Citi credit card annual fees -- it starts... :(

SUCKISSTAPLES said: plese specify exactly which Citi Cards these are... Viti dividend? Diamond prwferred rewards?
Sure (sorry for the oversight):

- Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards MasterCard
- Citi Dividend World MasterCard

Both accounts are about 10 years old, with reasonable ($15K) limits. It's a real bummer to see this, but I hope enough people rise up against this nonsense that other issuers refrain from jumping on the bandwagon...

It might be a YMMV thing.

Per Aug 20 2009 news, citi had said it was imposing fees on select customers.

Marketwatch said: "We have adjusted pricing and card terms for some customers as part of our regular account reviews," said Samuel Wang, a Citigroup spokesman. "These changes also reflect the dramatically higher cost of doing business in our industry as we work to preserve the broad availability of credit. As part of this change in terms, a small number of Citi customers may be notified of an annual fee."

Read the original article

Got the same letters yesterday: Citi Dividend MC and Citi Diamond Preferred MC. Still haven't gotten a note for my Citi Proffesional MC

Although it'd lower our credit scores slightly, I'd probably also just cancel rather than pay any stupid minimum usage fee from Citi or anyone else. Not many cards that Citi has anyway that would be worth the $60 fee.

Haven't received anything yet for any of our 4-5 Citi Cards.

HotSalami said: that they're imposing a $60 annual fee, effective April 1. The fee will be credited upon the accumulation of $2400 in purchases..So they charge you the $60 fee, but then credit it back once you've reached $2400 in spending? Sounds like more of an attempt to get customers to decide what cards they really want, instead of the past practices of Citi just randomly closing accounts.

Glitch99 said: HotSalami said: that they're imposing a $60 annual fee, effective April 1. The fee will be credited upon the accumulation of $2400 in purchases..So they charge you the $60 fee, but then credit it back once you've reached $2400 in spending? Sounds like more of an attempt to get customers to decide what cards they really want, instead of the past practices of Citi just randomly closing accounts.
That's the way it works... Here's the contents of their letter (thanks ScanSnap and your awesome OCR conversion! I'd marry you if you had girly-parts attached!!!)

<<edit>>

Just realized that the letter is post-dated (today's the 11th, and they presumably mailed it a number of days ago). I didn't think that Microsoft TimeTravel was out of beta yet...



February 13, 2010

Dear Potentially Hosed Customer,

We're writing to let you know about an important change we're making to your account. Effective April 1, 2010, an annual
fee of $60 is being added.

The reason we are making this change is to maintain the quality of our service amid the rising cost of doing business.
However, because we value you as a customer, we wanted to give you an opportunity to have the annual fee credited
back to your account.

Here's how it works. Each year, we'll credit the $60 fee back to your account once you have made $2,400 in purchases
during that year. That comes to an average of $200 in spending a month, an amount you can reach by using your card
for purchases you already make, like gas, groceries, cell phone plans or your cable bill.

As always, you have the right to opt out of this change and close your account. Please read the Notice of Change in
Terms and Right to Opt Out beginning on the back of this letter so you are fully aware of all your account changes. If you
have questions, call 1-866-915-9425.

Sincerely,

Ken Stork
Citibank (South Dakota), N.A.

psychtobe said: look, i have over 100 credit cards and i don't have a problem with closing 90 of them. to paraphrase a Flyertalker, "This game is not as much fun as it used to be." Just give me one decent card worth my loyalty (ok, maybe 5 or 6), and the rest be damned.

i wonder how much junk mail 100 credit cards produces. the blank checks, changes to T&C, promotional offers, etc.

No, they should make a profit since it is "i cloud bubble" credit anyway. I think they just shortening it to a 3 months cycle. That is why they have a horrendous high interest to force you to repay it asap before it burst. Most people, included politicians, do not understand the risks of these things or the business of finance and tended to blame banks for that matter. Citi is currently being run by hedge fund and stock traders. What do these people know about loans and credits? No wonder the stocks still tank even after the recovery.

