Last October, Citigroup agreed to return a total of $16 million to nearly 30,000 customers after an investigation by the state of New York found the company overcharged some customers advisory fees on their investment accounts. While that redress seems pretty hefty, it wasn’t enough, with the financial institution now agreeing to pay an additional $4.5 million to another 15,000 account holders. [More]
accounts
Class Action Suit Filed In California Over Wells Fargo’s Alleged Customer Account Abuses
By 5.14.15
A lawsuit filed earlier this month by the city of Los Angeles accuses Wells Fargo of pushing employees to engage in fraudulent conduct with regard to consumer accounts in order to meet the bank’s sales quotas. Now, one of those customers has filed his own lawsuit against the San Francisco-based bank alleging the same misconduct deceived and defrauded consumers across the country. [More]
Los Angeles Sues Wells Fargo Over Unfair Customer Account Conduct
By 5.5.15 — Updated: 9.30.16
The City of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit against the largest bank based in the state, accusing Wells Fargo of a plethora of unfair practices including encouraging employees to open unauthorized consumer accounts and then charging those accounts phony fees. [More]
SEC Reportedly Investigating Bank Of America Over Customer-Protection Rule Violations
By 4.28.15
Financial institutions are required under federal law to follow an array of rules that aim to protect consumers’ accounts. Bank of America may not have followed one of those rules over the course of several years, and now reportedly faces an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. [More]
Tens Of Thousands Of British Airways Frequent Flyer Accounts Hacked
By 3.30.15
If you’re having issues accessing your British Airways account to book your next flight, it’s likely a result of a weekend hack targeting the airline. [More]
You Still Shouldn't Keep A Large Balance In Your Skype Account
By 9.17.12
Manoj has a very important piece of advice for Consumerist readers: don’t carry a large balance in your Skype account. We actually published a post last year entitled, “Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Carry A Large Balance In Your Skype Account,” but it’s an important lesson that bears repeating, like “keep your receipts for major purchases” or “don’t shop at Sears.” [More]
Can I Survive The Wells Fargo Takeover Of Wachovia With My Account Terms Intact?
By 7.3.12
Keith has had the same bank account for eight years, but during that time “his” bank has been four different banks thanks to mergers. Ameribank became First Union, which became Wachovia, which in turn was gobbled by Wells Fargo. That’s just how the history of American banking has worked: what’s the big deal? For the first time in all of these mergers, additional fees will be imposed on Keith’s account. He wants to keep things the way they’ve been for the last eight years, and Wells Fargo wants to move on. Well, it wants to move on to taking more money out of Keith’s wallet. [More]
Apple Solves iTunes Account Problem By Locking You Out Of Account
By 4.16.12
Michael was having a pretty minor problem with playing television programs in iTunes. Sure, it doesn’t even rank as the a serious first world problem, but he contacted Apple to get it resolved, because that’s what Apple is supposed to do. A senior representative tried to resolve the problem by resetting his iTunes password. Nice idea if it had worked. It didn’t. Now this cord-cutter, who uses his Apple TV to catch up with favorite shows, can’t watch those shows at all. Being locked out of his iTunes account and all. [More]
Cosigning Someone's Comcast Account Doesn't Mean Paying Their Bills Instead Of My Own
By 3.7.12
Helpful and supportive person that she is, Isis is a co-signer on her goddaughter’s Comcast account so her goddaughter wouldn’t have to pay a deposit. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem unless the youngster defaulted on her payments or ran off with a half-dozen cable boxes. The problem is that the act somehow tied together her account and Isis’s, and a $435 payment was applied to the goddaughter’s account by mistake. This has led to biweekly disconnections, fruitless promises by Comcast employees to take care of the situation, and an existential question: does Isis have two accounts, or only one? [More]
Guess Which Charter Envelope Has Important Billing Information?
By 9.29.10
Here’s an excellent example of how a company will put more effort into getting you to notice its junk mail than any important account related information. David says this happens to him all the time, and it’s usually a serious notice (as in “impending disconnection”) thanks to a recurring billing error. [More]
What's The Best Way To Help Manage A Relative's Finances Without Jeopardizing Your Own?
By 9.14.10
A tipster wants to know whether adding his name to his mother’s accounts will open him up to credit issues should something go wrong. [More]
Bank Of America Wants Customer To Travel 1,500 Miles To Close His Mother's Account
By 9.14.10
It hasn’t even been a month since our last dead Bank of America customer story, but here the bank is at it again, refusing to let a woman’s son close her checking account no matter what he does. Although she lived and banked in Tennessee and he lives in Pennsylvania, the latest nonsense has the bank demanding that he visit Texas in person to get a document notarized. [More]
Xbox Suspends Gay Gamer For Calling Himself A "Homosexueller" Who "Likes Cupcakes"
By 9.2.10
Despite Xbox recently changing its policy to allow folks to describe their sexual orientation in their gamer profile, Super Street Fighter IV fan Shmoo found his Xbox Live account suspended for breaking their Code of Conduct. His gamer bio states, “Bio Ich bin ein homosexueller Mann in einer großen schlechten Stadt. Ich mag kleine Kuchen und Cheeseburgers.” Which translates from German to, “I am a gay man in a big bad city. I like cupcakes and cheeseburgers.” This, apparently, was verboten. [More]
Banana Republic Credit Card Comes With Free Account Errors, Late Fees, Disconnected Calls
By 8.3.10
Nick went shopping recently at Banana Republic and applied for a store credit card. Now he’s being called by a collections department and receiving contradictory stories about whether or not the retailer has his correct address on file. [More]
It's iPhone 4 Day, So Naturally AT&T Is Exposing Account Info To Strangers
By 6.15.10
AT&T knows it needs to step up if it wants to be taken seriously these days as a wireless provider, so it’s been beefing up 3G coverage, rejiggering data plans, and of course ramping up the speed at which it leaks your private data to strangers. In fact, according to multiple reports from AT&T customers, the company has managed to pull off the neat trick of logging customers in to strangers’ accounts today during the iPhone 4 pre-order fiesta. See? You no longer have to wait until you’ve got the device in hand to worry about privacy issues. [More]
Citibank Freaks Out Customers With Weird 7-Day Rule On Withdrawals, But It's Not As Devious As It Looks
By 2.22.10
Some Citibank customers recently received notice that the bank reserved the right to require 7 days written notice before authorizing a withdrawal on checking accounts. (It’s also on page 23 of Citi’s Client Manual [PDF].) As you can imagine, this freaked some people out. A Citibank rep quickly moved to clarify the rule, and he pointed out that it’s actually required by federal law for certain types of accounts, and it’s not unique to Citibank, and they don’t intend to enforce it. [More]
Google Removing Google+ Requirement For YouTube, Other Product Interactions
Just a week after Google said it would ship its Google+ Photo platform into the ether, the company announced more plans to distance its social network venture from its other products by ditching a requirement that tied user activities to their public profiles. [More]