Citibank Ripoff Citibank deliberately reports over 7 years, and re-ages debts to sue pass statue of limitation in indivudual states. Sioux Falls South Dakota

Back in 2001 Citibank reported both my husband's and my accounts to Credit reporting agencies. My first name is a common Christian one, however my husband's name is not but is different. Our last name is obviously not an English name, but an Asian name. The person who reported my account to the credit bureaus had no intention of re-aging the debt. However when they came accross my husband's account and noticed his first and last name were not common American names they deliberately re-aged the debt when they should not have reported the default in the first place. The seven year period was already gone at the time the report came out.

In December 2002, Citi bank sent files of my husband's accounts through Attorney network. The attorney recieving the files did nothing until March 2003. My husband asked for all verification of debts, and disputed that he owed the money. By October the files suit in court. And by December 5th he recieved a default notice. He was never served. And according to records the sherrif went to our place when nobody was home, but never folowed service by certified first class mail. The default was removed.

My husband entered a cross claim against Citibank for a laundry list of Federal F.D.I.C violations, including charging interest, over the late fees, and over the limit fees when according to state law which they were incorporated, Citi bank should have "wrtten off" the accounts at six months of default, and not charged any interest or fees, as they are only to be charged upon a credit card as "Incident to the extension of Credit".

Since my husband no longer could use his credit card as prividleges were cut off, Citibank no longer could legally charge interest and all those fees. Furthermore, it meant "Charge off", and any monies paid toward the Principle would have to be used only to the Principle.

Citibank did not apply all the payments towards bring down the principle when they should have. This went on for another 3 years until l999. Since l999 was the last payment Citibank re-aged the debt by reporting to the Credit bureaus that the accounts are scheduled to continue on record until 2006.

Federal law prohibit extension of reporting time pass seven years because debitor has made a post charge off payment. Because the report of the default was on record by the time the lawyer got a hold of it, they were able to get judgement. Now we are fighting the battle again at our cost on appeal. And it's pretty steep. Just to appeal it cost 180 to file, and 540 for trial transcripts. All on a trial that should never have taken place, because technically my husband's file on him was suppose to have been wipped clean before the credit report came out in 2001.

Because of this Citibank was able to sue my husband based on a last payment 3 years over the six year right to sue statue of limitations. However, their lawyer never brought any renewed agreement promising to pay. So this is one thing which we can argue to reverse the judgement.

In court the witness claimed Citibank computers could only go back 7 years. However, they produced an extra 10 months of records on the bottom which according to testimony at the time of trial should not have been there. So their witness perjuried himself. And also the witness was new to Citibank in 2000, and not have any personal knowledge of the actual default time.

Citibank brough self-serving evidence that did not match dates of default in l994. they brought in a l994 agreement which at the time my husband had no credit card as they took away his rights to use the card. They brought no signed agreement from the l980's. they only brought in statements from Feb l996 to current date of trial which was Oct 2004. Like I said 10 months more then testimony about what the computers could pull from files.

During the trial the judge noticed no charges made on the credit card by my husband. Citibank's witness did not have an answer for that. All the charges on the evidence were illegal charges of interest, and fees since the accounts were suppose to be written off and the accounts closed.

The latest is that Citibank directly sent both my husband and myself apology letters for incorrectly reporting to credit bureaus. They stated they were sorry for any inconvience reporting to credit bureaus may have caused us. However, they did not sent an apology for suing my husband and winning in court 4 years past the S.O.L. for law suits in my state, nor sent an apology for reporting 4 years past the 7 year reporting period which got them the default judgement.

I want people to study their reports carefully. The facts are that the report can only go on for 7 years, then technically you are in the clear from lawsuits, providing the suit is not re-aged. You can generally tell how long the report is actually suppose to be there by the earliest default date on the report.

So if the default date begins in May l994, you know that the report is suppose to only continue on record and be a hassle to you up to May 2001. Any thing reported on your account pass May 2001 is re-aging the debt. Beware get it fixed right away and take the credit reporting agency to court right away or you may find yourself in a mess a few years down the road, way pass the S.O.L.

If you have no use of credit card because the bank cut off credit then remember you cannot be charged interest and fees without the extension of an open end credit card. Don't waste time file in court against any bank that does not follow the F.D.I.C. The F.D.I.C. protects American banking and it's depositors.

If the rules are not followed the F.D.I.C. will not be there to bail out the deposits as promiced because of breach of contract which these banks are getting away with. Everyone is at risk to loose their deposits should a banking institution go belly-up, regardless of F.D.I.C. insurance. F.D.I.C. can only protect deposits if the bank follows the sound banking rules laid down by these federal, and state laws.

If you think this is good let's discuss a class action. Let's fix our banking system now before it's too late.

Mary ann
Lowell, Massachusetts
U.S.A.

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