Citibank's handling of credit card fraud

[chrisb]

On the 8th of July some nice fellow charged $1451 worth of Air France tickets to my CC - Citibank picked this up and called me and it was reported as fraud within 30mins of the transaction occurring. Good effort Citibank!

Now, here I am over a month later and the issue has still not been resolved - The debt is still outstanding on the credit card and I've just received $30 in interest charges due to this charge - I have paid off all of the other charges on the account. I have called and Citibank says it's still be 'investigated'.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Does anyone know how I'm going to go fighting Citibank for interest charges, and how long its likely to take for them to refund the fraud amount?

Also, at the same time US$7 was charged from Expedia - That was refunded within a few days but the refund was in USD - resulting in a loss for me. Nothing major, but i'm not looking forward to seeing what happens if they try the same with the USD$1400.

 

[vilemerchant]

On the 8th of July some nice fellow charged $1451 worth of Air France tickets to my CC - Citibank picked this up and called me and it was reported as fraud within 30mins of the transaction occurring. Good effort Citibank!

Now, here I am over a month later and the issue has still not been resolved - The debt is still outstanding on the credit card and I've just received $30 in interest charges due to this charge - I have paid off all of the other charges on the account. I have called and Citibank says it's still be 'investigated'.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Does anyone know how I'm going to go fighting Citibank for interest charges, and how long its likely to take for them to refund the fraud amount?

Also, at the same time US$7 was charged from Expedia - That was refunded within a few days but the refund was in USD - resulting in a loss for me. Nothing major, but i'm not looking forward to seeing what happens if they try the same with the USD$1400.

Sounds like a worry. I've had citibank cards for years but have never had any fraudulant transactions. Can you identify any unusual uses you had for the card that preceded it? I guess all it really takes is a dodgy cashier with a photographic memory who can remember the remaining numbers on your card plus your 3-digit security code. Keep calling citibank and insist on a chargeback for this obviously fraudulant act. Makes me a bit worried about my high credit limits..

 

[chrisb]

Can you identify any unusual uses you had for the card that preceded it?

No - I don't use that card much as it's a backup card to my amex. It is possible to generate CC numbers so maybe they just got lucky. I'd love to know.

I will get back onto Citibank - Unfortunately their call centre requires a level of patience when you want to go outside the normal process of 'sit and wait'.

 

[Nutcase]

With regard to chargebacks, there is an agreement between all participating banks and the schemes (Mastercard and Visa) about how these issues are handled. The terms and conditions are very strict and the banks must adhere to these or suffer heavy financial penalties.

In the case of the $1400 fraud, it would appear that they have launched an investigation, but have not suspended the amount from your account. I suggest that you call them and explain the situation. If the Manila call centre gives you no joy, insist on being put in touch with an Australian based representative.

In the case of the USD$7 transaction, they are obliged to reverse this AND refund any fees and charges.

In my experience with Citibank, the Manila call centre can sometimes be difficult to deal with. This is Citbank's Global hub for credit card enquiries so they should know what they are doing, however it doesnt always got to plan.

Rather that get upset, I call the person who signed my welcome letter - Usually the head of Cards/Consumer lending etc. The switchboard is (02) 8225 1000 the operator will put you through without question. If that person is not available, their PA will be and can help you out by directing your call to someone in the Sydney office. If you explain that the reason for your call is frustration with the call centre around this serious issue, you will be surprised at the lengths that they will go to to fix it - especially when a senior member of the management team is involved.

Citibank takes these issues very seriously as it involves Fraud and a poor customer experience. They will be very keen to fix this situation ASAP.

No I don't work for Citibank, but I do know how to navigate my way around these organisations and how to get what I want from them.

Good luck and please report back on how you go.

 

[chrisb]

An update... The $1450 is still sitting on my card, and I have been charged interest on it.

I called citibank yesterday and again said 4-8 weeks, which is getting very close to over and said someone should get back to me in the next 3 days. If I don't hear back by Friday then I will be causing a fuss and insisting on escaping from their overseas calls centre to someone who can actually DO something...

Gee, lucky I don't need that credit...

 

[chrisb]

Still nothing. No call backs and attempts to get anything from Citibank result in the same company line of 'it's being investigated'. My attempts to get through to someone in authority tonight ended up with me on hold and then hanging up after getting sick of waiting.


Unfortunately I'm too busy to raise a complaint against them at the moment, but I definite will next week when I get home.

Funnily enough, apparently there is a new Citibank fee free Platinum card waiting for me at home. Good to see their priorities are right.

