From the New York Times:

Citigroup cardholders will then have until the end of January to turn down the higher interest rates. If they decline the rate increase, they will pay down the balances on their accounts under the old pricing terms and will be able to continue to make charges until their credit cards expire.

After that, however, customers will have to reapply for a card or find a different lender.

If you receive your statement online, a separate rate increase letter will be mailed to you. LowCards.com points out that you should pay close attention to your mail because such notices are easy to overlook:

They often come in nondescript white envelopes that are easy to miss and toss before reading. However, if you don't respond, you are stuck with the rate increase.

If you decline the offer, send a letter to your issuer by certified mail.
Keep a copy of the letter for your records.

"Despite Pledge, Citigroup to Raise Credit Card Rates, Blaming ‘Difficult’ Environment" [New York Times]
(Photo: Spencer E Holtaway)

So recently the APR for my Citicard, which I have had for years at the still-crappy yet manageable APR of 10.99% increased to a whopping 16.99%.

Holy cow, you may be thinking. You must be some kind of deadbeat!

Nope! I have never missed a payment on this card. I have kept a substantial balance on it for years, which I'm sure credit card companies like. It seems that Citibank was just randomly screwing me. Of course, I could always refuse to accept the increase—and then close one of my oldest credit lines and hurt my credit report. Nyuh-uh.

I immediately responded by bailing: I transferred a huge chunk of the balance to my Bank of America card, which is no good for purchases as it offers no rewards, but oftentimes has promotional rates on balance transfers. I also called Citi today. It was a marginally successful call, only because I did not get jerked around as much as anticipated.

The customer service rep was a girl named Angel with no marked accent; surprising, being as all of my contact with Citi so far has been with heavily-accented men who try to wheedle me into buying account protection. "But ma'am you may cancel at any time." But I digress.

I was polite yet slightly crazed. I told Angel 16.99% was the most ridiculous APR EVER. I told her that my first credit card that I applied for when I was 18 without any credit history offered me a lower APR than that. I told her I had several cards with lower APRs that hadn't raised them because of some vague "financial market" excuse. I told her I didn't want to use a card that would charge me 16.99%. I have options.

Angel fumbled politely for a bit, and quickly transferred me to her manager, which was a pleasant surprise.

The manager was understanding and also polite. After giving me more vague "financial market" excuses, she said she could review the card and POSSIBLY give me a lower APR. I then got to use my favorite phrase when speaking to customer service (in bold):

"I just don't see how I can continue to use a card that has such a high APR, especially when all of my other card like my Discover card offer me 9.99% or better. I'm sure you understand."

"Oh yes," she said. And she agreed that affective today, my APR would by 11.99. Not back to where it was, still crappy, but sure as hell better than 16.99. I am proud of my response:

"Well, I will accept the 11.99 APR, but I will probably still won't use this card ever again."

Cool like ice!

"Citicard: PremierPass to a high APR" [nicolestanfield.vox.com]

Be sure to read our Ultimate Consumerist Guide to Fighting Back, a go-to handbook for the dissatisfied consumer. Once you've decided to go the executive customer service right, be sure you read this first so you know what to say when you call the corporate avatar of your choice.

The Consumerist Executive Customer Service Index

ACS
Adelphia
Air Tran
Alamo
Alaska Airlines
Allegiant
Aloha
Amazon
America West
American Airlines
American Express
Amtrak
Apple
ATA
AT&T
AT&T Wireless
Bank of America
Barnes and Noble
Bell Canada
Best Buy
Blizzard
Blockbuster
Blogger
Bloomingdales
Blue Cross/Blue Shield
British Airways
Borders
Busey Bank
Buy.com
Cablevision
Charter Communications
Chase
Circuit City
Citibank
Comcast
Continental
cox
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Discover Card
Dish
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Ebay
Enterprise
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Experian
Fedex
Frontier Airlines
Fry's
Gamefly
Geek Squad
Georgia Power
Helio
Home Depot
Humana
HSBC
IKEA
ING Direct
Insight
Keybank
Lenovo
Loew's
Macy's
Microsoft (and Xbox)
Midwest Airlines
Motorola
National City
Nicors
Northwest Airlines
Norton
Office Depot
Office Max
Orbitz
Paypal
Pitney Bowes
Qwest
RCN
Regions Bank
Register.com
Ryan Air
Samsung
Seagate
Sears
Sirius
Skybus
Sony Ericcson
Spirit Airlines
Sprint
Sports Authority
Staples
Symantec
T-mobile
Target
Time Warner Cable
TransUnion
Uhaul
United Airlines
United Health Care
UNUM Life Insurance
UPS
US Airways
US Cellular
Verizon landline/DSL/Fios
Verizon Wireless
Vonage
Wachovia
Walmart
Washington Mutual
Wells Fargo

In the event you can't find the info you are looking for here, you can scan our backlog of contact info, or use Google to uncover the addresses yourself. In the event you find something we don't have, feel free to share at tips@consumerist.com.

Researched by Alex Jarvis
Last updated: 11/07/2008

Here's M's letter:

This is a strange one. Citibank keeps trying to foist hundreds of dollars on my wife. And not in a good Robert Redford-Demi Moore sort of way.

This was her go-to credit card for a while, since before we met. Around the time of our wedding last year, she charged a couple hundred bucks worth of gifts on what was an otherwise zero-balance card. She went to pay it off a few weeks later, but, lo and behold, it said *they* owed *us* a couple hundred bucks, after some magnificent benefactor credited our account with $600. High times in Fat City, right?

Well, being the mensch my wife is, she called Citibank and told them that somehow their Intertubes were crossed. They transferred her to the fraud department, which promised they'd look into it. Sure enough, a month or two later, we got a letter saying, "We're on to you, suckers, and we're taking our money back. Nice try, though." (I'm paraphrasing.) They debited our account and we went back to the drudgery and monotony of our lives.

Of course, Citibank, being the warm-hearted blokes we all know them to be, never uncrossed their Intertubes and kept wiring money into my wife's otherwise unused account. A few hundred bucks here, a few hundred there (always in even increments), eventually we had a balance over $1,000 in our favor. It was like the Hannukah miracle, except on a credit card.

So, sure enough, my wife calls back. Sure enough, she's transferred to the fraud department. Sure enough, they promise to look into it, and sure enough they eventually take their money back. And, this being consumerist, sure enough, they start depositing money into her account again. Always a couple hundred bucks, every few weeks.

