While Bank of America is inflaming consumers’ anger by saying it will soon start charging some debit card customers a monthly fee, the people at Citibank have been busy figuring out just how much to inflate the monthly fees and balance minimums for many of their checking account customers. [More]
Citi Jacks Up Monthly Fees And Minimum Balance Requirements For Checking Accounts
By October 5, 2011
Citibank Jacks Up Monthly Fees On Checking Accounts
By September 29, 2011
Citibank sent customers a letter informing them that starting in December, they’re raising monthly fees on checking accounts, in some cases by double. [More]
Citi "Simplifies" Banking By Raising Monthly Service Fee
By September 16, 2011
Citi customers with the bank’s “Basic Banking” package currently pay an $8/month service fee that can be waived if the customer makes five qualified transactions per month. The good news is that they are reducing that requirement; the not-so-good news is that Citi is raising the monthly fee for people who don’t make the necessary number of transactions. [More]
With Only $37,000 Left On Mortgage, House Gets Foreclosed
By September 12, 2011
They only had $37,000 left to go on their mortgage they’d been paying off for 25 years, but now a California family’s house is going into foreclosure. [More]
Around $2.7 Million Stolen From Citi Accounts After Hack
By June 27, 2011
The fallout continues from the May 10 breach of Citi’s credit card account files by hackers. The bank now says that a total of around $2.7 million was stolen from a relatively small percentage of the 360,000 breached accounts. [More]
How Hackers Stole 200,000+ Citi Accounts Just By Changing Numbers In The URL
By June 14, 2011
Details have emerged has to how hackers were able to steal over 200,000 Citi customer accounts, including names, credit card numbers, mailing addresses and email addresses. It turns out quite easily, in fact. All they had to do was log in as a customer and change around a few numbers into the browser’s URL bar, NYT reports. Facepalm. [More]
Sears Takes Four Appliances Back, Refunds You For One
By June 10, 2011
By Sears standards, maybe Benjamin was lucky. More than two months ago, he bought two washers and two dryers from his local store to go inside a coset. When they didn’t fit in the appointed space, he sent them back under the rational assumption that Sears would credit him back for the purchase. This was an incorrect assumption. [More]
Breach: Citi Says Hackers Stole Hundreds Of Thousands Of Credit Cards
By June 9, 2011
Roughly 200,000 Citi customers’ credit cards were stolen by hackers in a breach the bank just announced today. The data included names, credit card numbers, mailing addresses and email addresses. [More]
I Solved Citibank ATM Pen Shortage With Duct Tape, TD Bank Pens
By June 3, 2011
Reader Greg was sick of there never being any pens at the Citibank ATM at 8th ave and 16th st in NYC. They had those metal pens attached to wire like they always do, but people had stolen the pen innards and they were never replaced. (Probably because the bank got sick of replacing them.) So Greg came up with his own solution. He grabbed some free pens that are always in abundance at TD Bank and duct taped them to the empty Citibank pen barrels. [More]
Cost Of Funding SETI vs A Citibank Exec's Bonus
By May 4, 2011
On the back of news that SETI, an array of satellite dishes that search for extraterrestrial intelligence, would be shut down, John at μcosmologist put together a infographic to compare the cost of running it against other things. For instance, it costs $2.5 million a year to run one SETI satellite, while one Predator drone costs $4.5 million. A Citibank exec’s bonus? $19.3 million. And if just a small part of the $10.7 billion Starbucks made last year was put aside instead of paying for their employee’s health insurance, we’d have ET’s whole city in the bag. In comparison, continuing to send and seek out bleeps into a silent and uncaring void isn’t that much. Check out the full version here, and stick around for the money shot by scrolling all the way to the bottom. [More]
Citi Beats Bank Of America At One Thing: Getting Bailout Money
By March 16, 2011
The Congressional Oversight Panel overseeing the TARP program has finally made public the data on exactly how much each of the various bailed-out banks received from the combined coffers of TARP, FDIC and the Federal Reserve. The winner: Citigroup’s $476.2 billion. [More]
Worst Company In America Round One: Bank Of America Vs. Citi
By March 15, 2011
Consumerist’s 6th Annual Worst Company In America tournament tips off today with this battle of beastly bankers! [More]
Citibank's Rewards Provider Ships Your Prize 1500 Miles Away, Shrugs
By January 27, 2011
Rick moved and changed his address with his credit card company, CItibank, but didn’t change it with the bank’s rewards program vendor. No problem: just put in a different shipping address when he placed the order, right? Not exactly. Now the company’s best option is for him to wait for the package to be sent to the address where he no longer lives, complain of non-delivery, and wait for a new package to come. This seems a bit inefficient. [More]
Avoiding Student Loan Default At Citibank: A Cautionary Tale
By January 20, 2011
It’s an enormous relief to find someone at a large, powerful company who is kind, helpful, and able to solve your problems. Unfortunately, reader Flora learned that just because a person is kind and helpful, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t document your conversations with them in case things go horribly wrong. [More]
Know Your Bank's New Checking Fees To Avoid Getting Slammed
By January 10, 2011
The first reaction to your bank instituting new fees on your “free checking” account in 2011 might be sheer, overwhelming panic, or maybe rage, indignation, or some combination thereof. But don’t be afraid, fee-haters, there are ways around extra charges to your account. [More]
Did Citibank Block Your First Purchases Of The New Year?
By January 5, 2011
1/1/11 is a nice-looking date, as sets of digits go. But M. reports that the new date caused a hiccup on the debit card that she uses for her Citibank checking account. But, wait–a Citibank representative assured her that everyone had problems with their cards right after the new year began. Really? [More]
CitiMortgage Launches "Call-A-Thon" To Answer Distressed Homeowner Questions
By December 14, 2010
Tomorrow CitiMortgage is kicking off a special 1-day “call-a-thon” where people in trouble with or confused about their mortgages with Citi can call in and talk to foreclosure prevention staff. In addition, “senior managers and increased numbers of supervisors will be on hand to provide additional support,” says Citi. [More]
Credit Card Lets You Choose Paying By Credit Or Rewards Points
By October 29, 2010
Would you like to pay with reward points, or credit? Just press the button on your credit card and a microcomputer rewrites the information on the magnetic strip, letting you switch payment types. A tiny light lets you know which one is active. That’s a new kind of credit card, the “2G,” Citibank is testing out starting next month. [More]
