The Fine
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has forced Citibank to provide approximately $700 million in relief to customers who were affected by illegal practices relating to credit card add ons. In addition Citibank has also be fined $35 million by the CFPB.
Who Is Affected
The reason that Citi has been fined and forced to provide relief is that they engaged in deceptive marketing, unfair billing practices and unfair bill collection protections. You’ll be affected if you signed up for any of the following five debt protection add ons:
- AccountCare
- Balance Protector
- Credit Protection
- Credit Protector
- Payment Safeguard
Or any of these credit monitoring, credit retrieval or wallet protection services:
- IdentityMonitor
- DirectAlert
- PrivacyGuard
- Citi Credit Monitoring Services
- Watch-Guard Preferred
You’ll also be affected if you paid the $14.95 fee for same day processing of a collection bill as Citi didn’t properly disclose that this was an option and didn’t properly disclose fee free alternatives.
What It Means For You
I’d hope that the vast majority of Doctor of Credit readers didn’t sign up for any credit card add ons or receive a collection bill. If you did Citi has to conveniently repay you, you don’t need to do anything to receive this refund and in fact you should have already received it for the unfair billing practices (refunds for the credit card add ons will come later).
Citi Prestige $50 Annual Fee Credit
Some Citi Prestige cardholders have reportedly received a letter stating that Citi didn’t properly disclose how the annual fee was applied and because of this they have been given a refund of $50. Not all Citi Prestige cardholders will get this credit and if you’re eligible you should have already received the credit/letter from Citibank. I’m unsure if this credit is related to the latest CFPB action or a seperate issue, but it’s something you should keep an eye out for.
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