Citi is a criminal enterprise

OMG! I had Citi deposit a mortgage check in the wrong account (I've had a long relationship with them, and don't think there was any criminal intent behind it) and they cleared it up, but it took years. There's still a little stain on my credit that has nothing to do with me.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

they had a 60 days past due on my credit report for a unit i had already sold. my landlord was ok with it as i had my closing binder and could prove the error. i tried to get someone at citi to take care of it. they wouldn't give me a contact name. told me i could talk to "anyone" at the customer service number and they wouldn't agree to send me any conformation that the error had been corrected. i fought for a couple of weeks, but gave up because the problem would go away due to time anyway, but i was livid.

ali, I hope they did nothing criminal in your case but I doubt it. Now I hear about Citi not honoring a power of attorney, freezing accounts for a week without proper explanation, not following client's directions regarding direct payments, etc.
They are too big to see their own feet, and probably have to be broken into smaller entities with strict supervision.
Beware!

My friend, the offended party, closed his accounts with them and called all his political representatives. Maybe everyone should do the same.

inquires is right. Citi created and then closed a credit card in my name without my knowledge. Then I get a tax penalty for "forgiven debt" that never existed.
After a long fight, I got a letter from them saying that they agree (the nerve!) to clear my credit history. But they didn't mention the tax penalty, of course. I alerted the IRS but it probably will take years for the brocracy to move.
People should just take their money out of Citi.

Criminal is the wrong word, GROSS incompetence is more accurate. Their customer service is the worst in the world.

JuiceMan, where do you draw the line? Incompetence is when they say SORRY, it will never happen again, and correct their mistake right away. When they do the opposite, that's criminal.
And their customer service is the worst for a reason. You give up, they win.
Criminal.

Fair point

sorry to hear this, of all the banks i have worked with citi has always provided me the best service, including the credit card unit. i have found their customer service to be excellent (and i am in the banking biz)
if we want to talk about amex.... well i could go on for hours- no make that days.

Don't forget, it is owned by the govt. DMV=CITI

Guess what, at least 1 colleague just said s/he had the same Citi mortgage fraud happen to them. And it didn't have a resolution, either. The $7000 were just gone and not recovered.
This is awful and scary. Is Citi "too big to fail" because they are like mafia don?

front porch, I have no reason to believe that it was an innocent mistake on Citi's part. Probably has something to do with balance sheet where they needed to have more deposits/money on certain accounts, and it's not innocent. It is fraud.

My brother opened a Citibank account when he was in high school (late 1970s - early 1980s).

For about fifteen years after he moved away, he called and wrote frequently to ask them to close the account, but continued to get $zero monthly statements the whole time. Mind-boggling.

alanhart: and that's how the identity theft is welcomed. I was told (now that I ask) many times that it's extremely hard to close a Citi account. Which in itself is fraudulent.

It's funny, because at another bank my checking account was closed without my consent (or intention), simply because I ran a zero balance for something like two months -- and there were no monthly fees, minimum balance requirements [except apparently >$0], or anything of that sort that would have debited it below zero. They said it's common practice at banks to close zero-balance accounts lickety-split, unilaterally.

$0 account looks suspicious in a bank's eye, and I can see it. Accounts that are kept open despite owners' wishes, on the other hand, serve some purpose, and that purpose cannot be good.

I had chase close a savings account on me (with $100) in it as there had been no activity for year. Apparently that meant they assumed I had died. When I pointed out the activity in my checking a/c, they said that was no proof as it could be fraudulent.
Eventually I got the money back, but it was a slow process

2 stories:

1) When I went to work for Arthur Andersen out of school, we all got a "deal" from Citibank of free checking, no minimum balance, etc. (at that time it actually was a good deal). One of my co-workers writes a check for $140 for his Amex bill. He goes to get $20 from the ATM for his lunch, etc. a few days later, and it's denied. He calls up Citi and they tell him his account is overdrawn. Going thru the transactions, there's a payment to Amex for $1400. He tells them the check was for $140, not 1400. They tell him he's got to clear it up with Amex! he asks:"Do I have overdraft privileges with this account?". They tell him "no". He asks how they can pay Amex $1400 when he's only got $720 in the account then. They tell him he's got to clear it up with Amex, because the way it works is Amex enters the amount and then Citi pays them; they don't look at teh checks "What do you expect? That Amex comes to the teller window to make deposits?" they say. So, Amex made a keypunch error, they paid $1400 even though he only had $720 in the account and no overdraft privileges, so he's at minus $680, and the kid is borrowing money from the other 1st years in the office so he can eat, get to work, etc.

2) I close on an apartment and come in with a certified check for around $125,000 and deposit it. I get a receipt. But the next day, the money isn't in the account. I call and ask about it and they say they don't show the deposit. I read them the confirmation number on the receipt. They tell me to come in and talk to the branch manager. It appears they lost the check and want to know if I can get a replacement. that's right: they lost the physical check. IT'S A FUCKING CERTIFIED CHECK FROM A BANK LOAN TO THE BORROWER FROM THE LENDER. How the fuck am I going to get that replaced? Say "hey, bank. Could I get another certified check for $125,000 please?". I had the attorneys calling each other, etc. I think it took like 2-3 weeks to sort it out. It wasn't a real problem for me at that time because I had no immediate use for the money, but what if I was a normal person selling and needed that money to close on a place I was moving to from the first sale?

In the end, the bank manager told me they were going to pay me some reasonably high rate of interest (it was like double whatever the best rate they had for savings), and he told me that because of the reason for paying it was that they lost the funds (or whatever it was he said) that they don't report that interest to the government (he made a BIG point of that part).