What to do? "That's all well and good, we thought I mean, we don't use the card, so we figured we could live to ignore it and let them deal with it. "Ha ha," we'd say to our friends. "That crazy Citibank! Always trying to give us money. What will they think of next?"

Only as of today, they've started sending us CHECKS. Just today, I went down to our mailbox and found a fat, juicy check for $600, that said it represents the balance in our account. I mean, it's like they're SCREAMING at us: "TAKE OUR MONEY! YOU LOOK LIKE LOVELY PEOPLE! WE DON'T WANT IT!"

Only I can just as loudly hear, like, 800 Consumerist commenters tut-tutting, "You can't spend it. It's not your money. You are NOT lovely people; you're obviously scammers of some sort and you have this coming."

So the question is, what the hell do we do now? We've asked them, PLEADED with them to stop sending us money that doesn't belong to us. They're not listening. What now? How do we make them listen? What do we do with this check?

Save us, Consumerist; you're our only hope!

-M+C

Well, you clearly are not scammers. If you are, you are the worst scammers in the history of scams and you should go back to scam school and take scam 101.

We're going to be honest with you here and say we have no idea what you should do, other than you should not spend the money. This is what we have learned from several years of summarizing those "Bank makes $100,000 mistake, man spends it, and has life ruined" stories that show up every few months. Once the bank realizes what they are doing, they will want their money back.

If we were you, we'd start by writing an EECB to Citibank. Perhaps you can attract the attention of someone who realizes that, while, as a bank, they are supposed to loan money, it is supposed to be a bit more organized than this. Send them a detailed account of everything that has happened, and tell them to cut it out. (Keep a copy of this letter for your records, too.) It sounds like the "fraud" department might not be equipped to handle this sort of problem.

For more information about launching an EECB, click here. Here's some executive customer service contact info for Citibank.

Anyone out there have any advice for M & C?

(Photo: cmorran123 )

Citibank Executive Responsive Office in NYC
(718) 248-6433

Citibank Executive Response Unit
Rudy Guerrerro
(210) 677-7284 direct line

Remember to be nice, professional, and succinct. In customer service, karma happens very fast and you get what you give. (Photo: thecornballer)

The Times says that if Wells Fargo is successful in a deal with Wachovia, it would elevate what is essentially an overgrown regional bank into a national player.

A deal with Wachovia would elevate Wells Fargo to a prime position in the American banking industry, with the largest nationwide deposit and branch franchise in the country. Together, Wells Fargo and Wachovia will have $1.42 trillion in assets, 48 million customers and 280,000 employees.

The combined bank will be present on both coasts in the fastest-growing markets, playing on the same field as JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, two of the nation’s largest banks.

Wells Fargo Wins The War For Wachovia [NYT]

``There is a point at which the FDIC will take Wachovia over if they are concerned about the stability of the bank,'' said Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, an independent research firm in Torrance, California. ``But as long as Citi and Wells will extend support to Wachovia, they have time.''

To end a legal skirmish, Citigroup may agree to take Wachovia's branches in the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, while Wells Fargo would get the Southeast and California branches, as well as Wachovia's asset-management and brokerage units, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

Bank officials and FDIC spokesman David Barr declined to comment. Cable network CNBC reported that Citigroup was bidding for all of Wachovia. Citigroup spokeswoman Shannon Bell didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

A ruling over the weekend that said Citibank had the exclusive right to negotiate a takeover with Wachovia until Oct. 10 was overturned yesterday.

Wachovia is in trouble after acquiring a lender that was heavily invested in "pay-option" mortgages, a type of risky loan often given to people with good credit, but who are not required to provide documentation of their finances. "Pay-option" loans can actually grow in size because borrowers are allowed to pay less than the accruing interest.

Citigroup, Wells Fight May End by Splitting Wachovia (Update4)[Bloomberg]
(Photo: So Cal Metro )

We love it. It's like the Worst Company In America Contest, but for real.

September Madness [TechCrunch](Thanks, Fuzz!)

Part of Wachovia will remain independent — including its massive brokerage business which ballooned after it purchased AG Edwards in 2007, as well as its Evergreen investment management division.

Soon, we will all be Chase or Citibank customers.

"Citigroup to buy Wachovia banking assets" [CNN] (Thanks to humphrmi!)
(Photo: hyku)

Jeremy writes:

Just got a replacement card from Citi due to possible “compromise of information” but when I asked customer service who the merchant was who may have been compromised, she said she did not have that information, but that it came straight from Visa and Mastercard and that it happened in the last 6-8 months.

Trevor writes:

I logged onto my CitiCard professional account today and discovered an "important security messsage" that my account may be at risk due to a problem with a merchant's database. The CSR said someone had "hacked in" to a database. His manager said she didn't know which merchant was involved, and invoked the TJ Maxx case as an example. When I asked if this was of comparable size, she said it was, and the CitiBank was issuing new cards to people, and that mine should be in the mail already.

Update 09/19/08: We received another report this morning:

Just yesterday, I received a replacement card.

Logging onto their site, I got a message saying my card had been compromised. I decided to activate the new card, but pressed 5 for a consumer rep. This was not the ordinary rep with noise in the background. She had no "sell-up" scripts nor an ebullient demeanor.

She said my card had to be replaced due to a database compromise.

From the Associated Press:

Citigroup's "account sweeping program" automatically removed positive balances from customers' credit card accounts, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said. For instance, if a customer double-paid a bill by mistake or refunded a purchase for credit, that positive balance was then taken from the customer without notification, Brown said.

The news stories that announced the settlement last week don't explain why the sweeping program was set up in the first place, or why it ran for so long. They do point out, however, that a whistleblower brought the program to the attention of an internal audit team in 2001, but that person was ignored and later fired.

One unnamed Citibank executive explains Citibank's position pretty succintly in the AG's press release:

In the words of a Citibank executive, “Stealing from our customers is a business decision, not a legal decision.” The same executive later said that the sweep program could not be stopped because it would reduce the executive bonus pool.

Citibank says it admits to no wrongdoing, although we're not sure how you can characterize pocketing overpayments and credits for yourself as crime-free.

