Comments on: Citibank (NYSE: C) Cancels Exxon-Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Shell, and Conoco-Philips (NYSE: COP) Co-Branded Credit Cards without Warning

By: suzig

suzig — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:00:43 +0000

Thank you for all this information. Until reading this I thought it was my situation. I, too went to buy gas and received a not approved status. I called and asked if there was a problem with the account and was advised there was no problem with it that it was closed. Where is the letter, oh it was sent and tells me that it was Equifax's decision. About a week later I get the infamous letter that advises me not to contact Equifax as they were not the decision maker. Unfortunately I am one of the idiots that they actually made money off of and usually carry a balance. Well I just paid the balance in full and will not give a dime to them (citibank or shell) ever again. After a few deep thoughts I am actually thankful, they saved me a ton of money.
Just think the poor soul that had to deal with me over the phone was the same person that will be unemployed since they decided they do not want to make money off me anymore. I would suggest perhaps a job for her with Equifax as it appears thats all that will be left soon, just reporting agencies.

By: no_citi_accounts4me

no_citi_accounts4me — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:49:24 +0000

I got the same letter and was FLOORED. My credit is better today than it was when I initially opened my accounts with Citi. The only thing you can do is either dispute any erroneous information from your credit report or call Customer Service and demand to speak to the Office of the President. I didn't get anywhere but felt a little better venting to the Assitant to the President. I thanked her for Citi treating good paying, long-time customers so poorly, and informed her that I will be closing all Citi accounts that I have. Off to refinance my car…

By: newbabytls12

newbabytls12 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:50:46 +0000

I feel your pain, my situation is similar...no advance notice from CITI or SHELL or MASTERCARD at all, just an unpleasant decline when both my wife and I went to buy gas 2 weeks ago.

I'll never do business with Citi or Shell again.....that is a guarantee.

I even went to the trouble to investigate my credit score when CITI said our score had recently declined.

My Experian credit score is 751 as of the date they cancelled my card.....surely this was a mistake I told CITI's customer service.....of course they said "we can't discuss individual credit decisions"
The score by the way is considered VERY GOOD just short of the highest tier of 760 and above that Citi indicates was the reason for the closure.

Apparantly, if you refinance your house from 15 years to 10, pay 1500 extra a month on your mortgage, carry ZERO balances on all your credit cards monthly, buy a TV with 6 months same as cash, buy a car and pay it off in a year and do all this within the last 12 months not to mention earning over $350,000 a year the last 5 years, you are a bad credit risk by Citi's standards.....my guess is only the weathiest 1/2 of 1% will keep a Citi Shell Mastercard.

Todd from Ohio...former CITI and SHELL customer

P.S.

I've been a cardholder for 15 years, going back when the card was administered by Chase.....thanks for nothing Citi and Shell.....I'm 44 and will probably buy hundreds of thousands of dollars on my AMEX over the next many years my wife and I are consumers. .

By: maulreius

maulreius — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:56:29 +0000

Myself, my brother, and my father all got our Shell Card accounts canceled. It sounds like we all got a similar letter about how an item on our Equifax reports was negative and therefore they were closing our accounts. I've not looked at my reports of late and given my current situation I can imagine they are not looking the best (however, *_ALL_* of our accounts are current) but it is ridiculous to believe my Father's reports are anything but prime. He still gets offers of 0% trial rates (well maybe no one is getting those anymore but when they were going out he was getting tons of them).

As far as having the government put a stop to this business good luck — remember the government currently holds at least a 1/3 stake in Citibank — this may in fact be a move forced on them by some Czar or mid-level treasury bureaucrat. Search out “Mish Citibank” where Michael Shedlock does some dot connecting and concludes Citibank is in very very deep trouble.

Interesting move. Obviously closing the accounts and jacking up the rates is a play to regain principal and is going to hurt them in the future (no income streams) — if they have a future.

By: shannonburdette

shannonburdette — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:24:15 +0000

Obviously you know nothing about this situation. I do check my accounts regularly. In fact, according to the Shell MC website, my account is currently active with lots of available credit. I haven't received a letter from Citi, so how would I know that it was cancelled? Other than using the "damn credit card," I would have no way of knowing it was cancelled.

Since my credit situation has improved since opening this account, I don't really see how I could have fallen into one of those "situations" you describe. Our credit score is excellent.

