But has that bill now been paid, one way or another? I would do it, then make an appt. with your local bank mgr. and tell him what happened, and ask him to intervene if possible. I DON'T think what happened is right (they're opening the acct. without your knowledge), but you need more 'senior' advice than the 'ground level' of telephone customer service is giving you. You need to write to Citibank's head offices, directing the mail to more senior admin. people if you can find out who they are, and/or get hold of a corporate lawyer who understands your urgency to intervene (at least talk to someone).

"Ideas?"

With your time frame, talking to Citi probably won't make a difference. Even if they tell the credit bureaus to remove the item, it won't reflect on your score in just a few days.

I think the best thing to do is talk to the mortgage broker and explain exactly what happened.

Try this - get your credit reports online at each of the 3 companies and file a dispute. I recently did this when an error showed up on 2 of my reports. One deleted the error within hours, the other in a couple of weeks. It's worth a try, easy to do, just give a very short and simple reason (like: I was not late, this is Citibanks error) - most likely it will be deleted. Won't hurt to try and your reports could be cleaned up within hours.

My only advice is to write letters to Citibank to close your accounts. And check back later to make sure they are "closed". Cancelling a credit card is not the same thing as closing an account.

When I finally did a credit check on myself, I was shocked to find "open" on a credit card account from 15 years ago, with 0 balance and 0 available credit and and all that, but still open. I was sure that after paying it off, I had cut up the card and mailed it to the bank with a letter to close the account, but who has proof of that handy after 15 years and 6 moves back & forth across the country?

I've since learned that it is incredibly difficult to erase credit. After I successfully closed an account with a credit union, some biennial auto-charge popped up that used that account, and rather than refusing to pay the auto-charge from a closed account, the credit union re-opened it and I didn't know a thing about it until I got new cards in the mail and a bill! Fortunately I had not moved during that timeframe and the mail was able to find me so that I could pay it off, close the account again, and turn off the auto-charge. Frustrating!

And registering those cards doesn't mean anything either. I've used those cards plenty of times with the activation sticker still attached because I forgot to call before I went on travel overseas.

I find it interesting that I got a phone call from my bank once to make sure everything was okay because my DH had paid a hotel bill near London. Yet, I've used my card in Italy, Hungary, and Spain all in one day and nothing from the bank. And then the next day in Germany. That just can't be normal tourist use of a credit card (I was flying military folks around and never missed a chance to shop for souvenirs in any foreign country!)

You should try talking to senior management as stated before, definitely paying the bill. Maybe they can write a letter stating what happened and that letter can be faxed your lender or to your mortgage company as an interim fix before your credit history is fixed. Be nice about it (and honest) and tell Citibank that you were very surprised that this happened since you never activated your card and therefore thought it was "inactive-- unable to be used". Don't be defensive, just worried. Tell them that you hope they can fix your credit as you enjoy banking with them, and that you have always has exemplery credit-- but now this 60 dollar/60 day late *ding* might cost you a major investment.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the ideas. I did pay the account off as soon as I saw the new credit report. Interestingly, the supervisor that I got in touch with on that initial phone call, credited me back with all of the late fees and indicated that they were indeed unjustified. He also told me that he thought that I wouldn't have any trouble getting the report fixed and to call back in a couple of days. I must have talked to at least 10 different people since then, most "supervisors" in one department or another, but in reality, none of them can do anything about this since it is now in the hands of the Credit Dispute Department.

Any ideas about how to get the names, phone numbers or addresses of "senior management"? I can't find anything online and I am usually pretty good about that kind of thing. (Once, after dinking around with Cingular customer service for days about replacing a brand new cell phone that died 3 days after I got it, I ended up getting the information and just calling Cingular's CEO at his HOME in Texas--had a new cell phone the next day with tons of apologies. hehehe) I am persistent, but feel like I've hit a brick wall.

Have left messages with a couple of attorney's this morning. And, I will dispute the info with each of the credit bureaus today.

Other ideas welcome!

