Interesting observation: the letter was mailed using a "First Class pre-sort" stamp, instead of the usual metered postage used for these types of notices. Guess that indicates how many of these letters they sent.

Think I'll forward a copy to Shell, with a note explaining why I won't be buying any more gas from them. Heck, it was only a couple thousand gallons a year, so they probably won't notice.

A hearty FOAD to you, though, Citi.

The exact thing happened to me. I've had my card for several years, pay the entire balance every month -between $500-$700 per month. I got the letter telling me there was an Equifax ding on my credit that prompted this. I called Citi (shell) account and the rep told me they cancelled "thousands" of gas branded cards as those would be the easiest for them to dump. I confirmed they had not one deliquency ever, no complaint on me, nothing.

I was happy to be able to open my drawer and pull out another (different) citi card account that I don't use - non gas branded - I told them to cancel it. If you can believe this, the person transferred me to another rep who tried to beg me to keep me as a customer.

Problems there you think?

On another note, I subscribed to Equifax to find out the problem and I learned that I have NO deragatory incidents or dings on my account. They flat out lied in the letter.

And if you really think there was no data breach, I recommend you read the news (and consumerist) a bit more often since they are ridiculously common now. Merchants like TJX (TJ Maxx, Marshalls, etc) and payment processors like Heartland Payment Systems have been hit hard by data breaches. If you want to see some of incidents then you should visit the Open Security Foundation website ([datalossdb.org]).

It made us decide to forgo the cash back and use cash more often instead. Too many weird, customer-unfriendly things going on with the credit card companies.

@nstonep:
"Ge Money is okay.

Uh, OK...sure. They treated me so badly a while back that I used slash & burn tactics with them. They now have 2 accounts they had to charge off as bad debt (per the 6-month accounting rule). I ran into a tight spot last year and asked that they either let me skip a payment or just pay interest for 2 months. Their response was to raise my interest to 29.99% and charge me $39.00 late fees. These were both small short term accounts (under $1K both total) and the only credit I really used on occasion. Fuck them. I like to pay my bills but sometimes people's cars break down and sometimes they end up in the hospital. Behave like a person and you might find your customer develops some loyalty to your products...act like a jerk and you might get fucked.

@SacraBos: Slander is for willful intent. I believe you want to claim "Negligence" on the behalf of Esperian. Esperian had a duty to provide accurate information to credit companies, and failed. This damaged you by hurting your credit score when your bank closed the account.

I am not a lawyer, however. And this is not binding legal advice. If you wish to persue this in court, remember that Credit Card companies are one of the biggest Federal lobbyists in the country, so good luck, and consult a lawyer licensed to practice in your area.

Been there, done that... actually, about ten years ago when I began to notice a lot of the shenanigans we read about here first coming into play.

I don't always get what I want exactly when I want it but I usually manage to enjoy whatever it is just a little more for having waited until I can afford it and paying for it when I get it.

I suspect that, what with my being a senior citizen/pensioner type and all, this fits my lifestyle better than it would that of a lot of you younger folks but I still feel pretty good about being ahead of the curve on where this whole credit thing was headed back when there was still time to make the necessary adjustments to avoid a lot of what I read about on this site.

@FatLynn: Yep. If they cancel a card you've had for a while, it can hurt you.

@x24: Actually this is a great reason to score an extra free Equifax report for anyone affected by the Citi bank issue.

I had a Citi bank card and paid it off in 2006 though I left the automatic email updates in place for warnings on high balances over $0.00. Wouldn't you know that it still sends me updates. I made an email rule and these dump automatically to a folder for them...

@MEoip: I am guessing you are a business user. What reason did the HD and Citi reps give you for the closures?

Yeah - I have...soon to not have a Citi card. I've always paid off the balance every month. This week, I received a letter from my friends at Citi thanking me for being such a great customer. They are going to up my APR to 29.99%. I don't think so. This card is history. Think I'll shred it and send to them along with their "thank you for being a great customer" letter.

@nbs2: +1. some consumers don't want to accept their own responsibility when it comes to operating in the free market. they'd rather be babysat. free markets only work if customers try to act intelligently.

I've had my Shell Mastercard for years. I would charge $500-$1000 worth of gas each month and pay it back down. Never late, never over the line.

If this is the way that Citi treats there customers, perhaps its time that I look at my other Citi cards.

Hey geniuses, how about a letter next time BEFORE you embarrass your customers saying that you're discontinuing a program on a certain date. Might prevent some of the bad customer karma towards you.

The same happened to me. Called Shell Citi and they said exactly the same thing. I called Equifax (got a CS number somewhere on the net) and they just said they're gonna give me a copy of my credit report. I'm guessing there won't be anything wrong with it like the other people said. I thought it was another Equifax-ruined-my-credit-report thing again that I had just resolved. But apparently this is a widespread thing.

We use it primarily for gas because of the rebates. It's been good to us, I guess until now.

So what are we supposed to do now?

@wcnghj: Below $6500 in a given year, you get 1.0% on gas/grocery/pharmacy and 0.5% on everything else. Above $6500 in a given year, it's 5.0% on gas/grocery/pharmacy and 1.25% on everything else. Wife and I use Blue Cash for every possible expense, pay off twice a month, and enjoy getting a few hundred back at the end of the year.

