Credit Card Problems?

Dauntless

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https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/getting-started/

They may not solve the problem but it felt good finally getting to complain.

So it was about 2 months ago I went out of town for Christmas. As always, Citibank doesn't honor my card on the road. This time I tried paying ahead and had a credit balance, did no good. Usually I come home and the card is good again. Not this time.

So if you've never called your credit card company they have something like your mother's maiden name for you to tell them when you call. Then they discuss. This time was weird. Basically they started phishing for any information they could get, including non Citibank accounts I have. More than a little suspicious, eh? They insinuate the vague accusations but don't come right out and say it. You're dealing with Doug here, that only ensures I enlist outside regulators to come down on them.

The short version is they won't tell me why my card isn't working. They won't reinstate it, they won't cancel it. My guess is this was done for the phishing purposes. Big company behaving like that, eh? I'm sure they're content to keep my $500 too. But it's been two months and they haven't done anything about this. My autopayment for certain things with my credit card isn't working, etc.

The link takes you to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau website.

There are five steps to submit your complaint:

Step 1: What is this complaint about?
Step 2: What type of problem are you having?
Step 3: What happened?
Step 4: What company is this complaint about?
Step 5: Who are the people involved?

I got a Citibank credit card I think when I was a teenager. It's now what they call 'Diamond Preferred.' My student loans were Citibank. I do have other accounts there. But if this is how they're going to act. . . .h
 
Personally, I canceled my Citibank account in 08, along with my bank of America card. Because of the way both banks treated their home mortgage customers. I never had a Wells Fargo, but will not now for the same reasons.

Look into a few new accounts, you can still get a good card with a brand new bank, you got years of good credit. Shop for a good rate, or good cashback, whichever you will benifit most from.
 
I've been looking for a credit card myself, Citibank Canada was various webpages recommended cards.

I decided on the 1.75% cashback and 4% foreign exchange (online or traveling) Rogers Bank credit card its $29/yr but will be waived if you autopay one of their bills (Fido, Chatr, Rogers) their only other card is 1.5% and 4% and no annual fee.

Can't live without a credit card when traveling.
 
Dauntless said:
markz said:
Can't live without a credit card when traveling.

Oh, I've had to live without one when traveling because Citibank won't honor mine even when I've used that very card in that part of the country many times.

Debit cards work fine. But, you do have to have savings.
 
I highly value having a credit card (I have two), and I hate them both. Me and credit card banks are like porcupines mating, and I am the female. I occasionally have the need to be used in order to get something I want. For instance, when I was younger...I left a deposit-check with a car rental agency in order to rent a car. Fast forward to many years later...an emergency came up and I needed to rent a car, and they would only rent with a credit card.

If you need to stay at a hotel, gotta use the credit card. I prefer Paypal, but some recent online purchases have been "credit card only". I have a couple bills on autopay, which eliminates writing a couple checks each month, and keeps the account active. I do NOT carry a balance.

On the first of the month, I pay the minimum payment, and on the 15th I pay it off. This is because once...An insurance agent credited my payment to the wrong account, and my insurance was cancelled from a missed payment. He fixed the error, but now there was a bad mark on my credit. I had to fix that too.

Another reason I keep a credit card account is for when I travel. If someone steals my ATM card info and cleans out the $12 in my checking account, I don't get it back. I have a credit card theft about once a year, and they always repay me and give me a new credit card number and PIN.
 
Prepaid cc look at Zoom Pass Visa
no fee's like other prepaid cc's
I do a transfer from TD Bank until 8pm, it goes through at 6:15am next business day! RBC Bank is 2 days.

I got wind of that card through using Petro Canada prepaid, I love the Zoom Pass Visa!

This card is owned and issued by “PACE Savings & Credit Union Limited (formerly All Trans Financial Services Credit Union Ltd.
https://www.pacecu.ca/Personal/ToolsAndCalculators/FindBranchATM/
Looks like only branches in Toronto area, but can get card anywhere.
http://www.zoompass.com/card-registration-page?hsCtaTracking=2815afd6-3dc8-483e-83ba-97bb7fd7bc4c%7C03b305a4-d979-4a24-b5c2-9500a8ff5e28

So its Canada only I bet, no help to Americans, doesnt hurt to call em.
 
swbluto said:
Debit cards work fine. But, you do have to have savings.

$500 prepaid on this card with a $30k plus limit, that's what's supposed to be the hot ticket. Pay Pal doesn't pay fast from your bank account, only quick way is if you have a credit card to your account.

I've never had a any credit fraud. New Citibank bill came today, I almost expected to see something foul, but there was nothing at all. Just my $500 waiting to be spent with no payment due. Not even a mention that they won't honor the card, can you believe.
 