Theresa

"I had NO possible way of knowing that this new account was "active" or that it had any balance on it, and no reason to check. This is the balance they reported as being 60 days late to the credit bureaus."

Didn't they send you a bill? If not, I think that should be your main contention against citibank.

If it didn't go to collections I'm surprised it resulted in such a large drop in your score. If it did go to collections not only would a 100 point drop be typical, it would stay there for seven years.

No, since I was signed up for online statements only, they did not send me any bill. Honestly, if I had registered the new card numbers online, the ones I cut up since I had no intention of using that new account, I could have seen that balance. But I had no reason to do that, since I'd decided not to use that account. AND, under the circumstances, I wasn't about to enter any other Citibank credit card numbers online. Based on the information Citibank provided about the online security breech, I did not want to risk anything, by having any further account information on the internet.

It has not gone to collections. The only other activity on our report is the inquiry from the refi. At the time that I got the "dinged" report, the refi was not closed, so that new account isn't even on there. I don't think the inquiry would result in a 100 point drop, either, but maybe the combination of the two?

Theresa

If you need more help, visit the credit board. It's a great forum with a lot of useful information.

Here is a link that might be useful: Credit Boards

online statements only,

They don't e-mail the statements to you? I thought that was what "online statements" meant, not that you had to go looking for them.

Good luck!

When there is fraud against the account, they will immediately close the existing account and reopen it with a new account number.

They will then transfer any existing balances over to the new card number.

If your last statement on the old card number did not show a transfer of $60, then their computers already redirected it to the new account. That could be a problem if the card number was already being abused, but it could have been something that didn't trigger their fraud department to investigate it (was it a repeat transaction or a pattern of spending in your account, etc...).

Just because you do not 'activate' the new cards doesn't mean that the account is closed. Activation allows you to use the cards at PoS terminals through the credit clearing houses.

So the disconnect was that when they changed your account number, they transfered your desire *not* to have statements sent through the mail... but by you not attaching the card number to your account at Citi, you would not have any notion that their was activity on your card.

Citi was generous to refund you the fees I think. I hope they are able to amend your credit reports in time.

So the moral of the story is: Never assume the business relationship is over unless you have a letter in your hand stating that your account has been closed either by Citi or by yourself.

You should dispute it thru the credit bureaus that reported this.
When I close an account, I write the letter, cut up the card/shred it tell them what I have done and request them to contact the 3 credit bureaus, listed each one, with my name, address, phone and account number. Then I send it so someone has to sign for it.
The credit bureaus are finally taking off some of the accounts we closed years ago--their is a time that most accounts have to show on the report, but they will say account closed by customer.

Talley Sue-- No, they don't email the statements to you. They DO email you a NOTICE that your online statement is ready to view and that you should log in to your account to view it. I did that religiously, and my balance always indicated $0. The information they were giving us, indicated that we should register the new cards online to activate the new account. I didn't want to activate the new account (or make myself vulnerable to another ID theft threat), so I didn't register the cards.

RKundla--There was not an existing balance on my original card. They did not transfer the $60 amount--it never posted to my original account at all. I DID get a letter in writing from Citibank that my original account had been closed, almost immediately after the security warning (Maybe even the same day). At that time, my outstanding balance was $0, and I continued to check it for several days afterward, as directed by Citibank, just to make sure. The original supervisor that I spoke with indicated that since I never signed up for online-only statements for that new account, then technically they should have been mailing them to me, which is why the late charges were refunded.

I've talked briefly with an attorney who feels confident he can fix this. I'll let you all know.

Theresa

Update: I was finally able to get in touch with a manager at Citibank in the right department. The negative information on my credit report has now been retracted. :)))

He indicated, that in fact, I did take the correct steps and that Citibank should have been sending paper statements since the new account was never registered online. He also said that others have had the same issue and that they are in the process of trying to correct the whole mess.

Anyway, FICO scores have been corrected, so back to home buying!

Thanks all for the suggestions,
Theresa

Congratulations, Theresa! That's great.