 

[drron]

To contact citibank I have always used the email facility they have when you log into your account.They however have usually been proactive and twice picked up the fraud before I.Once was in malaysia and once in Italy.On one other occasion I noticed fraudulent transactions in NYC.It did take 2 months to resolve but all charges were reversed so not out of pocket when US dollars were taken off.

 

[simongr]

Interesting - I had a fraud on my Amex (Gold Charge so nothing that special) and the caeghr was reversed in a couple of days.

In relation to the potential forex loss - if the amount was charged in July/August the rate A$->US$ was around 95c and it now is around 80c so in fact you should make a small gain.

July US$1450 = A$1526
Sep US$1450 = $1812

I recently cancelled a DONE4 booked in early July and made a profit of $2000 - shame it was charged to my corporate Amex so no benefit for me....

 

[chrisb]

Well, it's still ongoing.

• I filled in the online Customer complaint form. No response for 2 weeks.
• 1 week ago i called the Customer Advocacy group and lodged a complaint. They promised a response within 48 hours. No call after one week.

So, I called the Customer Advocacy people back today and spoke to the original person I lodged a complaint with. They've now decided that it could be upto 12 weeks because they are waiting for Air France to send a "Voucher" proving the transaction to Visa who will send it to Citibank who will send it to me. I'm 99% sure this was an internet transaction so nothing exists, but I guess it'll take them months to work it out.

$25/month in interest and $1400+ outstanding on my CC is really starting to piss me off.

The next step when I get a chance is the Banking Ombudsman i guess. This is getting out of hand. I'd cancel the card, but I know i'd STILL have an outstanding debt, so it doesn't really make much difference! Needless to say I will _NEVER_ _EVER_ pay Citibank an annual fee.

 

[ScepticalCitizen]

Hi Chrisb,
I suffered 9 disputed transactions totalling $6000 worth of credit card fraud on my citibank card in December 07. It has been a long 10 months of calling citibank fortnightly, with responses which have been eerily similar to those you have encountered. I explain the whole situation and get told that I will contacted within 24-72 hours. Only a couple of times have my calls actually been returned, and always without resolution. They state that my disputed transactions are 'under investigation'. Strangely, many of their staff that I have dealt with either no longer work for citibank or are constantly busy.

I have had $2900 refunded (6 of the claims), and the last 3 claims (which are the highest value), they say are 'awaiting chargeback vouchers' from Qantas airlines and Woolworths, afterwhich they can refund me.

My online statements omit all details of the fraudulent transactions, except for recently when one of the transactions was displayed. They have recently charged me for one of the $1400 transactions, and all of the retail interest on the 9 transactions. which i will dispute again

I have spoken with many customer advocacy unit representatives, a manager in the fraud department, a very unhelpful person at the financial services ombudsmen (formerly BFSO), and lodged a credit card fraud investigation form with them.

I was feeling very alone and depressed about this matter, until I read this thread. I hope they refund your $1400 plus the interest they are charging, but I am afraid they may either never refund the money to me, or they will drag the matter out so long that they will make me pay for it in interest and fees.

It is my opinion that the global dominance of citibank has left them vulnerable to a huge increase in global online fraud and/or a citibank IT vulnerablility that some people are talking about online. I think maybe smaller localised banks to Australia have more at stake locally and may have provided a better service and may have refunded the money by now, but I don't really know. All I know is I will never have anything to do with citibank again, and I will avoid owning a credit card for as long as possible.

All the best

 

[chrisb]

Hi Chrisb,
I suffered 9 disputed transactions totalling $6000 worth of credit card fraud on my citibank card in December 07. It has been a long 10 months of calling citibank fortnightly, with responses which have been eerily similar to those you have encountered.

God this doesn't give me hope. Have you been dealing with the Customer Advocacy Group?

Last week they sent me a letter saying sorry for the bad response I've had and that they had put the amount in dispute status and refunded all the interest. That was the 24th. It didn't actually happen. I called the person from the CAG today and she never returned my call. It must be citibank procedure.

If i was in your position i'd be talking to the Banking Ombudsman by now. They shouldn't be allowed to put people through this much effort and stress to get an outcome that is supposed to be the law.

I'm glad they've now responded to my complaint in writing and offered the interest refund. That will make it easier to crush them.

Needless to say I will _NEVER_ _EVER_ pay citibank an annual fee. Ever. Period. No question. It's not the fraud that bugs me, it's the customer service.

 

[drron]

The problem is it is not just Citibank.I several years ago made a similiar decision re Amex(thank goodness when i read the thread here!).Todays paper also is relevant
The great credit card swindle - Technology - smh.com.au

 

[kiwial]

While on holiday in Europe in March there was a message left on my mobile phone to call Citibank urgently. We were staying in a small French village in a house with no phone and dodgy mobile coverage, however I called Citibank as requested (after finding the best coverage spot).