You loan them $500 is the hot ticket, for them!!! :lol:

FWIW, the smartest thing I ever did was carry a sometimes big balance on CC. Why you say? Because if you do, you can get a much better offer on balance transfers.

Not so great a deal now, but I used to transfer my balance to 3.9% till it got paid. Plus a transfer fee, but for me that was a flat 50 bucks for a big transfer, or less for a small one. In fact, it was Citibank that gave me those offers, though others sometimes did too at more like 5 to 10 %.

Id get calls from my other cards, offering a deal like 10%, and I'd laugh and say that was way too high. Often when I told the person working the call I was used to 4%, they'd ask how the hell I got that rate. I got a better rate on the regular card too. I'd buy a car at 4%, call it 5% counting the transfer fee, vs a car loan at 10% from my bank. naturally if you over pay like a moron from a car dealer, you do get a better rate. I'm talking about a less than 10 thou purchase at a good price from the owner of a car. Back then, dealer car loans were not that great a rate anyway, not like now.

This sort of thing worked great for me, because in construction you'd pretty much annually have some months you had no income. So then not having a car loan with a big monthly payment helped a ton. So working OT in summer, I'd pay them a thou a month. Then a few months later, I'd be off skiing, and paying the car off at minimum rate, like 50 a month. And charging more for a few months, for the gas to drive to the snow.

Sure, you hate to pay them that interest, but they also hate you to pay down in full every month too. 50 bucks a year interest on the offer is nothing compared to the then common rates on cards of 18 to 21%. Of course you can't leave it on the original card for months, not even at todays common rates below 15%. But if you give them 50 bucks a year, you can indeed save a lot more, get a better deal on your cards, and still build a good credit rating.

So roll a thou or less onto the no interest for a year offer, and give them a bite, and they will eventually stop screwing you on the rates, and offer you better deals. Or you can call them and demand them.

That won't work out of town thing though, that almost has to be something that happened because of a long past fraud on your account, or something you actually authorized. Some kind of security set up years ago. Now they have no idea how to un do it?

Wont be there on your new card, at a new bank.
 
Dauntless said:
Pay Pal doesn't pay fast from your bank account, only quick way is if you have a credit card to your account.

One way around this is to get a visa gift card or similar. Even if that card has no balance remaining, paypal still thinks it's a valid card and allows you to do fast bank transfers. I used this trick successfully for years.
 
So they were adamant, they would NOT tell me why they cancelled my card, but it was cancelled. I eventually got a refund on the credit balance. Oh, they left a message falsely accusing me of some vague crime in disputing some charge, totally disregarding the fact I didn't dispute a charge. Basically they can go to hell, right?

So I suddenly get a BILL. They went ahead and made some payments for me on the credit card I don't have anymore. Which is fraud. The simple fact is NOW I get to dispute THOSE charges and remind them the card is inactive because THEY made it inactive without my permission, but they must ask permission to reactivate it but did not. I'm going to enjoy this, right? So right off that they have to PROVE that they LEGALLY cancelled the card, because I'm calling this reactivating it part of a bigger plan on their part to be criminals. Any refusing to tell me is just part of the coverup.
 
Where do you go for something like that, small claims court.

Lots of credit counseling services around, they'd be the one to go to, they'd know how to deal with them scoundrels.
 
I wrote training materials on this for TRW. Since Citibank has refused to discuss it with me on the phone when I've called, I mention that in the letter. I write contesting it and say why. This is unauthorized, the card itself is unauthorized now that they cancelled it. They have to seek authorization to reactivate it and they didn't. They will have 30 days to respond, after which the charge is legally cancelled just like the card itself. The response will require an explanation, which they have refused to give me. So I expect they will drop it. This will not be a charge off, it won't show as an uncollected debt, it won't show at all. Of course that's only if they comply with the law, they haven't quite done so up until now.

I can also make another complaint at the government link at the top. I don't think the first did anything, maybe if they pile up, but this is a separate concern from that last one. The fact is the people you file complaints with are the credit card company and any credit bureau they report to. The bureau sends a collection letter, I send a letter back contesting it and they have 30 days. I've won every single time with these, as I've never had a valid collection effort made against me but there's been some shysters. Urban Dictionary definition: "One who speaks bullshit fluently in order to fool people out of money or other possessions. . . ." Basically a bureau becomes your advocate when you write to them, they HAVE to demand proof from the socalled creditor and have proof on file they did so, they HAVE to tell the socalled creditor to back off if there isn't proof. This includes the City of Los Angeles, who tried to scam me for 8 years because I worked in television and they had a tv employee tax, that I lived in the next county and their laws didn't apply to me didn't bother them one bit. But the credit bureau straightened them out on that. At least they did when I pointed out to them that it had already crossed into criminal failure on their part and they BETTER put a halt to the City of L.A., one more notice from them and POW! That one more notice never came.
 