According to the settlement (PDF), Citibank must identify all affected accounts and mail a notice via first class mail to the account holder's last known address, or to the person in charge of the customer's estate. You'll have to respond within 60 days of this notice, and then will be reimbursed the skimmed fees plus 10% interest. The bank has until June 1st, 2009 to refund the money.

"Citi pays $18M for questioned credit card practice" [Associated Press]
"Citibank Stole From 53,000 Customers" (Thanks to Claire!)
(Photo: Getty)

Hello!

Today, I got a nice little email reminder from my bank that I had a new bill from Citicard! This was very surprising to me, as I had just paid off my balance last month. So, I log in to my online bill pay and sure enough, there is a new bill from Citicard for $12.39! Hmmm.... I wondered what that could be for, as I had cut up my card months ago, and I knew I had just paid off the balance. So, naturally, I logged into my online account with Citicard and took a closer look. And to my sheer amazement, I found I was indeed charged a $12.39 finance charge on my account. "Did they not get my payment!?!?", I wondered. So I look a little closer, and pull up my latest statement, and this is what I found!

Now, even though it didn't exactly show what my "previous" balance was at the time this statement was generated, it does show that I made two payments in that billing period. One, which was a balance transfer that I decided to make, (thanks to a lovely post about saving money with lesser- or no-interest balance transfer cards that I saw a couple weeks back on Consumerist.com), and a smaller payment that was the difference in the balance on the card and the amount of the balance transfer payment. I also check the statement from the previous billing period, just to make sure that I had paid the correct amount.

The two amounts matched up, so I quickly snatched up the phone. I called up Citicard, and just held on the line without entering my account number or anything, ( I learned several calls ago, not to enter in my account number and I will eventually get a real person on the line,) and told the customer service lady what my problem was. She was very courteous and even though I had to be put on hold for about 3 minutes, she was able to see the error on Citicard's part and take off the finance charge with no hassle whatsoever.

Being an avid reader of Consumerist.com, I just felt it was worth the time to share this story with the rest of your readers, and to remind them to be vigilant in paying attention to all those little things. Had I not paid close attention to my accounts, I might just have sent another payment in. Thank you Consumerist.com!

Sincerely,
Thalen's Mom

(Photo: TheTruthAboutMortgage.com)

Matt writes:

I have had the most unbelievable experience with Citi Card this week. In a nutshell, an error on their website led me to schedule two full payments and they won't give me the money back. Hopefully this story will prevent some of your readers from experiencing a similar problem.

On July 12, I received my Citi Card statement via email. The bill was $755.34 and was due on August 4. I went to the Citi website and scheduled a full payment to post on August 1. A couple weeks went by, and on August 1, I was getting ready to leave on a business trip, so I decided to check and make sure that the payment was indeed scheduled. I went to my Scheduled Payments page on Citi's website and it told me I had no scheduled payments. I then went to the page with my account status, and it still said I owed $755.34 by August 4. I assumed I either didn't schedule the payment, or I did and something went wrong. Either way, the website told me I had a bill due in three days and no payments scheduled, so I scheduled another payment of $755.34 for August 4.

As you can probably guess by now, on August 4, Citi made a deduction of $755.34 and then on August 5 made another deduction in the same amount. This brought my checking account within $52 of overdrafting, and my family and I were about to take a vacation to a small town where not every store takes credit cards. I called Citi and explained the situation, and they offered to return the money in 7 to 14 days, which was unacceptable. This was Wednesday. My wife and I would be paid on Friday, but we were going to be in a car without access to cash all day Thursday, so we needed the money immediately. They also blamed me completely for the debacle. When I repeatedly explained that I checked the scheduled payments page and was told nothing was scheduled, all they would tell me was that I should have called or emailed. But, why would I call or email, when I assume I can trust their website? Should I call or email every time I schedule a payment to confirm they received it? They then told me to call my bank and claim it as an unauthorized charge. I did so and was told an investigation would take place and I would have the money back in 7 to 10 days. Again, completely unhelpful. I said no thanks.

I called Citi back, argued with a supervisor for half an hour, and got absolutely nowhere. Just the same unbudging runaround. Completely infuriated, I told her to go ahead and put in the refund request, even though it didn't really do me any good.

So now, I get my mail today and find a letter from Citi, again blaming me entirely and telling me that no refund will be issued after all. So, Citi Card has a shitty website and gets to take out a $755 interest-free loan from me without my permission, and the whole stupid thing is my fault. I've dealt with a lot of bad customer service, but never any as sloppy and stubbornly unhelpful as this. I will be closing my Citi Card and would urge all of your readers to do the same.

Matt, we think you should escalate this higher up the Citibank food chain. It's unreasonable that a bank would hold their customer responsible for an error on their part, and it's absurd to think that it takes a bank up to two weeks to electronically re-deposit funds that they removed within a fraction of a second. Check out our Consumer's Guide to Fighting Back for suggestions on how to appeal to (hopefully) more reasonable minds at the executive level, including how to launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb.

Claudia tried to get Sears/Citibank to correct their report. 25 calls, 11 days, and 3 faxes that never happened later, Claudia stumbled across our post, "Contact Citibank CEO William Rhodes."

She got in touch with a nice lady named Diana and in less than one business day, Claudia's dad was no longer dead. "Thank you so much for such useful information," she writes. "I feel like a big load has been lifted off my shoulders."

Claudia's father could have also disputed the information with the credit bureaus, but that would have taken several months to resolve. The loan couldn't wait. Luckily, trusty ol' executive customer service came to the rescue. Remember it and use it when necessary.

The nonsense began when attorneys for Citi Residential Lending (now CitiMortgage) obtained a court order to evict Tabitha's landlord from the brownstone that he owned and was renting to Tabitha. To that end, the bank hired a Realtor and the sheriff’s office to evict the landlord. The Realtor, "Jax Realtors and REO Group," knew that Tabitha and not her landlord lived in the property, according to the Chicago Reporter, but they decided to evict her anyway, (despite the fact that this is illegal in Illinois.)

When she called the company the day of her lockout, she said an employee agreed to let her in two days later at 10 a.m. Tabitha arrived at 9:45 a.m. with a brigade of minivans and cars with friends, some of whom had taken off work, ready to pack, load and move her things, despite the 33-degree temperatures outside. They waited two hours. She said Jax never showed up.

The next day, Tabitha walked into the West Side office of the Legal Assistance Foundation and briefed attorney Jennifer Payne on her case. Payne believed she could retrieve Tabitha’s belongings and get her some restitution.