If I were Shell I'd be pissed they shut off the cards of 1,000's of my customers. I, for one, will now find a different gas credit card and it won't be Shell because they only offer cards thru Citibank. Shell just lost 1,000's of customers nationwide who spend 1,000's of dollars a year on their gas. That's gotta hurt their bottom line.

My dad has a non-Mastercard Shell card through them. For the purposes of this story, understand that we have a similar first name. A few years ago, I tried to apply for a Shell card as well, and they came back denying me the card because they said I already owned one. Of course, it's because they thought I was my dad and already had one. So I thought nothing of it.

Well my dad had gotten the card in 1978, and back then the companies didn't ask for your SS# like they do now. Well when I applied for the credit card, because they assumed that I was my father, they entered my SS# in for his record. Fast forward to last week and my dad calls up to change the address on the account because he's moving. Well while talking to customer service, they try to verify him using the SS#, which of course doesn't match. So he has to go through this whole thing of proving he's the account holder, and then they finally realize how stupid they are because he points out that he got the card before I was even born (I was born in 1982).

We'll see if they actually did fix it over the phone.

@Duke_Newcombe (now with 50% more feigned interest): That's right, it is. The economy is sour, so banks are cutting cardholders. The government is increasing regulation, so the private sector is trying to maximize profits in the short term. And even though it is permitted under the terms of the contract, Citi is screwing around with customers, and the public is responding with comments indicating their dissatisfaction with the bank and identifying alternatives that obtain similar benefits.

@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: The credit card company makes money on merchant fees regardless of whether you pay in full or not, but interest fees don't apply to you if you pay in full. That's the difference.

@buckykat: It does affect someone's personal finances because, like Timbojones said, it affects your credit ratio. And it may count against your credit history. There are more important implications to consider past "just don't use a credit card" - it's not about the card itself, it's what a company controlling the card can do to its customers' finances.

@wcnghj: If you spend more than $6,500 through the course of a year, as soon as you hit $6,501 you jump to the higher percentage.

That said...$6,500 isn't a very high marker. Most people can spend that in half a year.

You didn't have enough history with them and probably weren't a low enough risk for them to bother retaining you.

@lincolnparadox: Paying rent and utilities no longer counts on a credit report. Not everyone finances a home or a car. Other than that, what is there?

@lincolnparadox: Please tell. Keep in mind that most of the other ways are not mutually exclusive to keeping a credit card for the chargeback protection and credit building aspect.

@vdragonmpc: If they are closing these cards AND revoking people's rewards, aren't they opening themselves up to a class action lawsuit (or criminal fraud)?

I checked my account online yesterday. Citibank had moved my payment due date up by five days - from the seventh of the month to the second of the month. A link with a warning message was just below the new due date: Make a late payment, get hit with a $39 late fee *and* have the account's APR jump from its current 7.34 percent APR to something along the lines of 28.99 percent APR.

Chilling to see such tactics employed - consumer beware!

It wasn't closed completely, though, the letter was in with a new card, just a different account number. Just 2 days ago. Weird.

DOWn, baby, DOWn!

@scootinger:

Have you never gotten more than 100 on an exam?

Seriously!??!

I'm with a different company, I have a low maximum, and I pay my bill every month also. So who knows maybe more comapnies are going to do this also.

Get your bank to put their reasoning in writing. My guess is that they will flat out refuse or they will send you a letter that reads nothing like the conversation you had.

If they do happen to write a letter telling you what they told you on the phone, you can send it back with your credit report attached and ask them to highlight the problem entry.

I have found that you are treated a lot better if you put all your communication in writing. My bank would tell me anything to get me off the phone and stop complaining. They changed their tune very quickly when they were forced to put in on a letterhead.

Even if you don't get your credit card reinstated or any kind of resolution, just be happy that you wasted their time. Finish every letter by telling them that you expect a response in writing from them.

In the end, I wasted CSR time and even legal department time. I accused them of breaking the law, which they were doing and did change pretty quickly.

FYI, I am in Australia.

If they want to cancel the accounts, but honest about it. But slander you about your financial dealings, when in fact they know they are not true, they need to be called on it.

@wcnghj: I do believe you are misinformed.

@juliusseizure: It's shady business practices being uncovered. Not just about credit.

Get over yourself.

Citi raised my rate to 25.99% after THEY screwed up my online banking and made my payment late, but I have a high limit with them and a long track-record of good credit, so I'm going to say "Up yours!" to them by just not giving them any money but keeping them open to help boost my credit score.

How do they make 3% on everything you buy? As a merchant, my rate is around 1.5%...how are they getting double that fee when my processor takes a chunk of that just for me to accept a credit or debit card?@wcnghj:

I should have listened to Dave Ramsey and just kept my credit union card and forgot about the GM 'rewards' (that's another story for another day). As far as I'm concerned, Chase, Citi, B of A, and the likes can keep their cards; I'll do business with a bank that doesn't rely on a computer to make decisions for them.

