In early June, checking my balance, I noticed a huge string of fraudulent charges posting to my online account about three days after they occured ... over $8000 worth of HALF.COM charges taking place over a day and a half. (It's interesting that Citibank's fraud protection signaled nothing about this.) Half.com had actually already caught the fraud themselves and had reversed about $5000 of the transactions. Right away I contacted Citibank, who closed that particular account number, reopening under a new one, and snail-mailed me a fraud affidavit requiring notarization. I got that in the mail about four business days later, had it notarized and faxed it straight back on June 9th. It sat in someone's folder until the 13th, when (I was told) the issue was assigned to someone in the fraud department. I called again around the 20th, letting them know my bill was soon due and I did not know what to pay since nearly $3K of fraud charges were still sitting on my account. The rep told me the matter would probably be resolved by my payment deadline. Strangely enough, I then got notification in the mail that my entire account had been closed. I called again two days before my deadline, no results, nothing done on the case, the fraud rep was extremely rude and said no one at Citibank could tell me what I should pay on the account. I then talked to a regular customer service rep who insisted "*I* had closed the account" according to her notes and that I would have to pay finance charges on the fraud ... she said I "may or may not" be able to get them reversed if/when the matter is resolved. So, here it is July 11th and over a month has passed since I reported these charges. - I definitely did not close my account, so that confuses me. But it's okay because I have no intention of using citibank again. - Almost 3K of fraud charges are still sitting on my account. Why did these not go into dispute status when I submitted the fraud affidavit? That has always been the case before with other cards. - When I call they keep telling me "they have to get their money back from Half.com" before they can do anything. What can I do? I'm looking at potentially two months of finance fees on these charges with no definite end date in sight. Funny enough, my amex number was lifted around the same time and Amex caught the fraud on the first attempt -- did not even let it go through -- and called me straightaway. I appreciate any advice.
Writing, writing, writing. Do everything in writing. File a dispute under the FCBA (look on the back of your statement for information on how to dispute and where to send it). You must follow those procedures exactly, and send to the address specified, to preserve your rights. When you send that dispute, you say exactly which charges you are disputing. You do not have to pay any disputed charges. This should all be spelled out on the back of your statement. Don't just blame Citi. You did everything by phone. Someone punched in a wrong code somewhere, probably. Even though you call, ALWAYS follow up in writing. Get the name of who you spoke with. Your letter should start with "this is confirming my conversation of xx/xx/xx with Ms. ABC." Then, if they don't come back and disagree with what you wrote, it stands as being verification of the conversation.
Hedwig, thanks for your reply, very helpful. Today I just got a short note from Citi saying "We are presently conducting a review of your account ... will contact you when completed, blah blah." Given that is has been almost a month since I reported these charges, would you suggest I write FCBA now? Or is that jumping the gun? I know I don't know what I'm doing here, I used to know a bit about standing up these guys but I've since recycled everything I knew.
I'd do the FCBA now. I think you have to do it within 60 days. If they react based on their letter, fine. You can withdraw the dispute or they can respond based on the findings. But if you don't do the dispute and let the time run out, you're out of options.
If it's not in writing, writing he can prove, within the Reg Z limit, isn't it two months?, he could find them arguing that he owes the money because he didn't follow the dispute rules. I would suggest certified with receipt requested, and have someone else mail it. Have that person make up an affidavit of mailing too. If this goes to court, he'll want to have the proper paper trail.