Payne contacted Jax to see if the company was willing to negotiate. A company representative seemed agreeable and a date was set to meet at the apartment, Payne said. Jax officials did not show up for the second time and subsequently did not return her phone calls, Payne said. By the next afternoon, a truck from a different company was being loaded with Tabitha’s furnishings. Tabitha’s neighbor phoned and told Tabitha to hurry home. She arrived and called police. Some of her property was in the truck, some was still in the apartment. The rest was in a trashcan in the alley.

When police arrived, Tabitha showed her identification. The movers showed the officers their paperwork and called Jax Realtors and the move was stopped. According to the police report: “Complainant stated tenant home in foreclosure and contractor hired to clean building without notifying or allowing tenant to move out. Contractor returned property into residence, building resecured.” Four days later, movers were there again. Again, they left without the furnishings. By this time, the damage to Tabitha’s property was irreparable. The movers had damaged a fair amount of furniture to the point that Tabitha no longer wanted it.

When she learned that Jax owner Michael R. Fields called the Reporter’s office, Tuesday, April 29 at 10:46 p.m., to say she could get her things back from the apartment, Tabitha recoiled in disgust. “I don’t want that crap,” Tabitha said.

The Realtor denies that they ever stood Tabitha up, and blame Citi Lending's attorneys for the mix-up. Citi said that Tabitha was given an opportunity to contest the eviction and didn't. As the story went to print, Tabitha and her lawyer were settling with Citi Lending after they were contacted by the Chicago Reporter. They claim that they never received the letters sent by Tabitha's lawyer.

“If [Jax] didn’t have a court order to evict Tabitha, what [they] should have done was gone back to the bank and say, ‘Bank, you don’t have an order to evict Tabitha," said her lawyer.

The Reporter also has some tips for renters caught up in foreclosure. Remember, every state is different, so make sure that you understand the foreclosure laws in your area.

A Renter's Nightmare [Chicago Reporter]

Oliver writes:

I’ve been a Citibank Platinum cardholder since 1989 – that’s longer than some bloggers have been alive now that I think about it – anyway, in all that time I have never (and I seriously mean never as in NOT A SINGLE TIME) had so much as a late payment. In fact I typically pay thousands of dollars a month in Citibank payments because I get mileage from the card so I use it for everything I possibly can.

So today I go to pay for a rental car and I get declined which is pretty weird but because Citibank has a ridiculous and excessive security policy I figure that renting a car in my own neighborhood is triggering a risk profile. So I call and when I inquire they tell me that I am over my credit limit. Huh? “ I’m nowhere near my credit limit “I say, “I just sent you guys a couple thousand dollars not three days ago.”

“I’m sorry sir, it says here you’ve exceeded your credit limit of xxxxxx”.
“
“Umm, excuse me,” I say, “my credit limit is not xxxxxx, it’s yyyyy.”(yyyy being a couple thousand more than she is telling me it is)

She says that I should hold and as I’m holding I realize that there’s a vein starting to bulge in my forehead and that little pieces of my porcelain crown are starting to chip as I grind my teeth in irritation.

After two minutes of listening to their loony-happy Citibank hell-evator muzak she comes back and seemingly gleefully informs me that: “Sir, due to some recent negative information on your credit report we’ve determined that you are a credit risk and have lowered your spending limit accordingly. If you’d like to make a payment over the phone to restore your account to a non-over-the-limit status I’d be happy to help you with that.”

About now the crown gives it up completely reminding me that I have a dentist appointment in an hour.

I ask for the credit risk management department and after another five minutes of their delightful muzak director’s shit taste I get some bimbo named Carolyn or Charlotte or something like that.

I explain to her that this must be some sort of mistake and besides, how can they lower the available credit for someone that has never missed a freaking single payment in nearly twenty years? Never even been late one time in that whole time? Never even paid just the minimum due in that whole time?

Apparently she thinks this is humorous because she takes on this condescending tone with me and suggests that if I paid all my bills on time perhaps I wouldn’t be having this problem.

It’s a miracle I’m not stroking our right there or doing an imitation of that eighties movie Scanners where the guys make each other explode from some sort of telekinetic/pyrokinetic attack. Before their heads actually explode they start to bleed out through bulging veins and that’s about how I feel listing to Miss C... $6.50 an hour tell me about paying my bills on time.

I ask just what it is that is on the credit report that is reflecting so poorly on my but she can’t (or won’t) share this information with me. As she says this last I swear she’s laughing. I wonder to myself where they find these people and realize that she’s lucky she lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota – it should give you some idea of how annoyed I am that anyone would be lucky to live in Sioux Falls. If she were much closer I could see myself paying her a visit...

At any rate, feeling far from satisfied at this turn of events and the delightful treatment I’ve had at the hands of a bank that’s been the recipient of large sums of my money for two decades I head home and get a copy of my credit report.

As I review it a second vein, this one in my neck starts to turn an ominous shade of purple and I realize that I’m punching the keys on my computer so hard I am actually bruising my own fingers.

Looking at the report I see what the problem is – or rather what they are. Two companies that I do business with are both indicating that I’ve been thirty days late making payments once in the last ninety days.

Only both of these issues are not exactly correct. In both cases the vendors, Sony and Volkswagen respectively failed to mail me billing statements to the correct address in spite of both of them being updated as to the change.

I contact both Sony and VW and in both cases they agree that their own system errors were to blame and that they’ll notify the credit bureaus that the derogatory information will be removed from my report the next time they update their files.

Hearing this I feel somewhat better and the vein in my neck throttles back to a more garden variety bluish tint- still not normal but at least not “you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry” purple.

Silly me. I figure that armed with this information I can contact Citibank and get things straightened out.

Au contraire Mr idiot. Citibank decides that you’re a deadbeat and no amount of perfect history will reconcile the fact that you’re not. Isn’t this wonderful I think to myself – through no fault of my own by credit bureau report gets hosed and in spite of both companies committing to fixing their mistakes, a company with whom I’ve done business for ages, and with whom I not only have credit but also funds on deposit (a factor which you’d think alone was sufficient to mitigate their concerns) they won’t even talk to me about it.

