Comments on: Consumer Alert: Citi May Move Your Due Date Without Notice

By: KillTheBankers

KillTheBankers — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:09:50 +0000

Fast forward to the new age under the crappy credit card law that took effect Aug 22, 2010. Citibank now has my payments due on Sundays, meaning I have to pay them two days earlier, or get nailed. Nice.

By: Penn

Penn — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:44:41 +0000

They did it to me a year or two ago and promptly corrected the matter.

However, recently they’ve done it again. The due date was moved up, making my payment late and worse, raising my interest to 25%! That was two months ago.

Today, I went in to check the amount due and found payment due date had changed from the 19th to the 16th. I logged out and came back several hours later to pay the bill. I found that in those few hours, my payment due date had changed to the 14th!

It’s one thing to move the date around, but to change it from today’s date to two days previous within hours?! Absurd.

Why on earth do they allow clients to select a due date when they intend to change it to an earlier date (never a later date).

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:33:37 +0000

I recently bought a tv with a new Sears card (Citibank) 18 months with no finance charges. My first statement due date was 8/11. I called and asked about the due dates, I was told it may vary 2-4 days each month.

I said ok, got my second statement last week, I wrote a note to pay by Sept 6 on the envelope.

Opened it up and BAM…bill due by Sept 1.
Wow, that’s a bit more than 2-4 days like I was told. I called and they said they would take off the $35 late fee. My fault for not opening when it arrived.

This time customer service person said “the date could vary between 3-5 days.” Very deceptful in my opinion.

The customer service girl was nice, guess I got lucky on that call.

Please be aware of this practice.

By: Bren

Bren — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:00:32 +0000

Oblivia,
I am in the process of looking all my paperwork over to see when this started and then I plan on making some calls. I also found an article that Consumer Affairs has found complaints like this about Citibank and Chase from as far back as 2001. Here is the link to that article: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/03/floating_due_dates.html
Credit card holder beware!

By: Oblivia

Oblivia — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:03:55 +0000

Bren – that sounds like “breach of contract”. You should have paperwork that states what your grace period is (not was). It’s not the same card you signed up for, in that case. I would create a stink,

By: Bren

Bren — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:15:55 +0000

They did the same thing to us. When I called about it, a rude customer service man told me that the reason the due date went from 25 day grace period to a 20 day one, is that because when we pay earlier than the due date, their computer gradually lowers the grace period. So, basically they are setting you up to be over due somewhere along the line (which we were last month) to charge you the large late fee and interest, there by getting more money out of you. And, of course they won’t reverse any late fees or interest charges either. I’ve not seen anything in writing that this is their practice, but it sounds like legalized robbery to me!

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:54:29 +0000

They did the same to me as for changing the due date to Christmas, actually. It had always been the 31st and suddenly it was due on Christmas…I checked my account the day after Christmas to pay the bill on time and then realized that they had moved up the date so I was charged the late fee and hiked up interest rate. How sneaky…

By: Lauren@LifeStyler

Lauren@LifeStyler — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:26:56 +0000

I have a checking and savings account with Citibank, and recently they changed their overdraft protection procedures without telling anyone.

Since I have three linked accounts with them — one of which is a high yield savings — I typically move most of my paycheck into that account leaving just enough for my monthly bills in the regular checking. I have overdraft protection which covers me if I don’t transfer my money over in time, but last month I accidentally overdrew my account by a few dollars. Not only did they not cover it with my overdraft funds, but also charged me a $30 overdraft fee.

When I contacted them about it, they stated that they had changed their policies and now if I wanted to elect to have my overdraft funds accessed, they will charge me $10 to automatically move those funds over, which sort of undermines the whole point if you ask me. Looks like they’re trying to find extra income any way they can by not alerting their customers about their policy changes.

By: DoneToZen

DoneToZen — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:27:29 +0000

Yikes! I’m glad you were able to sort it out without having to pay late fees. For my daily use credit card, we are not able to setup automatic payments in advance; the only day they allow you to pay is the day that the bill is due; I worry that some glitch is going to cause the payment to not go through and ding me with late fees/credit score issues, which is why I still pay the credit card manually.

Credit card companies are very sneaky.

By: Oblivia

Oblivia — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:12:58 +0000

I’m not with Citi but they’ve started doing this on my visa card in Canada about 3 months ago. I’m still allowed the same 17 day interest free period but the dates jump around ever so slightly in the hopes of making you more likely to pay a penalty. This month, they’ve allowed me to “take a month off” with a $0 min. payment in the hopes that I won’t and – you guessed it – make me fall into a debt I can’t afford. There are lots of stories like this….

I love the convenience of a credit card and use it at many a juncture. However, this silly business steels my resolve to never pay the credit card companies a red cent more than I have to.