A Citi Heads Up Email

[cousinlucky]

I received a " heads up " email recently about a new checking account policy!

Citigroup Warns Customers It May Refuse To Allow Withdrawals

John Carney | Feb. 19, 2010, 2:57 PM

The image of banks locking their doors to keep customers
from making withdrawals during a bank run is what
immediately came to mind when we heard that Citigroup was
telling customers it has the right to prevent any
withdrawals from checking accounts for seven days.
"Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require
(7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from
all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise
this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are
required by law to notify you of this change," Citigroup
said on statements received by customers all over the
country.

What's going on? It seems that this is something of an
error. The seven day notice policy only applies to customers
in Texas, Ira Stoll reports at The Future of Capitalism. It
was accidentally included on customer statements nationwide.

"Whatever the explanation, it doesn't exactly inspire
confidence in Citi," Stoll writes. "But it's hard to believe
a bank would be sending out a notice like that on its
statements."

[Lazydog]

What, is citibank going to be the next big bank to fall and as word gets out they're going to try and stop people from getting their money? I cannot believe that such a statement would be legal anywhere in the US. This is getting real annoying. Seems the banks have more control over our money then we do.

[cousinlucky]

When my local bank was consumed by a bigger bank all of the " free " accounts disappeared. The real big banks like Citi and Chase are nit-picking their depositors in every way possible.

If a bank can " hold " your money for a week or two they can use your money, and everyone else's, to " speculate " with it before they let you, and the other depositors, use it to pay your bills. They can also charge you a fee for " insufficient funds " if you write a check on money that the bank has not yet determined " available "!!

My relatives in the banking industry all tell me it is just going to get worse!!

[Lazydog]

Banks are holding us over a barrel and they know they can get away with it. This is where the government should step in and regulate them.

[scathefire]

They had their chance, and dropped the ball in an effort to compromise with the other political powers. They should have dog-eared regulations along with accepting the bailout money.

[cousinlucky]

Please, gentlemen, bringing " politics " into this thread will get it justifiably locked by the moderators.

If any LF members are customers of Citibank, Chase, etc ( all of the really big big banks ) this thread is just a heads up that it would be very wise to bank somewhere else before the commercial real estate market tanks and these banks go under!!

[scathefire]

sorry guys, i got carried away. not to mention i'm having a craptastic server migration at the moment.

[benjamin20]

i use vystar credit union, (in florida). i dont make much money, i just need someplace to give me a debit card and take my employments direct deposit pay checks. i love credit unions, before i had bank of america, terrible ******* place, if you go to a branch to talk to them about their asinine debit and credit charge withholding policy,(they would hold any charge after like 6pm thursday all the way untill monday night and then blast them all through at once, making it impossible to account for how much money you had in your account exactly, plus you couldn't see credit charges in the online bank section.

honestly if you can make due with a credit union, do it, they aren't all about stealing your money.