Without gouging customers with unwarranted high interest rates, unearned overdraft fees, inflated interest rates on mortgages, and refusals to modify loans even though they received Federal funds to do so, these banks would not have the money to operate.

see, there's the falsitude right there. banks don't actually need to screw customers to the wall to make money. it just makes it easier to make gobs of money & keep shareholders happy. this is the conundrum of big banking in america today: after years of easy profits do to m&a, these companies are finally discovering that you can't always use accounting tricks to keep your stock climbing. occasionally, you have to actually provide a service that people want & use.

if you are unhappy with how these big banks operate, the only thing YOU can do about it is choose to take YOUR business elsewhere. there's plenty of alternatives, but it's going to take some work & you're likely to lose some of the convenience that comes from banking with a company that has branches in almost every town in america.

please don't fall into this thoughtless trap of not paying your bills to bring the system down. millions of post-foreclosure americans will tell you that their bank is doing just fine while their financial lives have been turned completely upside-down. better to pay any debt to these slavemasters in full & either stop using the card or close the account altogether.

& then take your business elsewhere.

I'll be darned if I'm going to crawl their CS IVR system to get an answer to these questions; besides, it sounds like other people are not getting any useful information there anyway. It almost seems as though they don't want any publicity or traceable communication about this issue. Oh well, there's always certified mail...

The CCCs DO make money when you pay in full, they make about 3% of every purchase you make.

So, one of my oldest accounts on my credit report is gone for no good reason, and how does that affect my credit? I checked my credit report just last month, and there was nothing scathing or otherwise troublesome on my report. What kind of scam is this?

I don't care. I'm so angry at the credit industry -- the greed, the disrespect, the inhumanity -- I'm numb, and I have better things to do with my time than bust an artery over such crap. I've paid the bill, cut up the card, and I will never do business with Citi again. I'm slowly paying off the rest of my credit cards and will kindly pay with my debit card from now on.

Credit cards suck. They're just pure evil. O. M. G.

@The_Legend: nah, a lot of cards charge interest daily, not at the end of the month, that way there are no freeloaders.

Now, if they referred to me as a "freeloader", I'd agree immediately.

@The_Legend:

My Shell Citibank card worked today at the Shell station. Not sure of their logic, I never carry a balance so I'm not profitable. Maybe they'll cutoff mine on Wednesday.

@bohemian: Actually, my Citgo card is also my daughter's lifeline. If they do this to us, she has a problem.

On the other hand, I don't think it's a rebate card. And even though it doesn't carry a balance, money in 4 figures is put on the card monthly and paid off, and merchant fees on that must count for something.

Pay off your balance every month? What are you thinking? To Citi and the others, you are a "deadbeat", which means no matter how they gouge you on interest, the balance is always zero. Citi wants the "profitable" customers, with nice fat balances.

@wcnghj: Still with AmEx Blue Cash today, getting 5% back on all gasoline and supermarkets. If that goes south, I'm DEFINATELY getting the PenFed card!

If having a credit card closed on you affects your personal finance situation, you need to take some important steps now. First, is building an emergency fund so if the card you use to buy gas goes kersplat, your can still get to work. You've got bigger problems than losing your bonus rebate if it actually affects your financial life materially. Take control of your finances and don't RELY on credit.

@dlayphoto:
That's why I will be cancelling my Citi Mastercard that I have had for nearly twenty years. I got a Platinum Visa through my credit union with a 7% APR.

Without gouging customers with unwarranted high interest rates, unearned overdraft fees, inflated interest rates on mortgages, and refusals to modify loans even though they received Federal funds to do so, these banks would not have the money to operate.

It is essentially theft, sanctioned by the Fed. Until customers of these institutions rise up and simply stop paying their mortgages, credit cards, ridiculous overdraft fees, and other means of sanctioned robbery, these institutions will continue to fleece people for the purpose of lining their executives' pockets.

I read an article that said it would only take 1% of BofA cardholders to withhold their payments, and within 10 days, the bank would fail due to lack of cash. Citibank is apparently equally precarious. I would love to see it happen, because i think it's the only way that things will be able to get back on track.

Nothing to see here...move along.

I was about to cancel the card anyway due to continuing poor service. Every time I call about the account, I encounter a nearly-incomprehensible, obviously off-shore outsourced CS rep. I don't think I'll even bother to call on this issue; it'll just be another blood pressure-spiking interaction that I don't need.

If Citi chooses to cancel it for me, it's no skin off my nose. It's one of my newer accounts and I've got plenty of other cards to use. The ding on my credit report (as if I cared) will be minimal. F'em.

[search.twitter.com]

5% on Gas PATP Anywhere
2% Groceries
1.25% Everything else

Rewards cashed out automatically when your statement cuts.

The credit related problem is just to get you off the phone, they're slashing everyone without regard. I would bet though if you had lousy credit you'd still have that card, they're the ones that pay the price to have credit.

My mothers will be closed soon. We have to get her rewards off of it as she has aquired a lot with fixing up her house. She has NO credit issues and is retired sitting on plenty of income. She bought a new car last year and the salesmen when all out to make the sale to her after running her report.

V

What do people expect from a "fine" company like citibank?