if its uncollectible.
im just thinking of the accounting side of things.
Em Dy
A formal complaint (copy furnished to the main office) usually works for me. It’s rare that I feel customer service agents are doing their job. Most of the time I feel they just want the conversation to end. Writing a formal complaint leaves a trail and once it reaches the proper office, everything seems to move fast.
venice
wow OK… so you’ve been incurring charges since Nov 2007, that’s a lot. So, are you getting calls from collections? I’m sure they are calling you cuz its considered a past due account.
if your agreement with the first CPO you spoke to is that the annual fee will be waived once you settled your balance… the CPO shouldve waived it. now this depends on how soon you were able to settle your balance. if your agreement was you’ll settle the balance asap say, within the month or before your next cycle then the CPO could’ve monitored your account and waived the annual fee. since the first CPO failed to do so, the CPOs that you spoke to every month could’ve validated/reviewed your account since Nov of last yr and do reversals since Nov starting with the annual fee then go month by month with the charges incurred.
i dont know why they didn’t do their jobs… did they explain to you why they couldnt reverse/waive it?
now, it will be hard for them to verify the annual fee issue because its been over 6 months…
i know you wouldn’t want to call 995-9999 but you should make sure that all the charges are reversed or its noted in your account that the charges are based on a charge that wasnt reversed/waived. my advice is if you decide to call them, insist on talking to a supervisor regarding your issue, take note of the complete name of the supervisor too.
this is very important because not only will it possibly affect your credit rating, i also know a lot of cases of card holders whose accounts were forwarded to collections just because of a charge that wasnt reversed/waived and it incurred charges. of course the card holders refuse to pay for it but what they don’t know is its considered as a ‘past due’ by the system. the system doesnt know that its because of something that wasnt reversed, it only reads it as you didn’t pay for it you know.
btw, i’m not connected with citibank just in case youre wondering.
Tiffany
Sounds like horrible customer service.
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