Moreover, I don't think the majority of cardholders would have deliberately run up a credit card because it's being closed. We're not children. All Home Depot Rewards customers (also Citi) were notified that their accounts would be closed on 10/31/09. Why notify one group of cardholders and not another? Perhaps it's because they (Citi) wanted to keep it quiet.

The bottom line is that Citi closed thousands of accounts because they had dismal 3rd quarter earnings and felt they needed to do something drastic to appease shareholders. I couldn't care less if Citi doesn't like me. In fact, at this point, I'm pretty sure they hate me, and I'm thrilled about it.

By: heatherann65

heatherann65 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:02:23 +0000

we just recieved a cancellation notice from citi cards as well. good customers for severl years and was notified by letter cancelled due to “information from equifax about a serious deliquency”.!! our credit scores are rated high. these credit card compinies are liars and cheats. what can be done?

By: mweeks09

mweeks09 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:32:18 +0000

I have called customer service twice now. I travel out of state every other weekend to see my husband who works out of town. On my way back my card was declined. I went into the service station because I thought it was just a problem with thier pump. To my surprise and dismay it was declined inside also. I went back out and called customer service to hear exactly what you all also described…. My account was closed due to information found on my Equifax credit report during a routine credit review. I pay for a 24 hour credit monitoring service so I assurred the CSR on the other end of the phone line that there was nothing on there that would cause them to close my account. I would have already been notified if there was a problem. After talking to them serveral minutes and all but screaming at the person on the other end out of total frustration I realized that I wasn't the only one this had happened too and they really didn't know what or why my account had been closed. All they had been told was the line we all got and were trying to do the best with the situation they could. I have (had) two account with them that I pay off in full every month. One I purchased about 1000.00-1300.00 a month on and the other anywhere from 3000.00 to 6000.00 a month which were always paid on time and always paid in full. I then tried to explain to them that I have been a customer since 03 and I didn't understand after being a good customer how they could leave me stranded like they have. There is a level of customer service missing in our businesses these days. Lets just assume that they made this decision because they were losing money on people like us (those that earned their discount and paid thier account in full every month). They still were very unprofessional and unfair in the way they have treated thier loyal, responsible customers. They could have at least sent a notice in a statement giving thier customers notice of their business decision and then announced the cancellation date in the statement so that people had time to plan. I did recieve my letter finally yesterday 10/22/09 and it stated that they cancelled my credit card because I had too many inquires in the last 12 months. Which was nowhere near what they told me on my inital call. Not to mention are you kidding me? Too many inquires? I then called back today because it just angered me again to think about how they treated us. I called demanding that they fix the statement that would go on my credit report and that they also owed me for the rebate I would have recieved on my statement next month for my purchases this month. They told me that they were told they would not change how it was reported on my credit never mind my excellent history with them, but they would credit my rebate amount. I told them that this would not be the last phone call I made and if they thought that thier poor, unprofessional business decision would just go away they were wrong. I was unfair and unjust. I also asked to speak to someone in thier company that could fix the way it would be reported and they told me there was no one to talk to. So I asked that my account me noted with the fact that I would continue to persue this issue until it was corrected. I don't know maybe some sort of class action law suit would get thier attention. I was thinking about the impact one bad business decision can make. Not only have they hurt thier good and outstanding customers they have also hurt other business owners. Think about how Shell station owners will be effected also. We work hard to have good credit and it is not acceptable to be treated this way!

By: bpalmore

bpalmore — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:28:52 +0000

Type your comment here.

By: bpalmore

bpalmore — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:04:07 +0000

smartconsumer09 is full of B/S. They pick out the accounts that pay on time and get the discounts to cancel. They love the ones that carry the large balances @ 22+% interest because they are greedy! I have been a customer of City Shell for 2 years, and always paid in time to get the 5% diccount. I filled my car on Oct 16, tried to use my card and was declined in front of several people that I knew. It was so embarassing. I called cust. service and was given the same song and dance. Six days later, I got a sheet of checks from another city card offering $23700.00 available to me. I checked my credit score at Equifax, and it was 775!

By: Emily Dibrell

Emily Dibrell — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:48:15 +0000

I haven't tried to use my Citibank ExxonMobil card in at least a month. I received my letter in the mail today stating that my account had been closed due to insufficient credit history? SERIOUSLY? I've only had the card since June but my credit is just fine! The highest it's ever been. I've never been late on my payment with them and always pay more than the minimum. I had three accounts under Citi. I paid off and closed 2 of them. This was the last. I will never open another account through them again!