The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits debt collectors from a number of annoying and aggressive practices, like calling late at night to hassle folks about their debt or publicly outing people as debtors. However, this morning — in Justice Neil Gorsuch’s first opinion — the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this law doesn’t apply to banks that purchase defaulted loans with the intention of collecting on them. [More]
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Costco Credit Card Switch Came With Unexpected Side Effect: Lost Insurance
By 11.10.16
When Costco announced it was ditching its exclusive co-branded American Express card in favor of a Citibank-issued Visa card, customers worried about the various ways this switch could affect their finances and credit, but one family says the change in card networks resulted in them losing an insurance policy. [More]
Sears Tries Giving Away Rewards Points With Branded Credit Card
By 10.26.16
Sears Holdings, parent company of Kmart and Sears, is depending on the company’s Shop Your Way rewards program to save the company. It is a very nice rewards program, but is it enough to get customers to spend? Don’t most store cards come with special rewards or discounts? [More]
Costco’s Credit Card Transfer Issues Didn’t Affect Sales, Profits
By 10.3.16
Costco’s complicated, complaint-riddled switch from an American Express-branded store credit card to a Visa Citi card may have been a big issue for the membership store’s customers, but it apparently wasn’t a problem for the company’s bottom line. [More]
Citigroup And AT&T End Legal Feud Over Concept Of Thankfulness
By 8.22.16
Wanting to thank and reward customers isn’t a new concept, but Citi and AT&T have spent the last few months in a legal feud over the idea of thankfulness. They’ve decided to end the legal feud, though, after a federal judge ruled that AT&T didn’t have to stop using the term for its rewards program while the two sides battled in court. [More]
Costco Citi Card Users Receive Cancellation Notices, Are Very Confused
By 8.22.16
Costco, Citibank, Visa, and all of the companies’ customers had plenty of notice that the warehouse club’s store-branded credit card would be switching from American Express to a Citi Visa card. The transition didn’t go very smoothly for some members, but everyone assumed that the transition-related problems would be over by now. Nope. Some customers received cancellation notices at the end of last week, and are now very confused. [More]
Citi Can’t Stop AT&T From Saying “Thanks”… For Now
By 8.15.16
Two months ago, Citi sued AT&T — not over some huge multimillion-dollar account or bad business deal, but over AT&T’s daring use of the word “Thanks” in a new loyalty program. The bank asked a federal court to bar the phone giant from using the disputed term pending the outcome of the case, but the judge has shot that request down. [More]
Citi CEO Determined To Fix Customers’ Complaints About Costco Card Deployment
By 7.18.16
Costco recently ended its long monogamous relationship with credit card partner American Express, leaving to only accept Visa cards and partner with Citibank for a store-branded card. AmEx could lose up to 10% of its customers over the switch, since the number of people who had cards with them just for Costco is huge. The switch went badly for some Costco customers who didn’t get their cards, couldn’t activate them, or had other problems with the switch. Citi’s CEO promises that he’s going to fix this. [More]
Costco’s AmEx To Visa Transition Isn’t Going Great For Some Customers
By 6.22.16
Costco’s decision to switch from only accepting American Express credit cards to only accepting Visa cards is a big deal for their customers (and for American Express) and has been in the works for a long time. That should have given Costco and Citi plenty of time to make sure the transition was smooth and everyone would have their cards working and on time, right? No, of course not. [More]
Costco Officially Switches From AmEx To Visa Today
By 6.20.16
It’s officially out with the old and in with the new at Costco today, as the company closes the book on its 16-year relationship with American Express in exchange for its new deal with Citi Visa. [More]
Citi Is Suing AT&T Over The Word “Thanks”
By 6.10.16
Last week, AT&T launched a new loyalty program dubbed AT&T Thanks, offering rewards to customers, especially those who bundle together wireless and pay-TV services from the company. This morning, Citi fired back at the Death Star, alleging that AT&T is stomping all over Citi’s “ThankYou” trademark. [More]
Citi Will Send Members’ New Costco Visa Cards In May
By 3.25.16
This June, things will change at Costco: the warehouse retailer will change its official, store-endorsed credit card from a Costco-branded American Express card to a Costco-branded Visa card from Citi. We now know that the new cards will start being mailed out in May, and what kinds of rewards users will be able to expect. [More]
Citi Now Blocking DraftKings, FanDuel Transactions In New York State
By 2.5.16
With the legality of daily fantasy sports [DFS] sites like DraftKings and FanDuel currently tied up in legal limbo for New York residents, Citigroup confirmed today that it is now blocking its customers in the state from transacting any business with either site. [More]
Citi Testing Screenless, Cardless ATMs
By 10.26.15
The next generation of ATM may be nothing more than a slot in the wall that spits out money. No screen, no swiping your card, no having to pull your sleeve down over your fingers because the person in front of you sneezed all over the buttons. [More]
Home Depot Customer Sues For $250K Over $28 Late Fee
By 10.19.15
Earlier this year, Home Depot charged an Oregon customer a $28 late fee for allegedly missing a payment on his store line of credit. The subsequent dispute over that fee resulted in more fees, a 100-point drop in the customer’s credit score and now a $250,000 lawsuit against the retailer. [More]
Costco Announces New Credit Card Partnership With Citi, Visa
By 3.2.15
It seems Costco is not one to sit around pining for old flames very long, as the shopping club announced today that it’s rebounding from the end of its relationship with American Express with a new partnership with Citigroup and Visa. [More]
Morgan Stanley To Pay $2.6B To Settle Charges Of Selling Troubled Mortgages Leading Up To The Financial Crisis
By 2.26.15
The Department of Justice has struck a multi-billion dollar deal with Morgan Stanley in what is expected to be one of the last major steps in resolving investigations related to banks’ roles in the subprime mortgage crisis. [More]
Marching Band Delivers Petition To Citi Asking Banks To “Revoke License To Steal”
By 1.28.15
In a handful of recent decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the right of businesses to effectively break the law by putting a few carefully worded sentences into their contracts and user agreements. But just because you can add these clauses doesn’t mean you have to do so, which is why pro-consumer advocacy groups gathered more than 100,000 signatures on a petition that was delivered, with a little bit of music, to Citigroup HQ in Manhattan this morning. [More]