The new credit manager – Sue is her name – informs me that “once I get the credit bureau’s corrected report I can write them and they will evaluate the account to determine if I am eligible for an increase at that time.” Can you believe it? “Eligible for an increase” Not, “sorry we fucked up and we’ll fix this right away.” Not “thank you for your loyal business we appreciate you taking the time to straighten this out. “ Not even ”I apologize for the inconvenience and will see what I can do to rectify the situation.” Nope. “Just screw you mister deadbeat you’re just another suspect loser and we could care less about your history with us, your funds on deposit or any other factor which should indicate your continuing credit worthiness. “ Nope. She won’t even give me the name of an executive to whom I can write a letter.

In fact, “Sue” tells me that they always play it this way. She says if they’re going to lower someone’s available credit they always do it first thing in the morning and they never tell people in advance so that folks can’t preemptively charge their cards up to whatever limit they might happen to have before the decrease takes effect.

That’s messed up. All of it. The fact that people would play that charge up the card game is pretty lame but the way Citibank treats its customers is even lamer. The simple fact is that two providers of services screwed up and made an erroneous report to the credit bureaus regarding my credit. This in turn impacted my score which caused Citibank to take action that impacted my score further.

So even though I could prove that the problems that started this whole chain of events were definitely not my fault and that further there is nothing wrong with my credit worthiness or even any negative change in my financial standing, Citibank has chosen to treat me as if I’m a complete loser who doesn’t pay his bills.

By this time I’m so burnt out on trying to fix things that I’ve no longer got the energy to grind my teeth and my blood pressure has apparently plateaued at some unacceptably high level leaving me a bit bug eyed and with a pounding headache and the desire to — write something and stick it up Citibank executive’s asses. Maybe, I think to myself... Maybe consumerist will write something about this and those fucktards at Citibank will learn to treat people a little nicer... And not to fuck with bloggers.

Though Oliver may be Citibank's ideal customer, the bank's actions are no surprise. Banks are furiously slashing credit lines to limit their exposure to the ongoing subprime meltdown, often relying on credit reports to justify their actions.

Sony and Volkswagen may be willing to take responsibility for the erroneous blot, but Citibank won't restore the full credit line until the mistake falls from the credit report. Neither company can be trusted to unilaterally inform the credit reporting agencies of their mistake. When you spot an error on your credit report, dispute the negative item yourself.

Banks aren't eager to tell customers that they're slashing limits, so they stay quiet and hope nobody notices. Keep an eye on your monthly credit card statement to see if your limit suddenly falls, and take advantage of your free annual credit report to spot errors before they harm your credit line and your credit score.

RELATED: Contact Citibank CEO William Rhodes
(Photo: Getty)

[The] undercover operation... at one point had Eastern European hackers chasing a female FBI agent through the streets of New York, trying to mug her for ATM-card-programming gear.

"Stakeouts, Lucky Breaks Snare Six More in Citibank ATM Heist" [Wired Threat Level] (Thanks to Robbie!)
(Photo: Getty)

As the New York Times puts it, "Citigroup’s deal is only a deal until it isn’t."

Citigroup continues to suffer mortgage industry-related losses—$40 billion in write-offs over the last year—but there are two other reasons they're considering reinstating universal default. First, the government has proposed new rules that would limit how Citigroup can raise rates for its risker customers, which may drive the bank to try to increase rates before they're restricted any further:

The proposed rules would limit rate increases to customers late by 30 or more days, and the new rates would apply prospectively to newly accumulated debts.

The second reason is the "deal is a deal" didn't work from a marketing perspective:

In any case, the “Deal Is a Deal” policy did not give Citigroup the edge it hoped for. Most customers did not recognize the benefit, in part because of the difficulty deciphering the fine print among offers from different banks.

“We hoped and expected that these two points of differentiation would lead customers to vote with their feet,” John P. Carey, the chief administrative officer for Citigroup’s credit card unit, told a Congressional panel in April. “We have been disappointed with the results we have seen so far.”

Considering one of your own marketing people told our editor that promoting the end of universal default is like "telling people you stopped beating your wife," we wonder if the bank really promoted their "deal is a deal" pledge aggressively enough. Maybe they just knew all along that it was a temporary promise that would go away after last year's Senate hearings on abusive credit card practices.

"Citigroup Considers Repealing a Pledge, and the Slogan With It" [New York Times]
(Photo: Getty)

(Thanks to Ronald!)
(Photo: Mike McCaffrey)

Wal-Mart:

"I am voting for walmart because of their low wages, the dead eyes in many of its employees (I know..... I used to be one long ago),and their tendancy to drive their manufacturers out of business/into bankruptcy by demanding lower & lower costs."

"To me Wal-Mart is the epitome of everything that is bad in our country right now. Outsourcing of jobs to China. Low quality dangerous goods. Putting mom and pop stores out of business and making the entire country look like a homogenized genericana wasteland."

"in a battle of evil, it's always Wal-Mart. Always."

"Wal-Mart's biggest crime? They stole the smiley face. Give us back Mr. Smiley Face!"

"I knew they pushed manufacturers to lesser quality items for their stores, but I was not expecting this to trickle down to frozen pizza. I know they have committed greater evils, but man, screwing with a DiGiorno should be punishable by death."

"walmart knowingly uses its size against its manuafacterers. When walmart says they will sell a manufacturer's product the manufacturer first gets a decent deal from walmart, but has to retool & buy more manufacturing facilities in order to meet walmart's demand. THEN once the manufacturer is in debt & dependant upon walmart.... walmart puts the squeeze on.... demanding lower costs. And this happens every time the contract is negotiated and eventually the manufacturer goes under."

"Walmart is actively evil. Eviscerating middle class family stores? Evil. Workers rights violations, shoddy pay, dangerous products made for the poor, ironically made by the poor of the third world. Evil. They make a profit off of screwing people over."

"They drive smaller stores out of business so people have to drive to their instead of walking to the smaller ones. "

"I will say that it's usually the terrible store managers that ruin the experience for both the employees, and the customers end up getting the brunt of it. As a former supervisor, I'd probably still be there part-time if it weren't for the constant belittling that my coworkers and I went through."

" Not shopping there isn't always easy. In some areas, pre-existing businesses crumble in Wal-Mart's wake, and those who don't may drive their prices up, or resort to selling crap as well.

I'm not sure that Wal-Mart hasn't "allowed" instances of identity theft and fraud. Given the number of stores they have, and the amount of business that they do, I don't think it's implausible. Maybe we just haven't heard about it yet.

