I have received the following calls and voice to text message from CITIbank on behalf of Best Buy.
First call went to voice mail.
469-914-7211 blocked after first call.
Monday, August 22nd, at 8:02 am:
Monday, August 22nd, at 11:04 am:
Monday, August 22nd, at 2:17 pm:
Monday, August 22nd at 6:43 pm:
Tuesday, August 23rd, at 8:44 am:
Tuesday, August 23rd at 2:39 pm:
Tuesday, August 23rd at 8:31 pm:
"This is an attempt to collect a debt. It is very important that you contact citi regarding an important matter with your delinquent best buy credit card account. You may visit us online at www.Bestbuy.Accountonline.Com. At anytime you may also call us at 1-855-242-6899.
Any agent can assist you. Thank you."
The voice to text message didn't mention me or my wife (specifically) by name, so it's unclear who they want to talk with.
Me and my wife subscribe to an annual service that allows us to check the accuracy and status of our 3 credit reports at the 3 national credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, TransUnion at any time.
As of today's date, Tuesday, 23rd August, 2016 @7:30 a.m. PST, Best Buy DOES NOT show as a CURRENT, DELINQUENT or PAST creditor on any of our 3 credit reports.
Me and my wife are both 72 yrs of age, married 51 years, both retired, mortgage is free and clear, no car notes, we currently owe American Express $79.99, we have no Mastercard or VISA credit cards, no business loan, no student loan, virtually no nothing except for fixed monthly expenses..I.E..Food, gas, insurance and utilities etc..
#1) Me and my wife don't have, nor have we ever had a Best Buy credit card account.
#2) As best as WE can recall, the last time me or my wife shopped and bought anything at a best buy store was probably way, way back in the mid-1980s. We can't remember what we bought at any store 30 to 35 years ago, let alone best buy, Wal-Mart or any other store.
#3) Perhaps it's too early to tell, but as of today, WE have not received any demands notices or letters for payment in the mail from best buy or CITIbank.
#4) If/and or when I do receive a demand letter for payment, it will be ignored for obvious reasons.
#5) WE have absolutely, absolutely no immediate plans to communicate with, talk with, bargain with, negotiate with, deal with any first, second or third party collection agency.
#6) The burden of proof is on Best Buy or CITIbank to show (us) proof that we did in fact incur any credit card charges at any Best Buy store anywhere on the face of this planet.
#7) The first thing WE demand/want to see (BEFORE WE ARE SERVED WITH THE SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT AKA: CIVIL LAWSUIT) is a (photo)copy of the Best Buy credit card application with my or my wifes first name, middle name, last name, date of birth, social security number, residential address, telephone number(s), current or past employers name, income, hand written signature, original date of the credit card application, and any charges made against the Best Buy credit card (with our signatures).
CITIbank has the burden of proof to show that WE factually owe any money on a Best Buy credit card.
CITIbank ORDERED TO REFUND $5 MILLION TO CONSUMERS OVER ILLEGAL DEBT COLLECTIONS:
https://consumerist.com/2016/02/23/citibank-c ... must-refund-5m/
If you had a hunch that CITIbank’s credit card division wasn’t terribly good at its job, you were right.
CITIbank sold credit card debt to buyers with inflated interest rates, failed to tell those debt buyers when it accepted payments on these cards after the debt had been sold.
This is all according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which today announced brought an action against CITIbank, claiming that the bank spent years selling credit card debt to buyers without provide accurate information on interest rates or alerting debt buyers to post-purchase payments made by the account holders.
Inflated Interest
The CFPB contends that, between Feb. 2010 and June 2013, CITIbank overstated the interest rates on nearly 130,000 card accounts that it sold off to 16 different different debt buyers.
CITIbank wasn’t checking individual accounts against the info it sold to the buyers, and didn’t provide any supporting documentation that contained this information. If debt buyers tried to acquire account-level info after purchasing a debt, they were charged fees at $10 per page by CITIbank.
That means that these people were accruing interest that was sometimes much higher than what they should have been hit with. The information was so bad that some accounts were charged upwards of 29% APR when they were supposed to be accruing no interest at all.
As a result of these overinflated APRs, debtors paid nearly $5 million more than they should have during those years. Thus, under federal law, the debt buyers were engaged in a deceptive practice, and CITIbank violated the law by “knowingly or recklessly provid[ing] substantial assistance” in the form of the inflated interest rates.
Payment? What Payment?
Between 2010 and 2014, the CFPB says that CITIbank received hundreds of thousands in credit card payments from credit card customers whose debt had already been sold off, but failed to tell the debt buyers about this or delayed remitting the money to the debt buyers.
For example, in 2012, CITIbank sat on more than 4,000 individual credit card payments — totaling nearly $225,000 — for more than 91 days. Without that information or the payments, the debt buyers were unable to update customer accounts in a timely manner. So debtors paid more than they should, and some were likely sent to collections or sued when they shouldn’t have been.
The CFPB contends that this constitutes an unfair act or practice in violation of federal law.
Time To Pay
As part of the consent order [PDF] in this matter, CITIbank is required to refund an estimated a total of $4.89 million to roughly 2,100 consumers.
CITIbank must also provide full and accurate documentation for the debts it sells off. This includes the credit agreement and recent account statements.
If Citibank can’t provide this information, or if the debt can’t be verified for other reasons — the customer alerted the bank to possible identity theft or unauthorized use; the customer has sent a written statement disputing the amount owed; the account is within 150 days of the end of the statute of limitations — CITIbank can not sell it.
Additionally, in order to prevent further erosion of documentation and info, CITI’s contracts with debt buyers must prevent the buyer from reselling the debt.
And the cherry on top: Citibank must pay a $3 million penalty to the CFPB’s Civil Penalty Fund.
