# Who do we contact to stop harassing calls/emails from Citibank collections?



## heathpack (Jan 19, 2013)

Some of you may have remembered us posting back in Dec about fraudulent charges on several credit cards.  Everything has been handled with zero hassle to us by two of the cards- Bank of America and Capital One.  The Citibank has been a disaster, however, and now we are getting harassing calls from CitiBank's collection department multiple times per day.  If we can't get them to stop, who do we report them to?  Federal Trade Commission?  State attorney general's office?  Local police?

The brief story is the Citibank card was a rarely used card for us.  It had zero activity for 6 months.  Then when the card was still in our physical possession, several charges were made for jewelry in Germany totaling $27,000, which was $10,000 over limit for the card.  Obviously letting these charges go through was a huge error on Citi's part- completely out-of-character charges for us, as we never buy jewlery, have not been to Germany in 20 years, rarely use the card and never approach the credit limit even remotely.  When we got the bill in early Dec, we immediately contacted Citi and were asked to fill out an incident report (or something like that, I don't recall the exact name of the document).  It seems that Citi failed to process it and we got another bill for the same amount in early Jan.  We called Citi again and resent the paperwork and we spoke to Citi Thursday to confirm the receipt of the paperwork.  We were told over the phone and in writing via email that the charges would be reversed within 24 hours.

The problem is that we are getting multiple calls and emails per day from Citi demanding payment.  When we speak with collections or the main customer service line, our account has no notation of any dispute, fraudulent activity, or the multiple conversations we've already had on the subject.  We're getting pretty ticked off.

So if the harassing calls don't stop by the middle of next week, what's our next step?  Who is in charge of regulating the behavior of credit card companies?

H


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## Talent312 (Jan 19, 2013)

The Federal Trade Commission.
They enforce the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
See: http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0149-debt-collection

If an attorney writes them a letter telling them that any further
contact must be thru him or her, they must cease direct contact.

It's likely that your state also has a consumer protection agency.
In Florida, its the Division of Consumer Services.
See:  http://www.800helpfla.com/complnt.html

I suggest that you try to elevate this by asking for a supervisor.
Get his or her name and mail any letters directly to them, certified.
.
.


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## bogey21 (Jan 20, 2013)

This stuff is getting scarier by the day.  In the last two years both my Son and I have had unauthorized charges on our cards.  His was in his pocket in Iraq at the time (the charges were made in Green Bay, WI) and mine was in my safe.  Fortunatly both were handled without a hassle by Discover and Wells Fargo.

Since I am past the point that I need multiple credit cards and my Credit Score is imaterial to me, in order to minimize my risk I am in the process or closing all my credit accounts but two and have put freezes on my Credit Reports with the three Credit Reporting Agencies.

George


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## dougp26364 (Jan 20, 2013)

Try this link for informtion about stopping the contacts:

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0149-debt-collection

I would include in that letter that you're disputing the debt and, I'm not so certain that I wouldn't get a lawyer to see if Citibank might owe you a couple of dollars since they seem to be failing on upholding their end of the bargain. I'm assuming it won't be to hard to document that you were never in Germany let alone buying jewelry in Germany? 

It would be nice if any communication you had sent them was certified and could be proven they recieved it and failed to process. If not, from now on, send EVERYTHING certified return receipt. Keep records of everything, even if you're just writing down in a journal the date/time they attempted to contact you about a debt that is in dispute. 

I still have an issue with Capital One, which issued one of those guarenteed acceptance CC's to someone in my name who was not me. Capital One eventually took it off our credit reports but the debt keeps getting sold to collection agencies who contact me trying to collect a debt that's over 10 years old. So far all I've had to do is send a letter, certified mail return receipt of course, stating this is not my debt and to cease all contact. A few have called and hung up as soon as I said it was not my debt. It's still a hassle and I keep a copy of the dispute letter in my documents file. That way all I have to do is insert the name of the next collection agency that attempts to collect the debt from me.


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## heathpack (Jan 20, 2013)

dougp26364 said:


> I'm assuming it won't be to hard to document that you were never in Germany let alone buying jewelry in Germany?



Yes, we were in Cancun and could provide airline ticket and resorts receipts if necessary plus of course the stamps in our US passports.

The reason Citi claims they let the charges go through is because the card was physically in Germany (which we demonstrably were not).  Of course Citi's policy is completely insane- why should physically having the card allow me to go $10,000 over the credit limit?  Whatever, that's their business I guess.

H


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## dougp26364 (Jan 20, 2013)

heathpack said:


> Yes, we were in Cancun and could provide airline ticket and resorts receipts if necessary plus of course the stamps in our US passports.
> 
> The reason Citi claims they let the charges go through is because the card was physically in Germany (which we demonstrably were not).  Of course Citi's policy is completely insane- why should physically having the card allow me to go $10,000 over the credit limit?  Whatever, that's their business I guess.
> 
> H



Aside from the fact Citi knows full well that CC thiefs copy the magnetic information and then make their own cards. This has been going on for well over a decade. Our first instance of CC theft came many years ago when we had a BoA card. They called because there were some suspect charges in Vegas. They ask us to repeat some information off the card that satisfied them we still had our cards. They told us at that time how CC thiefs copied the information, then made their own cards to use. 

So either Citibank is living in the dark ages, they're in denial or they're just flat out lying to you. I'm going with the later. Someone at Citibank made a major mistake and it sounds as if they're trying to cover it up by getting you to foot the bill. It wouldn't take long for me to let them know I was going to get real serious about this issue. It might be well worth it to get a good lawyer on board who enjoys going after large corporations when they behave badly.


