Citibank

[Johnny Danger]

More terrible and unethical behavior from Citibank.
Here is a complaint I have registered with the Ombudsman:

I would like to report and resolve the immoral and unethical conduct and incorrect charges I have received from Citibank.
I received a letter dated 14/09/09 from Citibank informing my fix rate mortage will expire on the 1/10/09. Attached to this letter were forms with options to refix the interest rate. I posted them back immediately requesting to refix for 1 year at 5.99%.
In early Oct. 2009 I received another letter from Citibank informing me that the above account has reverted back to the variable rate. It was obvious to me that my request had been ignored. I contacted Citibank and was told that they had not received my forms and if I wanted to refix my mortgage for one year I would be charged 6.24%. I posted them back requesting the one year fixed rate of 6.24%. I received a letter dated the 15/10/09 from Citibank stating the above account was still on the variable interest rate.I contacted Citibank immediately and enquired as to why 2 of my request to fix my mortgage were ignored and was told "we did not received your forms" and they would send out a 3rd set of forms (dated 29/10/2009) but now with one year
fix rate of 6.49% which I completed and posted back.

November 2009 I received a letter dated 11/11/2009 stating I was still on the variable and rising interest rate. I contacted Citibank and enquired as to why my 3rd request to fix was ignored.

I have had my mortgage with Citibank for 8 years and found during the last series of interest rate hikes it was also near impossible to fix the interest rate on my mortage, very strange indeed??

I was told the 3rd request had to be received by 27/10/09 even though the letter was dated 29/10/09 and was received by me in early Nov. After I explained to Citibank that the back dating of forms so they will never meet the cut off dates is terribly unethical Citibank requested I fax the 3rd request and told me they would process the request and would call me to confirm within 48hrs.
I never received any confirmation. I tried to contact (name removed) several times and he never returned my calls. At this stage after 4 attempts
to fix my mortgage and being ignored I decided to refinance with a different bank.
The settlement date was 22 Dec 09. I was charged a rate break fee $2328.25. Isn't it strange that Citibank after several months of refusing to fix my mortage would fix my mortgage without informing me only when a mortgage discharge was requested. Does seem like a last bid to extract addition fees from a leaving customer does it not??

What is also just as strange is that in the mortage agreement it cleary states that rate break fees are only applicable if the interest rates have fallen during the fixed period, in my case the interest rate has only risen.

[Johnny Danger]

More terrible and unethical behavior from Citibank.
Here is a complaint I have registered with the Ombudsman:

I would like to report and resolve the immoral and unethical conduct and incorrect charges I have received from Citibank.
I received a letter dated 14/09/09 from Citibank informing my fix rate mortage will expire on the 1/10/09. Attached to this letter were forms with options to refix the interest rate. I posted them back immediately requesting to refix for 1 year at 5.99%.
In early Oct. 2009 I received another letter from Citibank informing me that the above account has reverted back to the variable rate. It was obvious to me that my request had been ignored. I contacted Citibank and was told that they had not received my forms and if I wanted to refix my mortgage for one year I would be charged 6.24%. I posted them back requesting the one year fixed rate of 6.24%. I received a letter dated the 15/10/09 from Citibank stating the above account was still on the variable interest rate.I contacted Citibank immediately and enquired as to why 2 of my request to fix my mortgage were ignored and was told "we did not received your forms" and they would send out a 3rd set of forms (dated 29/10/2009) but now with one year
fix rate of 6.49% which I completed and posted back.

November 2009 I received a letter dated 11/11/2009 stating I was still on the variable and rising interest rate. I contacted Citibank and enquired as to why my 3rd request to fix was ignored.

I have had my mortgage with Citibank for 8 years and found during the last series of interest rate hikes it was also near impossible to fix the interest rate on my mortage, very strange indeed??

I was told the 3rd request had to be received by 27/10/09 even though the letter was dated 29/10/09 and was received by me in early Nov. After I explained to Citibank that the back dating of forms so they will never meet the cut off dates is terribly unethical Citibank requested I fax the 3rd request and told me they would process the request and would call me to confirm within 48hrs.
I never received any confirmation. I tried to contact (name removed) several times and he never returned my calls. At this stage after 4 attempts
to fix my mortgage and being ignored I decided to refinance with a different bank.
The settlement date was 22 Dec 09. I was charged a rate break fee $2328.25. Isn't it strange that Citibank after several months of refusing to fix my mortage would fix my mortgage without informing me only when a mortgage discharge was requested. Does seem like a last bid to extract addition fees from a leaving customer does it not??