Wal-Mart DOES cost taxpayers. As of 2004, they had received at least 650 million (and that's a generous, low end estimate. I've seen figures as high as 1 billion) dollars in government subsidies — free/low-cost land, job training funds, sales tax rebates, tax credits, infrastructure assistance. This doesn't include the Wal-Mart employees who have qualified for -and taken- food stamps (or other forms of public assistance), or those who have enrolled themselves/their kids in health programs run by the states. How much unemployment has been paid out to those who have lost jobs in their communities when Wal-Marts rolled in?

I'm sure Wal-Mart has done some a great amount of good in some of the communities they've entered, but many of their actions have been/are worthy of contempt. "

"I bought a GE Skillet from them a while back and it was a piece of shit. To find out why, I checked the box and it said something like "made for Wal-Mart" and ever since then, when I do venture into Wal-Mart I always check for that label.

Actually, come to think of it, the last thing I bought after that skillet was a small grill, otherwise I haven't bothered with Wal-Mart for any appliances."

"Has Wal-Mart given any money to the gay and lesbian cause here lately? I hear they are running out of rainbow posters."

Citibank:

"Best Buy lost (stole) my mothers laptop that was left @ the Geek Squad. It was a lemon junker so we disputed the charge with the credit card company (Citibank) when Best Buy refused to do anything about it. Long story short. We actually LOST that dispute. Couldn't believe it. We had a clear cut case with a police report even. 100% legit FRAUD on Best Buy's part. Citibank said they were "unable to secure a credit from Best Buy's bank" therefore there was nothing they could do. We would have to sue Best Buy in court. Nice dispute handling Citibank. Two months later we get an advertisment with our Citibank statement with special offers from Best Buy in it. NO WONDER they couldn't do anything for us. Bastards."

"

Once I was locked out of my online Citi account after entering my password correctly (seriously-no caps lock, I pecked each letter to get it right). I called because I had a payment due that day, and I was asked what my reminder word was. I said, "It should be [x]."
"Sorry that's not right."
"OK, then it's it's [x] with an Z at the end."

From this point on, he chose to completely ignore my second answer.

"When you submitted this you picked a pet's name."
"No, that's just the subject I picked. I never use my pets' names."
"But you picked that."
"That's not the word I used. How stupid would it be to use a word so easily guessed?"
"Well look, it says a pet name. What are your pet names?"
"Tima, Janeane, and Raz."
"None of those are the answer."
"I just SAID it's not one of those. Look, if it's not [x] it's [x] with an Z at the end. I already said that."
"Neither of those is right. I won't discuss this any further."

At this point he got a lovely explosion in his ear about his inadequate level of intelligence and various other lovlies I shouldn't repeat. I hung up and immediately called the same number, getting a woman this time. I explained my situation, that I'd already spoken with a Mongoloid, and was hoping she could help. She asked my word, and I said, "It's either [x] or [x] with an O at the end."
"OK, wait about five minutes, and your account will be working again."

That guy's only one of various CSRs who have been relatively useless. "

"citibank's lending practices seem to be similar to payday/title loan shops"

"Citibank held my savings account funds hostage for almost 3 months. It was an epic saga. Then again, my parents met while they both worked at Citibank. Can I vote against the place that allowed my parents to meet, and therefore allowed me to be born? What a dilemma."

"

Citibank (I prefer to call them "ShittyBank") had a legit promotion going for a "free ipod" where you HAD to apply online for a checking account.

Did that, filled out everything they requested, then waited. And waited. And Waited. about a couple three weeks, with calls in to them to check on it. Then the idiots decide that you need to bring ID to a local branch because anyone could be anyone online - (OK, that's true, but if I have to go into the bank anyway what's the point of applying online, eh?). So I go to my local branch, show IDs and such to the manager and have them contact their seemingly incompetent online banking division to (hopefully) move things along. Also opened up a savings account while I was there to get interest on the minimum required balance for the promo. The checking account needed to come from the online monkeys because they initiated it.

So I took my savings account info home, and waited and waited and waited.... more screwing around over the phones with their online people and wasted calls to the manager of a couple local ShittyBank branches just to open a checking account(!). About a month-and-a-half in I had my checking account and ipod on the way, and couldn't wait for the 366th day when I could cancel that account and never have to deal with these idiots again.

If that's the caliber of intelligence floating around our financial centers then I'll go with the opinion that it was stupidity and not *all* corruption that led bankers to believe houses would never stop increasing in value and that poor people would suddenly become rich under Republican policies. I'm going mattress shopping soon, as the S&L's were killed off by the Reaganite deregulated greed + corruption and Banks seem to be headed in the same direction now. Lay off the Koolade, dummies. "

"its contribution to the subprime mortgage crisis is inexcusable."

"Way back when I was a young thing in college, I came home one day to a very nervous roommate who had taken a screaming, angry call from a Citi rep (I had a student credit card). Said rep refused to believe my roommate's telling her that I was in class and therefore unavailable, and berated the roommate at length, telling her "you'd better make sure she calls me back".

Mystified, because I was paid up, I called back. Turned out there was some minor discrepancy in their records regarding my address and they wanted to call me to confirm it was correct."

"Sure, let's sell you a mortgage you can't afford, then package it for speculators. The US Government will bail us out when it all comes crashing down. We're a bank, so we deserve huge fees for basic customer service, but when it comes to actual banking, we forgot how to do it right. Our bad."

"I voted Citibank because they had my student loans while I was an undergrad. In my senior year, they refused to process my in-school deferment and one of their reps told me that if I had continued taking out new Citibank loans they would have acted differently.

Despite my efforts to get them to acknowledge that I was in school, fulltime, and filed my paperwork by registered mail, they still refused to defer my payments and as such, I ran into default. It took a year of garnished wages before the DOE finally helped me move my loans over to Sallie Mae.

I hate Citibank and I know that I have cost them at least $100K in business by insuring that none of my friends or family ever open or use Citi accounts for anything. No one has a Sears, Home Depot, or other company card that is handled by this horrible company and I will continue to dissuade everyone from using them.

And no...there is nothing Citi can do short of erasing my loan debt to them completely, before I ever forgive them.

Congrats Citi...you made a lifelong enemy out of me and I will tell everyone I know what you did to me and I hope I can deny you $1 million or more in business by spreading the word."