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## simpsontruckdriver (Jan 20, 2013)

As mentioned in another post, my wife and I in 2012 were attempting to redo our mortgage with (what I call) the financial entity of the USA (you can figure it out). In March, they called us at least twice an hour. The attorneys who were handling our mortgage assist also filed a "debtor harassment" suit against them, separate from the mortgage stuff. They decided to settle for $3000, and we get a portion of it. Ironically, the day they settled, the bank began foreclosure proceedings.

You can get a lawyer on the case. They'll charge you out of the proceeds, you just need to get when they called, who you spoke to, etc. Don't be surprised if you only get 25% of the settlement, but any $$$ is better than nothing.

TS


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## dougp26364 (Jan 20, 2013)

simpsontruckdriver said:


> As mentioned in another post, my wife and I in 2012 were attempting to redo our mortgage with (what I call) the financial entity of the USA (you can figure it out). In March, they called us at least twice an hour. The attorneys who were handling our mortgage assist also filed a "debtor harassment" suit against them, separate from the mortgage stuff. They decided to settle for $3000, and we get a portion of it. Ironically, the day they settled, the bank began foreclosure proceedings.
> 
> You can get a lawyer on the case. They'll charge you out of the proceeds, you just need to get when they called, who you spoke to, etc. Don't be surprised if you only get 25% of the settlement, but any $$$ is better than nothing.
> 
> TS



Any $ would be icing on the cake. The main issue is getting them to resolve the fraudulant charges and making certain they don't put a ding on your credit record for their mistake.

In our case, Cap One attempted not once but twice to put the bad debt from their mistake on my credit record. Watch your credit record and make certain Citibank isn't reporting this as a late payment, over the limit or bad debt on your records.


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## Tia (Jan 20, 2013)

Immediately went to wallet to check my infrequently used Card, to make sure it wasn't Citi. Whew nope. 

 Sounds like a huge failure of their fraud department/policies. It is scary the crooks being so sophisticated too.


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## Kal (Jan 20, 2013)

heathpack said:


> ...why should physically having the card allow me to go $10,000 over the credit limit? Whatever, that's their business I guess.
> 
> H


 
The credit card limit seems to be another way of gouging the customer.  Once the limit is exceeded, the cardholder gets nailed with fees and interest on the total balance from the moment the limit was exceeded and until the balance is paid off. 

Unless you carefully monitor the balance online, you won't even know there is an issue.


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## VacationForever (Jan 20, 2013)

Kal said:


> The credit card limit seems to be another way of gouging the customer.  Once the limit is exceeded, the cardholder gets nailed with fees and interest on the total balance from the moment the limit was exceeded and until the balance is paid off.
> 
> Unless you carefully monitor the balance online, you won't even know there is an issue.



I did not know that.  My Amex cards have good credit limits but my Citi card's limit is relatively low.  My credit score is excellent and I had requested Citi to raise the limit as I was trying to put a large purchase on the card to get points, and the merchant did not accept Amex.  I always pay off the balance in full for each of my cards.  Citi wanted me to submit alot of financial info to them which I declined.  Now I wonder if they would have allowed me to charge the amount to the card and turnaround and charge me fees from the moment it exceeded the limit.  I ended up writing a check to the merchant instead of dealing with Citi.


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## Kal (Jan 20, 2013)

It's also interesting how the CC companies set limits. When I first received my Cap One card, the limit was $5,000. I called and asked for the limit to be increased to match my other cards. They said no and they would change the limit when they desire. Shortly thereafter I got a Bank America Visa card and the initial limit was $20,000. I don't even know what the limits are now, but the Amex card seems to be much higher.

I just use a card for whatever has the best goodies at the time be it mileage or whatever. However, when you purchase goods with an Amex card (e.g. appliances) Amex will provide an additional 1 year warrantee above and beyond the manufacturer's warrantee. That's nice but you have to put a note in your file that such extended warrantee is in place. Wonder how that would work with an automobile purchase??

With regard to Credit Ratings, you want to keep your CC balance at not more than 10% of the limit.  If you exceed the 10% value it is a negative on credit ratings.  Of course who knows what other witchcraft is involved in determining your credit rating.


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## Talent312 (Jan 20, 2013)

I haven't carried a balance on any CC since 2006.

At some point, BoA noticed and cut my C/L from $50k to $25K for lack of use.
It didn't affect me in the slightest, but in retaliation, I cut their use to *-0-*.
I left the card open, as average age of credit affects credit scores.

Every few years, they threaten to close the account, so I charge something nominal.


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## puppymommo (Jan 20, 2013)

When DD was home from college on winter break, she tried to pay for something online with her debit card.  After several attempts we tried my card from another bank account and it went through.  So I called the bank and they said a hold had  been placed on the card due to suspicious activity. Someone had made several charges on our card somewhere in Spain!

I was a bit frustrated that they just put a hold and didn't try to contact me, but maybe it happened over the weekend or something like that.  They had let one debit go through, about $30 at a restuarant.  When they tried to buy $75 worth of jewelry, the bank declined and put a hold on the account.  I had noticed the restaurant charge, but it just had a Spanish name, no location, and I just figured she had eaten at a Mexican restaurant.  Hopefully the bank will get those charges reverse.  Both DD and I had to get a new debit card.  Both of our cards were in our possession at the time.


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