20 Year Plus Customer Angered by $10 Checking Plus Fee

Now I am not filthy rich, I am still young and me and my husband are
trying to get out of student loan payments etc so hopefully in a
couple of years we'd be more financially stable.

I have been with Citibank for almost 8 years. Although we don't have
a handsome amount of funds sitting around in our accounts, we too are
being hit with this outrageous fee.

My husband is the main breadmaker between us. Him and I have the
joint account, and I also have a personal account which I've had the
longest, and I have it linked to my debit card. Like many people, we
often need to group up errands and go grocery shopping on the way home
from an appointment, etc. And sometimes, I will overdraft from my
account, thinking, well, I'd just go home and transfer funds over and
it'd be fine. The annual $5 and the APR they charged over the
overdrafted amount was acceptable to me. It seemed fair: I pay $5 to
join in on the protection you are getting, and in cases I do
overdraft, Citibank makes some money off of APR... which was really
high to begin with, but as long as I transfered funds around within a
day or two, it was no biggie.

Now, if I even go $0.01 overdraft, they move $100 over from Checking
Plus, and if we happen to be out with our friends and not come home
until the clock turns to the next day, Citibank sucks up $10 AND
interest from my account based on $100, not $0.01. What an obnoxious
blatant way to suck their customers dry.

I asked a customer rep how the hell that is supposed to help us
consumers. The rep repeatedly explained, quite literally like a
broken record, that this is an IMPROVED system so we don't have to pay
any annual fee, and that the overdrafted amount will show as a
negative number in red online, and if we don't want the overdraft
protection, we can just pay it off that day and we won't get charged
at all.

Seriously... I asked him, "oh, so you are basically charging us $10
everytime we are even $0.01 overdrafted, and at the same time shove
your customers the work of clinging to our computers every hour
ensuring we won't get overdrafted and if we do pay it off
immediately?" The rep just repeated the exact same explanation. It
was so useless, I spoke to his supervisor and then had them file a
complain, noting that they will definitely be losing my business and
that this negative experience shall be known on the web and everyone
that I know.

My husband and I will be opening a checking account with either Schwab
or INGdirect where their terms are MUCH MUCH more customer friendly
and I will be cutting all ties with Citibank. No offense to the
shareholders, but honestly, I will be laughing the day Citibank folds.

I agree 30 plus custermer with over 1 mil $ going through my account
over the 30 years, plus a mortgage. IIt is not only checking+ fee, but
we transfer money all over the world and we are charged from the
sending bank and the receiving bank. I think we should be all banking
under our mattress.

Indeed, this is greed on a shameful scale. I am willing to bet that
the people that came up with this idea also stumped their feet to make
sure they got their 2008 bonuses notwithstanding the taxpayer's money
that Citibank had received in bailout.

US$10! What serious and scrupulous corporation is willing to put their
reputation on the line for that amount of petty cash?

I say: Not only do away wit the $10 fee, but also return that amount
to the customers that have been unfairly prejudiced by this ridiculous
new policy.

Another 15 year plus customer here, and I just got socked with the fee
with an Everything Counts checking account. Both Bank of America and
Wachovia waive their line of credit overdraft fee for their premium
checking accounts. I for one will be terminating my relationship with
Citibank (about $50K with them) unless this fee is done away with.

Just wanted to chime in. I am also a 20-year plus customer and find
these new charges very troubling. It amounts to eliminating Checking
Plus, since no one in their right mind will risk letting their account
get close to zero now. A $20 check could lead to a $10 fee if it puts
you over the edge. And if one has to manually transfer funds from
checking plus, chances are, one will choose to add funds some other
way -- from savings or from sources of borrowing with lower interest
rates.

This is a stupid policy and will also discourage my use of my Citibank
ATM/Debit card for ordinary purchases. For maybe the next few weeks.
After that, I will not be a Citibank customer at all.

I logged into my Citibank account today and was surprised to find
three $10 new charges under the heading "OD PROTECTION TF FEE". I had
never seen any kind of overdraft fees before -- just the high APR
that's charged on the overdrawn balance until it's paid off -- so I
called customer service. Sure enough, they instituted this new policy
as of early November (5th? 7th?).