What is also just as strange is that in the mortage agreement it cleary states that rate break fees are only applicable if the interest rates have fallen during the fixed period, in my case the interest rate has only risen.

[stephenz]

NGE Note: PLEASE post your gripes in the applicable forum eg Finance.

[walmysko]

I guess every large company will have it's horror stories as well as its good ones. I have had a credit card and mortgage with Citibank for more than 15 years and have never had a problem. In fact I think their rewards scheme with the credit card is excellent. They recently upgraded my card to increase the rewards to 1.25 points per dollar spend. My wife and I used the points for 2 round the world tickets with Qantas 3 years ago and have just done the same for a round the world holiday next month. I have paid no interest on the card at all and still get excellent service.

[jeffinbris]

Terribly unethical company; even extends to how they treat their employees. Laid off a bunch of Australian staff to outsource overseas in the Phillippines and India and whatnot.

[Troppo_lass]

I to have been on the end of the citibank crap.
I had no less than 10 phone calls each day from them, in the end i phoned them, which was a long running process in itself, I then told them if they continue I am logging the calls with Telstra and I will have them in court for harrassment and whatever else I can find.
The calls stopped

[paul_c100]

Citibank is the horrible. Everything posted in these threads are true cause I've experienced them. They should be forced out of business for the incovenience they cause.

I just suggest everybody tell EVERYBODY that they know that Citibank is horrific and to tell their friends.

[lala land]

I have to agree Citibank sucks! I used to be their customer 3 times across 3 different products. Their call centre staff were mainly useless. So won't recommend anyone to do banking with them.

[NGE]

As stated previously, ALL gripes related to Citibank are sent to the company. You will be contacted directly by the company should they decide to respond. Companies are not obligated to inform nor explain to NGE should they decide not to respond to a particular gripe/member.

[bodogbodog]

NGE - has my issue been passed to Citibank for comment/resolution - and if so what was their response?

Nathan7777 - I agree with you - their robotic call centre is hopeless at customer service and any attempt to escalate it appears futile. I have asked them repeatedly to NEVER contact me again - but each month I get an email advising me of my statements availability online which I can't access!

[Nathan7777]

NGE is a blessing when it comes to dealing with these immoral and careless international companies. I have tried to sever relations with them since 2003, without success - yesterday I got an addresssed application in the mail for Ready Credit. If only they would realise that exact account is the reason I went to the banking Ombudsman. I have to second the thought that Citibank are not responsive - yes I got a response, after I went to the banking Ombudsman, and some people are getting resolution through NGE, but why do we have to do this in the first place? A response company would fix these problems (at least in the first half a dozen attempts) before we the consumer needed to go down these other paths! Again, the worst company I HAVE EVER DEALTH WITH IN AUSTRALIA, and the quicker more people reaslise this maybe they can lose enough customers to leave the Pacific altogether.

[derat]

I have no doubt about the validity of the gripes, but I have banked with Citibank for the last 8 years and I have never had issues of any real substance(bodogbodog - amazingly, I have one of those special accounts that gets me a paper based statement in the mail, never had one sent via email).

If Citibank responds to NGE, they deserve to be up there on their list. Can't see how this effects NGE's credibility. They have resolved a LOT of peoples problems.....

[NGE]

NGE sends all gripes to Citibank seeking resolution. However, it is entirely up to Citibank to respond or not. Several members who have been contacted have reported being satisfied with the result. Credit where it is due.

[bodogbodog]

and yet NGE finds it can somehow recognise Citibank as a responsive company - I'm afraid they blew their credibilty when the did that.

Citibank still send me an on line statement each month that I can't open because I cant access their www site. But they refuse to stop recognising me as a custmer despite many many requests to never contact me again (ever!)

If I can save one person from having to deal with Citibank it will be worth my time making these posts!

[AcidRow]

Hi Guys,

Just reading your posts. As an ex Citibank employee who was made redundant for the 'cheaper and better staff', i just want to make one correction. There are a few references to calling the 'Australian' call centre, but I do need to offer a correction in defence of the Australian workers whose hands were constantly tired by a management that just didnt care. Unless you had a mortgage account or a Citifinancial account, you will not have spoken to an operator in the Australia since the end of September 2004.