Doesn't the US have a financial services ombudsman?

I work in cybercrime detection and response which includes financial crimes. Nothing strikes fear in the heart of a bank worker than saying you think you have a case to involve the ombudsman and actually seem to know what you're talking about.

Firstly the extra amount of work it creates for them if the Ombudsman agrees to hear the complaint is huge.

Secondly, if anything can't be proved, they tend to favour the individual. Take away a fortnight's pay from a poor family, or 270 milliseconds worth of profit from a bank? Unless the complainant has obviously had a history og dishonesty, its a dead easy choice for anyone whose title is "public advocate".

So unless they have you lock, stock and two smoking barrels, for small amounts, threatening to get the Ombudsman involved usually will force them to give some ground. Hell 2 hours to prepare a brief for the Ombudsman will cost them close to $500.
 
Ombudsman

https://www.ombudsman.ab.ca/ is what I used once for a slight problem I had. Went for an interview but I never followed through too much hassle for what little money was involved. But they are the ones to talk to because they get to the bottom of the problem.

Every province has one, I think you are in Canada right.

Also filing official complaints, havent done one of those, but I hear about them all the time on the news.
 
Actually I can see the Disneyland fireworks from my home. SoCal.

Sunder said:
Doesn't the US have a financial services ombudsman?

That link I provided in the first post is what passes for our Ombudsman, but this being the U.S. I doubt they have the strength of a European counterpart. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/cfpb-ombudsman/ombudsman-faqs/ It mentions it doesn't make "Legal Determinations" or "Serve as a formal office of legal notice." I would expect the Federal Trade Commission would still step in on that.

Citibank seems to have so little fear they do all this refusing to talk to me and even knowing I had a complaint in they still went right ahead and made a false accusation about me having some contesting a charge scam even though I didn't contest a charge. I'd go for anything that would at least make extra work for those dirtbags. Costs them $500, you say? Crap like this undoes any goodwill with a company I've had a credit card with since my late teens, had student loans through, still have an investment account with, etc. Citibank has gone to the dogs, obviously.

The big thing in America at this point is 'Self Regulation.' An example that's easy to understand is that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) no longer has so many inspectors in, say, slaughter houses. So whereas formerly an inspector would call ANYTHING "Potential fecal matter" on a slaughtered chicken and it would no longer be sold as a whole chicken because of hacking a hole in it, the companies own inspectors make the determination that maybe it isn't and it's washed off. I don't really believe it's dangerous if it WAS chickenshit, etc., but it gives you the idea that we're not so strict as the EU. Which has its' upsides and its' downsides. America has the Fair Debt Collection Act, which I wrote training materials on, but you have the collectors breaking those laws all over the place and nothing happens to them.

An expression has been going around in recent years, 'Every man his own attorney general.' There are people who are self appointed law enforcement, bringing civil actions on things you'd think would get criminal investigation and they get to collect the penalties. All intended to keep the government out. Again, there's good and bad.

So now that my taxes are done I have to write to them, write a second complaint to that link, then, uh, make it up as I go. Cancelling the card then putting charges on it months later, this after their phishing efforts, this sure NEEDS criminal charges. I just don't know that there really is a way to bring them.
 
I sure hope it does cost them $500 for every complaint. The harassing letter I got from Citibank today is getting it's" own complaint. "As you requested---" I DID NOT! Obviously they're making me angrier and angrier.

I'd say their intention is to obfuscate, confuse matters with false statements and ignore the real matter. So now instead of one long complaint I'll make little complaints that deal withing specific matter. Tunnel vision. It'll be hard for them to confuse matters.

Damn, I hope you're right about it costing $500 each. Maybe that will make them decide to straighten up.
 
I applied to Tangerine, its a phantom bank here as they have no branches anywhere. I had to go to the Post Office to confirm my identity and I wondered how much they get paid to do that. I was denied because I did not meet their criteria based on a hard credit pull. Looks like they use TransUnion as they told me in the letter to get a copy. I usually do, its free if you send in the request via snail mail. Its not like my credit is bad, there is nothing on there. I will try my own bank and see what comes of it. Its really nice to have a cc just in case. But I don't want to do a secured cc. Capitol One is easy to get, but they bombard you with ads and mail.
 
Anybody who gets a credit card or bank account from a rapacious commercial bank is asking to be abused. There are credit unions everywhere; their credit and debit cards work the same as anybody's. But their fees and customer service tend to be a LOT better.
 
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