Citicard compensation - advice needed?

joanneg_2

Hi,

Just after some opinions please .....

My partner has a citi credit card which we paid off (full and final settlement) in March this year and asked to close the account. They have been sending us monthly statements, applying charges and basically been a complete nightmare with the harrassment and refusal to close the account as agreed.

Today they finally admitted fault and closed the account (still awaiting for the letter so not holding my breath) and have offered us compensation but no figure. We have been advised to think about it over the weekend and get back to them on monday with an amount.

Unfortunately this problem has affected our credit report as they have logged we have missed 6 payments over the last 7 months despite the final settlement payment. This they are going to correct. But I started a new job on monday having handed in my notice and left my old position. Two days into this job which is in a financial environment I was advised that I couldn't keep my job due to the credit check they had run. Naively I didn't think Citi were at fault as they had told us they hadn't logged anything.

So tonight I have check both our credit files and the only negative is the issue with Citi. So this problem has cost me my job and my household £300 per month as I now have no job.

Citi are aware that they could be the cause of this and certainly changed their attitude when they were told and managed to solve a problem which so far has taken 7 mths in the space of an hour!

My question is what do we do? Obviously aside from looking for another job which could take a while given the current climate. What sort of compensation should we be seeking? We have told them if they are the problem on the credit file we will seek loss of my earnings from them (and we will certainly need it).

If we calculate the time put it, charges of phone calls, letters and my loss of earnings for a year it comes to about £6700 and 6 months loss of earnings is just over £3000 .... this seems very unlikely to me but their error has cost me my new job and will cause lots of financial difficulty. Really don't know what to do.

Any advice from anyone would be greatly received.

Thank you.

the_insider

First of all we need to know what actually happened. Did you settle the balance in full and fail to pay the trailing interest? In that case they've done nothing wrong and any refund/credit file amendment is goodwill. Credit cards can't be held in joint names (you can only be a second card holder on someone else's account, you're not liable for the balance) so your partner's account shouldn't have any affect on yours. And I doubt they'll pay you for the last six month's income based on your new salary if you were only recently offered and then declined the job.

redordeadtom

I assume if you were still receving monthly statements then there must have been an outstanding balance on the account. Can you confirm what money was being asked for on each of your statements? Had you agreed to short-settle the account and this then didn't take place?

With regard to your credit history if Citi have agreed it was their error they will be able to submit a credit bureau amend to correct any incorrect deliquency they reported, but again would need to understand what they were sending out the statements for each month.

joanneg_2

Hi Ok,

Problems began in Jan this year when we began receiving calls from the collection dept chasing payments which were being made (computer error apparently). We received 2 calls a day on mobiles and home phones for 18 days ... quite rude and stressful especially when we were paying. Obviously we complain and got no calls or correspondence in return.

In March a family member offered to lend us money to clear the account and we made a full and final settlement payment and waited for our closure letter which we were told would take 16 days to arrive. We called up to chase the letter and was told the account wasn't closed and we were in arrears with payments. We requested a call back from a manager to resolve the problem and received nothing. This has happened over 40 times. We have full records to prove this.

We have been receiving statements and charges for late payments, telephone calls and yet every time we request to speak to a manager or take it further we get promised the call back and it doesn't come.

After quoting dates, times and names of people spoken to Citi have today finally admitted fault after listening to calls which confirm the payment has been accepted as full, final settlement and account has been closed (we have 3 of these).

Throughout all this we asked what was happening regarding our credit files and was told nothing had been logged. Obviously we are at fault here for not checking til now.

Like I said this happened today and I still doubt the problems are fully resolved but they have offered to compensate us. We just need advice on a figure.

They did seem to kick things into gear when we mentioned the job situation and resolved the problem in under an hour. To me this shows they are worried?

I don't know much about the credit check procedure but thought that anyone you are jointly associated with would be shown too. This is the only blip on either of our files and 6 out of 7 missed payments is not good. The job involved dealing with large amounts of money and high confidentiality so I have assumed this is why they retracted the offer despite me having already started.

