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]
Investigation: Banks Took $6 Billion In Home Insurance Kickbacks
By September 7, 2011
According to a HUD investigation, big banks raked in over $6 billion in a decades-long insurance kickback scheme that violated RESPA. [More]
Former Citi VP Admits To Stealing $22 Million From Bank
By September 6, 2011
If you think you need Ben Affleck in a creepy nun mask to heist millions from a bank, there’s a former VP of Citigroup who can teach you a thing or two about a bloodless robbery. Of course, this guy also got caught and has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $22 million from his former employer, so he’s probably not one to look to for get-rich-quick advice. [More]
Chase, Bank Of America, Citi & Wells Fargo Allowed To Start Foreclosing Again In New Jersey
By August 16, 2011
It’s been a quiet 2011 on the foreclosure front in New Jersey, as several banks froze seizure proceedings late last year following the revelation that foreclosure documents were being rubber-stamped by untrained “robo signers.” But a judge in the Garden State has given the go-ahead for Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo to resume uncontested foreclosures. [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]
Report: Citi Knew About Credit Card Hack For Weeks Before Going Public
By June 13, 2011
Last week, Citigroup announced that around 200,000 credit card accounts had been compromised by hackers, but a new report from the Wall Street Journal says the bank knew something was wrong weeks earlier. [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]
Citigroup Still Selling Mortgages That Violate Quality Standards
By January 18, 2011
15% of the mortgages Citigroup sold to government-owned Freddie Mac from the second half of 2009 and the first part of 2010 were riddled with flaws, according to an internal report obtained by Bloomberg. The error rate should be about 5%. The mistakes included missing insurance docs, missing appraisals and income miscalculations. [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]
Banks Hired "Burger King Kids" To Process Mortgages
By October 14, 2010
JPMorgan & Chase had a cute name, the “Burger King Kids,” for the workers with little no experience or qualifications it hired to process the reams of mortgages it plowed through at the height of the housing bubble. These walk-in hires “barely knew what a mortgage was,” writes the NYT. The newbies Citigroup and GMAC/Ally Bank outsourced the work to sometimes tossed paperwork into the garbage can. [More]
How The Looming Mortgage Bond Scandal Could Dwarf The Foreclosure Fraud Crisis
By October 14, 2010
If you thought the fake doc foreclosure fraud crisis is bad, wait till you get a load of what could happen once people start looking at the pending mortgage bond meltdown. Reuters blogger Felix Salmon dug into the documents and he says it looks like banks have been lying to investors about the quality all this time. [More]
Lawsuit: Citigroup Used Recession To Fire Female Employees
By October 13, 2010
If the plaintiffs in a new discrimination lawsuit against Citigroup are to be believed, the headline-making “Sexy Banker” wasn’t the only one who may have been improperly shown the door by the bank for lacking a Y chromosome. [More]
Does The "S. Larson" Who Always Signs Citibank Customer Letters Really Exist?
By August 13, 2010
For decades, “S. Larson” has been the named that signed the bottom of Citibank’s letters to customers. But does this person actually exist or are they a construct? [More]
Sexy Banker: Chase Told Me To Shut Up About Citibank Lawsuit
By June 7, 2010
You remember last week’s story of the former Citibank employee who claimed she was fired for being too sexy? Of course you do. Now she’s claiming that her current employer, JP Morgan Chase, has asked her to stop her public campaign against a fellow banking giant. [More]
Did Citibank Fire This Woman For Being Too Sexy?
By June 2, 2010
A former banker at a Manhattan branch of Citibank has filed a lawsuit against parent company Citigroup, alleging that she was fired from her job for just being too attractive. [More]