I've been a Citibank customer since 2000. My credit score is 800+.
What executive board of skinflints came up with the brilliant idea to
implement this policy with no prominent advance notice at the dawn of
the worst US recession since the Great Depression? Is this their bold
new solution to solving the frozen credit crisis: beg for a government
bailout, and then charge its customers an arm and a leg for the most
basic of services?

I'm fortunate in that I have a secure job that pays well, low
debt-to-limit ratio and no more college loans (will be paid off next
month). My wife and I have been saving up to buy an apartment for two
years, and we were hoping to buy something in 2009. That was before
the market crashed, but even so, we're only 12-18 months away from
having a down payment ready. And I'll be DAMNED if I'm going to give
my business to a company so eager to screw me over in such a manner.

I've read that credit unions are the way to go for a while now. But
I've always been content enough with the service I've received at
Citibank to ignore those missives -- until tonight. Over the weekend,
I will research NYC-area credit unions, and with any luck I'll have a
new account opened next week. Wikipedia has an excellent explanation
on what credit unions, which are not-for-profit (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_union#Not-for-profit_status_and_th
e_need_for_a_surplus ), are generally better idea than banks. But to
summarize: credit unions exist to serve its members, not maximize
their profits like commercial banks.

Thanks for jolting me to my senses, Citibank. Or as paraphrase
Richard Nixon: "You won't have me to kick around anymore, because,
Citibank, this is my last transaction."

I am infuriated by this change!

I have been a happy Citibank customer for 7 years, and have never
thought about changing banks until now. I just logged on and found my
account in "Overdraft with $30 in overdraft fees. I have structured my
finances around using my $4500 automatic check protection since 2001,
so now have to completely rethink how I go about managing my finances.


I just spoke to customer service and had them log this complaint and
tried to communicate the fact that I understand that times are tough,
but trying to soak your customers for every last cent is a sure way to
lose them! I am looking into other places to keep my $66,000!

I've just discovered this new fee this morning.

I'd called tech support twice in the last two weeks concerning changes
in the way balances are displayed and CP transfers are made in the
online banking app. On both occasions I was told "there's just a bug"
and that it would be fixed shortly.

No mention of new fees. Not on the phone. Not in an email. Not in a
pop-up when I login. No letter in the mail.

So effectively, it's a retroactive fee, the period of which depends on
how long it takes customers to discover this new gem.

I have been a customer since 1995 and opened my account on 42nd and
Madison. I've always stuck with them despite cheaper accounts being
available because they've always been a low-hassle un-sneaky bank to
deal with. I've recommended them to countless others for the same
reason.

I AM stubborn enough to open a new account with another account today.
Even if they also have overdraft fees.

Businesses need to take better stock of the consequences (and REAL
cost) of such decisions.

Jason McElroy

Try a credit union- they are locally owned and operated, and "The Calm
of the Economic Storm". Their fees are generally lower, and any fees
they collect are passed on to their members as lower fees and better
rates.

Now that I am done summing up a commerical I heard on the radio the
other day, I truly do choose them over banks- I have been with one for
2 years, and the service and rates are truly exceptional.

Thinking back over the checking accounts I have had in the past 16
years, there has been an ebb and flow of minimum balance requirements,
fees for ATM cards, etc. At one point, I believe it was almost
impossible to get free checking unless you kept $300 in the account.

With my bank, I checked about 3 years ago into a feature similar to
this one with my own bank. It turns out they had about a $10 fee if I
overdrafted and the transfer was done. In a snit, I declined to open
the second account. Sure enough this past year I had an overdraft
during an illness and there went $33.

So, you are right - they are changing to a system where you pay a
smaller overdraft fee than you would have if you had no protection.
And it may have been a young whippersnapper who came up with the idea.
So you go to another bank, and who knows what happens 15 years down
the road.


It must come as no surprise to them that customers such as yourself
are complaining. Good luck, they seem to have chosen their course.