Why don't people go read a finance book or something? I think people liked to generalize, jump in things because they too lazy to research it. It's not that they not smart or doesn't know.

qcumber98 said: psychtobe said: look, i have over 100 credit cards and i don't have a problem with closing 90 of them. to paraphrase a Flyertalker, "This game is not as much fun as it used to be." Just give me one decent card worth my loyalty (ok, maybe 5 or 6), and the rest be damned.

i wonder how much junk mail 100 credit cards produces. the blank checks, changes to T&C, promotional offers, etc.
Yeah, you should buy a decomposer machine to make mulch from all these mail ads. I once have an idea or buying a ceramic fireplace that use these tons of paper of ads as fuel. If you are in marketing, you should know it cost at least a nickel for each ad, especially color ad and on good paper.

goGTinDML said: Have any of you guys been able to reallocate your credit limits?

That is an excellent idea to try. But what if all their cards will have annual fee unless you spend at least 2.5K?

Meh. I have no problem with banks weeding out innactive accounts. All they do is incur administrative costs and create one more account that can be e-frauded for $5K....for something that brought them $0 revenue anyway. It'll save us all $$ in the long run so big deal. Sure, our credits scores will be pinched a bit as a result but that will just make good credit scores all the more valuable and then those that dutifully paid the mortgages on their upside-down houses will get their just rewards over the deadbeats.

HotSalami said: - Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards MasterCard
- Citi Dividend World MasterCard
What's interesting is that Citi still advertises the Diamond Preferred Rewards MasterCard as no annual fee, so this does seem very clearly to encourage "zombie" card holders to close or use their accounts. They no longer advertise the Dividend World MC (nor the Dividend Platinum Select MC, which is what my wife and I both have as our oldest cards), but the CashReturns MC is also advertised as no annual fee.

Has anyone called, pointed out that their card (or something similar) is advertised online as have no annual fee, and tried to get it waived?

HotSalami said: These cards are "zombies" to the extent that they haven't seen any purchases on them in a while (2004 and 2007). However, they both have balances (from transfers) at low fixed rates, so they see monthly interest/payment action, as well as a healthy stream of blank xfer check offers in the mail...

It seems odd to me that they're willing to effectively terminate the relationship, given the account age and current acitivity...
I think account age matters more to us than to them. And what "current activity" are you talking about? No purchases for 3 years? Low fixed rate transfers aren't exactly a highly profitable line of business.

I feel quite confident that these fees are being assessed based on account profitability more than anything else. Sure, an inactive card isn't profitable, but neither is your low rate BT.

HotSalami said: SUCKISSTAPLES said: plese specify exactly which Citi Cards these are... Viti dividend? Diamond prwferred rewards?
Sure (sorry for the oversight):

- Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards MasterCard
- Citi Dividend World MasterCard

Both accounts are about 10 years old, with reasonable ($15K) limits. It's a real bummer to see this, but I hope enough people rise up against this nonsense that other issuers refrain from jumping on the bandwagon...

So you have 30k in credit but don't anticipate spending 4800 between the two cards in the year... not sure why you have them then?

Seems unnecessary?

jlgrandam said: You don't see how having $30K in unsecured credit can be useful?

You don't see why the bank might want to get something from you for providing you 30k of unsecured credit?

The original fee test last August targeted mostly (but not exclusively) Diamond Preferred Rewards cards.

It is unlikely that an account with an ongoing low-APR-for-life BT would be hit with such a fee, since the lawsuits filed against Chase for a similar action forced Chase to rescind their fee.

Glitch99 said: HotSalami said: that they're imposing a $60 annual fee, effective April 1. The fee will be credited upon the accumulation of $2400 in purchases..So they charge you the $60 fee, but then credit it back once you've reached $2400 in spending? Sounds like more of an attempt to get customers to decide what cards they really want, instead of the past practices of Citi just randomly closing accounts.

Can I charge them 25% interest on that $60?

Had both cards for 7 years, but just canceled them few minutes ago. Told cuscare that I don't wish to pay $ 60 fees - hope floods of cancellation so that other companies won't follow the trend. Kind a scary since I have many dormant cards - need to start closing them one by one. I don't really need stellar credit rating - already got low mortgage.

ThePessimist said: I feel quite confident that these fees are being assessed based on account profitability more than anything else. Sure, an inactive card isn't profitable, but neither is your low rate BT.
Perhaps, but once these accounts are closed, their profitability (regardless of how meager) will be zero. The absence of long-term rationale will haunt them -- potentially into the grave (read: Advanta)...