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Capital One vs ATT, Sallie Mae vs eBay/Paypal, TransUnion vs Diebold, Best Buy vs CompUSA, DeBeers vs Verizon, Exxon vs United Airlines, Sony vs Ticketmaster, Comcast vs The American Arbitration Association

Hello all at Consumerist! I have been reading your blog daily for the last couple of years now. I love how informative this website has been to all walks of consumerists. I have never felt compelled to write to you until now:

I have been banking with Citi Bank since 2005. I know that is not very long to be with a financial center. My Citi Bank Debit/MasterCard expired in April of this year. I was under the impression that they would automatically send me the replacement card. Just as a hunch, I called Citi Bank's 800 number to find out when I should get my replacement card. I made this phone call in late March. I was told that I should receive my card by the 2nd week of April and that if I did not receive said card, I should call back. Some time past and I nearly forgot about the 2 weeks period on when I should get my card. I called Citi Bank on one of the last days of April (possibly the 28th) & I was told that I would receive my new card on May 2nd. May 2nd came, and there was no card. I waited for the weekend, thinking that maybe I would get it in the mail May 3rd or May 5th. Still no card. Mind you, I can not access my account online with out an active card.

I called on May 5th and was told by one of the customer service representatives that he would over night the card to me and I should get it May 7th. That did not happen. On May 7th, I finally asked to speak to a supervisor and he said that that order was never placed and that the card would be sent to me May 12th. I told him that I need to pay bills, I want to access my account online and I get paid this Friday. I need an active card to do all those things. He then ordered a card for me to be sent over night, UPS, to the financial center near my work to be picked up May 9th (tomorrow).

But here is the kicker: Today, May 8th, I received the replacement card that the supervisor said was never sent out from May 5th that was over nighted. I went to UPS to pick it up. I decided to call Citi Bank to find out if I can activate this card. I was then told that this card was blocked and that I have to go to the financial center to get the card that was overnighted.

I am at my wits end with the scenario. I have been ON them to send me my replacement card. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't this be an automatic thing on their end? Or is it up to me to be chasing them for this card?

I know that I should have written down the name of every person that I spoke to, but I did not know I would have this run around for a replacement card. What advice can you give a consumerist who is angry,confused, and frustrated? Would it do me any good to complain about this to Citi Bank? What would they do? Apologize for the inconvenience? Any advice is greatly appreciated

Thank you,

Tammy

Next time, Tammy, when you've discovered that you've been lied to and you need help, call the offices of CEO William Rhodes. Follow the steps outlined in the link, and someone should be able to help you.

(photo:Jenna Belle)

Two readers have forwarded us a second email sent out by Citibank today, but it's not another vaguely worded PR blast from the CEO. Instead, this one announces that Citibank is adopting the zero-tolerance approach to late payments favored by the credit card industry—miss a payment due date and you'll lose any interest rate discount(s) you currently enjoy.

Sean writes,

Just got this email from Citi's student loan business. Yes, I carry my loans with Citibank, but I consolidated when the interest rate was at rock bottom in spring of 2004. 3% baby!

Looks like if you post your payment one day late, Citibank will terminate any interest-rate deductions you have earned. I guess this is one of the "bold steps" Vikram is taking to shore up profits.

Anyone with loans with Citibank better make damn well sure they pay on time, otherwise it can cost them big time.

Dear Valued Student Loan Customer,   We are writing to inform you about important changes to the terms of your loan. To retain your borrower benefits with us, you must make and have your payments posted to your account no later than the scheduled due date. Any payment posted after the due date will result in the termination of such benefit. Interest rate reductions and other benefits do not apply during periods of deferment and/or forbearance and automatically terminate for payments returned for insufficient funds, loan delinquency, default, and/or the purchase of your loan by a guarantor.

Gosh, Citibank, we were kinda hoping your bold steps would be a bit more consumer friendly, you know?

(Thanks to Sean and Eric!)
(Photo: ElvertBarnes)

I found this Citi email funny because it is the CEO making me "among the first to know about the bold steps" that Citi is taking. He then goes on to not tell me anything at all about the bold steps. At least in my opinion.

-Ben

Citi writes:

Dear BENJAMIN [redacted],

I want you to be among the first to know about the bold steps we are taking at Citi to be the premier, global, fully integrated financial services firm.

Our objective is to create for our customers an experience in which services are seamless, payments and transfers effortless, and distances meaningless. My commitment - and the commitment of everyone at Citi - is to work tirelessly around the world and around the clock to deliver outstanding value and service as we continue to earn your trust.

We are proud of our enduring strength as a global financial institution, striving to successfully meet the needs of clients like you in more than 100 countries. As always, we look forward to continuing to serve you - wherever you are and wherever you need to be.

Sincerely,

Vikram Pandit
CEO, Citi

Ben, your problem is that you don't speak CEO. Thankfully, we do. What Mr. Pandit really means to say is this:

An Oppenheimer analyst was quoted in the media as saying ""We wish [Citi's] management team all the best in their ambitious endeavors, but we fear [it] is past the point of fixing," so we think you might fire us as your bank... and so we thought we'd email you. Hi there! Please ignore the fact that people are saying we are "so deep in a black hole that even renown physicist Stephen Hawking could not help the ailing company." Kisses, -Vikram

CITI IS BEYOND REPAIR [NYP]
(Photo: cmorran123 )

One of the big draws to Citibank for me was the "ATM fee reimbursements" feature listed on the account information page for their EZ checking account. I'm most definitely outside of a county that has a Citi Financial center, and my accounts were all opened strictly online. My accounts are also older than 3 months, so I should qualify for these "ATM fee reimbursements" right? You'd be surprised how hard it is to actually get one...
 
April 4th, at a local bar, I decide to use the ATM to withdraw $120.00. Obviously this isn't a Citibank ATM, however I throw my card in anyway thinking that I will be reimbursed for the surcharge I'm about to incur. Sure enough, the ATM charges me $2.00. I later check my account balance, and I find that I was not reimbursed. Curious, I send a message to customer service and am told that fees and reimbursements are calculated at the end of a billing cycle. Fine I thought, I'll just hold off on making any more withdrawals until I can verify my statement.
 