TBH is doesn't matter how long I was in the job the fact is I now have no job although I would have thought the company would have run the search upon offer not start. But this is the fact.

Hope thats enough info and any help you can give would be great.

Thanks again.

redordeadtom

That's a horrendous situation. Now Citi have admitted fault they can correct what they have reported on your credit history. 6 months payment would account to 180 days deliquency which will look really bad unfortunately. If you have lost your job I would seriously consider looking at the consequential loss you have suffered as a result of Citi's error in not settling your account when you made the final payment so include that in any compensation claim.

Would your previous employers reconsider your position if you can demonstrate what Citi have done... I hope so!

joanneg_2

redordeadtom wrote: »

I assume if you were still receving monthly statements then there must have been an outstanding balance on the account. Can you confirm what money was being asked for on each of your statements? Had you agreed to short-settle the account and this then didn't take place?

With regard to your credit history if Citi have agreed it was their error they will be able to submit a credit bureau amend to correct any incorrect deliquency they reported, but again would need to understand what they were sending out the statements for each month.

Hi,

We had agreed to a full, final settlement which we have records of telephone calls for (3 in total). There was a balance of approx £3890 when payment of £3600 was accepted as full, final payment. the account was apparently just never closed so statements were still generated with the difference of £290 ish showing. We tried calling and resolving the issue but nothing was ever solved until today. Each statement showed interest and late payment charges increasing the amount to currently £599.

There is also the job and loss of earnings issue.

There was no agreement to short settle the account and the reduced final payment was accepted by Citi due to the previous problems.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.

Citi are fixing the error on the credit files, admitting full fault and offering compensation but we have to request a figure.

Also the job I left for the new one was £6.59 per hour and the new job was minimum wage (but more hours) which is £5.80 per hour. My figures are calculated at £5.80 per hour for the new job not my old one.

redordeadtom

As above go for the juggular... calculate exactly what you have lost so far, I doubt whether they will look at future earnings but may be worth a punt?!?!

joanneg_2

redordeadtom wrote: »

That's a horrendous situation. Now Citi have admitted fault they can correct what they have reported on your credit history. 6 months payment would account to 180 days deliquency which will look really bad unfortunately. If you have lost your job I would seriously consider looking at the consequential loss you have suffered as a result of Citi's error in not settling your account when you made the final payment so include that in any compensation claim.

Would your previous employers reconsider your position if you can demonstrate what Citi have done... I hope so!

Thanks .... unfortunately I have already been replaced so no chance of that. Fingers crossed I find a new one and soon.

the_insider

joanneg wrote: »

Hi,
There was no agreement to short settle the account and the reduced final payment was accepted by Citi due to the previous problems.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand. There was no agreement to short settle bu they have admitted liability to failing to close the account once you paid less than you owed?
I work in a collections complaints department and from my experience no bank would accept a reduced payment on a balance without defaulting the account.
Regarding the credit file issue, if your employer carried out a full disclaimer credit search they might see that someone you are financially linked to has poor credit, I'm assuming you hold joint credit facilities with your partner?

Curt.

Or even a joint bank account may be enough - just to create the link. Even if its since closed off, if you don't file a letter of disassociation it can still be taken into account.

In general, Citi are the mos fuking annoying on the phone given their henious policies of putting every person in India - i swear me and you and must have spoken to the same person various times Joanneg.

My advice: Lawyer up and sue for everything you can unless they do compensate you for all charges, costs, loss of income, time and emotional distress this has caused you, plus legal fees and court costs/any costs relating to your credit file and any collections costs.

And do it before they themselves wind up in Bankruptcy protection! (In all seriousness i really feel bad for you in going through this and can only hope your situation is resolved).

All the best.

magpiecottage

Two points - firstly, if the new employer has simply run an automated credit check you can ask it to reconsider (this is a right under the Data Protection Act) - explain that it was not your debt if that is the case.

Secondly, you can probably take Citi to the Financial Ombudsman Service - make clear that it failed and there is a causal link between the failure and the loss of earnings.