They said they would accept reverse charges on the call which didn't help me much as I still had to pay for the outbound call at $5 a minute. Instead I got them to call me back which only cost half that (International Roaming - another ripoff!!). And no they wouldn't reimburse the call costs.

Anyway, to cut a long story short they reason they were after me is the fact they had detected possible fraudulent use on my card. After recanting my last few transactions we discovered that yes there was indeed fraud and they promptly cancelled my card. There were two transactions for a total of about A$1500.

Luckily my wife's supplementary card was still OK (the fraud was against my card number - as I was paying most of the bills), so she had to pay for everything from there on in (I did have an Amex card as backup, so not that foolish in only taking one card). When I asked for them to send a new card, they said it would take 10-14 days as they would send from Aus. This contrasts with a similar experience with ANZ in Indonesia a few years ago when they had one couriered from Singapore that arrived in Jakarta the next day.

After we got back to Aus I found a letter in the mail (that required a JP to witness) that I acknowledged fraud took place and that they weren't my transactions. The items were suspended from my account a couple of days later, although stayed there for about 6 weeks. There were no additional charges and I finally got a letter (about the same time as I noticed them having been removed from my online statement) acknowledging that the case had been closed and that the amounts were now removed completely from my account.

As an aside, just before I headed off to Asia a week or so back 2 new "secure" cards arrived in the mail with embedded chips. Not before time - could have done with those in Europe in March as there were some places that only took the chip cards and potentially we would not have had any fraud in the first place!!

I hope that those of you still chasing Citibank (or other financial institutions) get your issues resolved soon!!

Cheers
kiwial

 

[chrisb]

Well, another month passes by...

• $1451 still outstanding. No resolution. (This started 8/7/08 with a call from Citibank)
• More calls not returned from CAG.
• Interest still being charged on the outstanding balance even though Citibank said it wouldn't.
• New transactions stopping showing up on my Internet banking sometime in September. Lucky I don't use it much. Also, online system now says my card doesn't have a rewards program attached to the credit card. The statement disagrees with this. I have about 12000 points which i want to get out before i close it.

It's a free card, but I'll be canceling it once this is over. I'd rather deal with a 'real' bank now.

Chrisb.

 

[beardoc]

For those of you reporting problems with Citibank, have you contacted the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman?

http://www.abio.org.au

If you have been having trouble this long and it is unresolved, then you should contact them. It's free, and when you make a complaint, you'll be put through to a Australian complaints resolution centre at Citibank whose interest it is to resolve the matter (as it costs them a lot of money if they don't!).

You really should be contacting the BFSO and lodging a complaint - Citibank should not be allowed to get away with this sort of mess!

 

[chrisb]

For those of you reporting problems with Citibank, have you contacted the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman?

http://www.abio.org.au

Thanks. I called back again today and spoke to my Case Officer who has emailed the disputes people for an update. If I don't get a resolution soon it'll be off to ABIO.

Oh, and i also applied for an ANZ First card with a cool picture on it to replace this card. $26/year seems like good value for being able to walk across the road to the branch and threaten to take my mortgage away when anything bad happens.

The Amex QFF Premium will stay my primary card at the moment.. Until they annoy me.

Chrisb.

 

[chrisb]

This weeks update... Posted in the hope it'll stop someone from joining Citibank.

I called Citibank CAG on Thursday, Friday and Monday - no one is ever available and never calls back. Grr.

Ombudsman complaint received. No word as yet - i'm assuming it'll be a slow progress.

Faxed Citibank CAG a letter of demands requesting the mess be fixed by the 7th. I doubt anything will happen, but it seemed better than leaving another phone message. (The requests were, fix the fraud, fix my internet banking which has also stopped working and sort out reward points transfer issues as promised)

ANZ First Credit card applied for, received and activated. Very quick and painless. This will replace the Citibank card now. (Amex will stay the primary card for the time being)

... and finally, I'm pissed off at the US Government for bailing out Citigroup. Let them die.

 

[chrisb]

It's over! Finally!


11/12 INTEREST CREDIT ADJUSTMENT AUD 106.10
08/07 DISPUTE REFUND AUD 1,451.61

Now to pay off the other $14 i owe and close the card.

 

[Evan]

It's over! Finally!


11/12 INTEREST CREDIT ADJUSTMENT AUD 106.10
08/07 DISPUTE REFUND AUD 1,451.61

Now to pay off the other $14 i owe and close the card.

Good to see persistance paid off !
E

 

[QF WP]

Well done chrisb. Perserverance and a thick hide helped.

I am similarly wroth with Citibank, so all transactions are going through Amex (if not accepted, using my ANZ QF Visa)