April 21, it's statement closing time. I check my account statement online, and of course I'm not reimbursed for the fee. Another back and forth with Citibank's awesome customer service is below:
 

---

 
In response to the message below, I have checked my statement ending 4/21/2008. On 4/4/2008 I was charged $2.00 by a Non-Citibank ATM for withdrawing $120.00. In accordance with the policy described below, I should have been reimbursed $2.00 at the end of the statement period (4/21/2008). After checking my statement, I was not reimbursed for the fee.
 
At this time I feel that I qualify for the reimbursement of other banks fees because: I opened my accounts online and there are no Citibank financial centers in my county. Please look into this and get back to me.
 
Thanks,
Tim XXXXXXX
 

Dear Mr. XXXXXX,   Thanks for choosing Citibank and your message regarding your Citibank account. I value your banking relationship with us, and it will be my pleasure to assist you today.   To qualify for reimbursement of the fees other banks may charge you for using their ATMs, you must be a new client with a mailing address that is outside a county where Citibank operates a Financial Center and established your banking relationship online. You are not eligible for ATM reimbursements if your banking relationship was originally established at a Citibank Financial Center or through CitiPhone Banking® and you subsequently open additional accounts online.   Citibank charges $1.50 fee for each transaction completed at any non-Citibank ATM. The total fees for these transactions are assessed to the account at the end of the statement cycle. These fees are in addition to any fee that the owner of the ATM may charge.   Citibank is branded on the ATMs in the 7-Eleven and at the Murphy USA stores. Transactions made at these locations, as well as Publix stores will not be assessed the ATM surcharge.   You can find ATM locations near you by clicking on the "Find Citi Locations" link at the top of the website.   It was my privilege assisting you and I look forward to serving you in the future. Have a great day!   If you have further questions, please send a message or call Citibank Internet Client Services at 1-800-374-9700 or collect from anywhere in the world at 210-677-0065 . Representatives are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.   Sincerely, Citibank Internet Client Services

 
Here's the Customer Service response:
 

Dear Mr. XXXXXXX,   Thank you for your message regarding non-Citibank ATM fee reimbursements. It will be my pleasure to review your account.   After reviewing your account, I show that Citibank did not charge you a non-Citibank ATM fee. The fee that was assessed was by the other bank and that is why it shows as part of the withdrawal ($122.00). The ATM used for this withdrawal was not part of the participating branches. Regrettable, I will not be able to reverse this fee as it was charged by that bank. Normally you have to agree to this fee while making the withdrawal.   Citibank fees are normally charged at the end of the statement cycle.   In addition, I show that there are 10 non-Citibank ATM's in your zip code that you can use completely free of charge. To locate these ATM's, click on "Find Citi Locations" at the top of the screen. Enter your zip code. A list of participating ATM's will be displayed for your convenience.   I hope I have answered all your questions today. I appreciate you choosing Citibank for your financial needs.   For additional information on non-Citibank ATM fee reimbursements, select the ?Search? link and type ?reimbursement? in the key word box. ?ATM Reimbursements? is the first option listed.   If you have further questions, please send a message or call Citibank Online Customer Service at 1-800-374-9700. Representatives are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.   Thank you for banking with Citibank. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you.   Sincerely, Citibank Online Customer Service

 
Of course the fee was charged by the other bank, however according to their own policy they provide "reimbursement of the fees other banks may charge you for using their ATMs"
 
Tired of dealing with customer service over email, I decided to call them. After being on hold for 35 minutes with a CSR, he was finally able to find on the website where it says they provide fee reimbursement. After this, I was back on hold for an additional 5 minutes. Upon returning to the call, the CSR began instructing me to only use money pass ATMs because they didn't cost me anything, and then the line was terminated. Whether or not intentional, I call back and a different CSR tells me that the account had already been credited. I ask the CSR if future withdrawals will be reimbursed, and she informs me that in order to receive future reimbursements that I will need to call them every time I use another banks ATM.
 
Can someone point me in the direction of a better bank that actually provides "reimbursement of the fees other banks may charge you for using their ATMs" without hassle? Thanks!
 
Tim

Michael is quite an imaginary businessman in other fields as well:

During the time the fraud occurred, Michael was on probation after being convicted of practicing medicine without a license in 2005. He operated the Henderson medical facility, where he oversaw medical procedures and offered advice, according to court records.

"Man sentenced to 4 years in credit scam" [San Diego Union-Tribune]
(Photo: Getty)

Score another one for The Consumerist!
 
This morning I contacted Sears' Executive Customer Service Department. They attempted to contact the store manager on my behalf. I stress "attempted" because they were hung up on too.

Nothing is more satisfying than witnessing Executive Customer Service being treated as crappy (crappily?) as the rest of the world. From what I could gather, they were forced to submit a company e-mail to the manager...you know, the manager that doesn't have voicemail.
 
Just a few minutes ago I was contacted by gentleman from CitiBank (which runs Sears Card). His name was Mark Ennis. He informed me that he called the store and was blown off just like everyone else. It wasn't until he told them that he was with the Presidential Offices for CitiBank that people started jumping through hoops.
 
Mark saw the story on Consumerist (he mentioned it by name). Since he saw the article on your site, he didn't know my last name or address. So he had the store pull every TV purchase on Black Friday that was made by anyone named Tom. (This is like "Law & Order" for retail.) From there he was able to find my contact info and, more importantly, figure out what happened.
 
Apparently after they refunded my first TV, they immediately re-rang it. The prevailing theory is that when I called the store to complain they looked up the transaction, saw the initial refund and stopped looking thereby missing the fact that it was re-rang moments later. Once they saw the refund, they assumed everything was ok and stopped looking.
 
Mark also noticed that in CitiBank's notes it showed that they had asked me to prove that I didn't receive the TV. He seemed genuinely shocked by that because, as those of us that are NOT Tier 1 support can tell you, it's pretty much impossible to prove a negative.
 
I also informed him about the fact that their Dispute Department doesn't have a hold queue. He seemed pretty embarrassed about that fact. So, either Mark was an awesome actor or he was actually "taking this matter seriously".
 
The store has contacted me and it seems that they're actually refunding me the money this time. They were asking me questions that they hadn't before (like my address). So I think I'm finally getting this matter rectified.
 
Oh, and it sounds like Juan and Tanaka might have an awkward conversation with the Presidential Offices of CitiBank in their not to distant futures.
 
Thanks to Mark, Sears customer service and especially The Consumerist. You guys are better than the BBB when it comes to getting stuff like this fixed.
 
Oh, and thanks to the