CITIbank fined $3 million over debt collection practices and sales (February 23rd, 2016):
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/02/2 ... sales/80812472/
Citibank was ordered to pay a $3 million penalty and provide nearly $11 million in consumer relief or refunds in a settlement over illegal debt sales and debt collection practices, a federal consumer agency said Tuesday.
The New York-based bank broke the law by selling credit card debt with inflated interest rates and failing to forward consumer payments promptly to debt buyers, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a consent order.
Additionally, Citibank and two debt collection law firms that worked with the bank falsified court records filed in debt collection cases in New Jersey state courts, the CFPB said.
"Today's action provides redress to consumers who were victimized by slipshod practices," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray.
Citibank spokeswoman Jennifer Bombardier said the bank was "pleased to resolve these legacy issues, which impacted a small percentage of customers in the U.S."
The debt sales in question involved portfolios of charged-off credit cart accounts that Citibank sold to buyers from 2010 to 2013. The debts, which the bank deemed unlikely to be repaid, were sold to debt buyers who tried to collect on the accounts. The CFPB said the bank:
Overstated the annual percentage rate in accounts sold to debt buyers. As a result, consumers paid approximately $4.89 million to debt buyers that used a rate that had been inflated by more than 1%.
Delayed forwarding to debt buyers nearly 14,000 consumer payments that totaled nearly $1 million. The delays subjected consumers to collection efforts after they had already paid off their accounts.
The CFPB settlement requires Citibank to repay the $4.89 million to victimized consumers and pay a $3 million fine to the consumer agency's civil penalty fund.
Separately, Citibank and two affiliates, Department Stores National Bank and CitFinancial Servicing, filed sworn statements that attested to the amounts allegedly owed by consumers. Citibank provided the affidavits to two debt-collection law firms, Faloni & Associates of Fairfield, N.J. and Solomon & Solomon, of Albany, N.Y. to collect credit card debt for the bank in New Jersey state courts.
However, the CFPB said the law firms altered affidavit dates, the amount of debt purportedly owed, or both, after the affidavits had been executed.
The consumer agency said Citibank must comply with a New Jersey state court order that required the bank to refund $11 million collected from consumers and halt collections on $34 million in additional debts. Citibank has already complied, the CFPB said.
The law firms collectively must pay $80,000 in penalties, the consumer agency said.
CITIbank FINED $8 MILLION FOR ILLEGAL DEBT COLLECTION:
http://www.americanbanker.com/news/law-regula ... -1079533-1.html
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday hit Citigroup with $8 million in fines and restitution for allegedly selling credit card debt with inflated interest rates and failing to send consumer payments to debt buyers.
In a separate action, the CFPB ordered Citibank to comply with a New Jersey state court order to refund $11 million to consumers and forgo collecting another $34 million in credit card debts from 7,000 consumers.
Two debt collection firms that once worked for Citi — Solomon & Solomon in Albany, N.Y., and Faloni & Associates in Fairfield, N.J. — also were ordered to pay civil penalties for altering the dates and amounts of debt owed by consumers.
CFPB Director Richard Cordray said the agency's actions would help consumers who were "victimized by slipshod practices." The bureau is currently working on new rules for the debt collection market.
"Citibank sent inaccurate information to buyers when it sold off credit card debt and it also used law firms that altered court documents," Cordray said in a press release.
Jennifer Bombardier, a spokeswoman for Citibank, said in an email, "We are pleased to resolve these legacy issues which impacted a small percentage of customers in the U.S."
The CFPB said Citibank "broke the law" when it provided inaccurate and inflated annual percentage rate information on almost 130,000 charged-off credit card accounts that were sold to debt buyers from 2010 to mid-2013. Citibank overstated the APR on accounts that were sold to 16 different debt buyers. In some cases, Citi claimed the APR was 29% when it was actually zero, the CFPB said.
The debt buyers then used the inaccurate APR information, collecting $4.9 million from consumers. The CFPB ordered Citibank to refund $4.9 million to 2,100 consumers that made payments to debt buyers from February 1, 2010 to November 14, 2013. The New York bank also must pay a $3 million penalty to the CFPB's civil penalty fund.
Additionally, the CFPB said that Citibank delayed sending nearly $1 million in payments from 14,000 customers to debt buyers, in violation of the Dodd-Frank Act. Since the account balances were not updated, consumers were subjected to debt collection efforts even after they had already paid off their accounts.
Citi cannot sell any debts that cannot be verified, the CFPB said. Citibank also has to give consumers information about the debt, including the name of the original creditor, the credit agreement and account statements. The New York bank must also include provisions in contracts with debt sellers prohibiting buyers from reselling the debt again, the agency said.
"Citibank cannot sell debts if it cannot provide documentation, if the consumers notified Citibank of identity theft or unauthorized use, if consumers allege in writing that they do not owe the amount claimed, or if the account is within 150 days of the end of the statute of limitations," the agency said in a press release.
Separately, the CFPB ordered two debt collection law firms to pay civil penalties for altering affidavits and the amount of debt allegedly owed in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Solomon & Solomon was ordered to pay a $65,000 penalty; Faloni & Associates must pay $15,000.
In May 2011, when Citibank learned that one of the law firms had altered affidavits, it stopped referring new credit card accounts to the firm. The CFPB did not impose civil penalties on Citibank because of its efforts to recompense harmed customers, the agency said.
i called the real Best Buy City Bank on the back of the credit card. I spoke with the fraud department, and they said this number is a fraudulent, and they will never ask for account information over the phone,
So they called me as well and I discovered that even though I set up the automatic payment, their system didnt process it. If you havent already paid it off, that could be the issue. The rep admitted that I was not the only person to call this month saying that. I even screen shot the last time I logged in which was to set up the auto payment for that month.