Dear Mr. Pandit,

I would like to bring to your attention a matter which may have escaped your purview.  In October of 2009, your company sent opt out notices to certain credit card holders.  Recipients of the letter were given two options:  close their credit card accounts and maintain their current interest rate or keep their accounts open and pay 29.99% interest, a punitive rate generally reserved for consumers who default on their payment obligations.  It is my understanding that consumers who failed to respond by the designated opt-out date would automatically have their rates increased.  Continue Reading »

In mid-October, comments started flooding in from Citi customers that received interest rate increases from Citibank to as much as 29.99%.  During the following weeks, over 100 comments were posted from justifiably angry customers, many of whom had great credit and long relationships with Citi.  At the time, I was happy to see that people were opening their credit card mail and using balance transfers or opting out to avoid these monstrously unfair rate increases.  However, my concern was for the people who accidentally failed to read their opt out letters.

Yesterday, the first comments started to come in from people who missed the opt out deadline.  My fear is that many, many more people will be commenting.  Unfortunately, opting out is likely no longer an option.  In rate increase letters I have reviewed, the opt out date was November 30th.  This means that many people are just receiving their first bills with 29.99% interest rates.  And some who pay online or don’t examine their statements closely may not notice that they are being charged this absurd interest rate for months. Continue Reading »

If you get a piece of mail from a credit card company these days, its much more likely to be an opt out notice than a 0% APR for 1 year offer.  During the past two years, credit card offers sent via the mail have declined by nearly 75%.  However, that hasn’t stopped credit card companies from using the postal service to send out rate increase notices.  During the past year, just about every major credit card company has sent out one form of these notices to a wide range of customers.  Usually, these mailings provide you with two options:  accept a higher interest or opt out and close your account. 

Unfortunately, neither of these options is ideal for just about anyone. Continue Reading »

Most of us have always had a love/hate relationship with our credit cards.  Whether its convenience, access to cash, fraud protection…we’ve all come to depend on our credit cards.  Many of us have stuck it out with the same credit card company for years, believing, falsely, that we were building relationships with these banks that would be helpful down the road.   Such has not been the case in 2009.  In fact, credit card companies have been putting the screws to customers all year long, with the latest and most egregious example being Citibank’s recent interest rate increases.

Beginning in mid-October, Citi began notifying customers it would be raising interest rates to as much as 29.99%-for no reason.  Or at least no legitimate reason.  Continue Reading »

About a month ago, visitors began posing comments on Smart Balance Transfers about a Citibank rate increase to 29.99%.  The backlash was huge, with over 100 comments posted to date, mainly from customers with very good credit, long histories as Citi credit card customers, and oftentimes, low balances on their accounts.

Yesterday, a new breed of Citibank credit card complaints began pouring in, and these are just as disheartening, though seemingly less severe.  One visitor reported a rate increase to 23.99%.  Another reported getting a notice that their rate was increasing from 16.99% to 20.99% on the same day they got an offer for a .99% balance transfer.  Continue Reading »

For the past three weeks, I’ve been hearing from people who’ve been hit with the 29.99% rate increase.  Most are people who pay their bills in full, have had their cards for many years, and previously had low interest rates.  I fall into the same category as many of these people, and yet, I still haven’t gotten my rate increase letter.

Now, I don’t use my Citi card.  Continue Reading »

It has now been over a week since Citibank raised interest rates on many of its most loyal customers and it seems as if no one in the media cares.  This continues to shock me, as the number of visitors contacting me has not dwindled.  And my concern that tens of thousands of customers have overlooked these letters and tossed them in the garbage is growing by the day.

I searched Google news a few moments ago expecting to see results from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times or USA Today.  Nothing.  And, since these are the only three papers anyone seems to read these days, that leads me to believe anyone who threw their rate increase notice in the mail will be in for a very big surprise when the new Citi interest rates take effect. Continue Reading »