If you’re like many people today and find yourself in a bind when you try to cash in on an American Express credit card, then you should consider taking a class action lawsuit against Citibank. The bank charges excessive fees and interest, even when a customer is paying off balance payments on a credit card account.
Many consumers who learn that they’ve been incorrectly charged extra foreign transaction fees will ask that they be repaid, but if the bank won’t, the consumer may have good cause for legal action. A California man sued Citibank last year after he found that he had been charged a 3 percent international transaction fee when he bought items online from an unauthorized merchant in Canada.
Class Action Lawsuit Against Citibank
The man, Hanh Tran, claimed that he paid $ Hortons International fee, as well as the CitiBank charge for the botched transaction. He is not alone; many other consumers have complained about this type of “charges” when they try to cash in on an American Express credit card at a participating retailer.
One group of disgruntled Americans are trying to make money by organizing class action lawsuits against financial institutions that do not allow for refunds on transactions made outside the United States. These cases are currently being heard in California.
The idea behind such a lawsuit is to let ordinary people get compensated financially for injuries sustained while traveling or living abroad as a result of Citibank’s negligence in allowing its card holders to incur these extra charges.
A class-action lawsuit is one in which more than a class of people are filing suits on behalf of all those who were affected. Such lawsuits are generally known as “class-action” suits, because the people filing them are all part of a legal lawsuit that was brought on behalf of those who were injured.
Citibank has already been the subject of a class action lawsuit filed by people claiming that the bank did not respond quickly enough to their complaints about high interest rates and other charges. Other cases have been brought against Citibank over its refusal to pay interests on loans that were made before the global recession began.
Now, if you’re looking into filing your own class-action lawsuit against Citibank, you may be thinking that it’s just too difficult to make things right on your own.
You worry that the long process of going through the litigation will drain your finances, or that you won’t be able to afford to hire a lawyer. You may also be worried about how to collect on any damages that you might be awarded, especially since the banking industry is notorious for hoarding money and repaying it with interest. While the details of any specific case differs from person to person, class-action lawsuits are designed to compensate those who have suffered injuries as a result of a Citibank mistake, even if they cannot afford to pay for attorney representation themselves.
If you would like to pursue a class action lawsuit against Citibank, then perhaps the best way to do so is to contact the consumer credit protection plan that was forced upon Citibank by the FDCPA (Federal Trade Commission).
The purpose of this plan was to protect consumers from having to pay out for their own financial woes. By having this plan in force, Citibank has promised to pay a specified amount of money to each class member in the event that they end up owing more on their credit cards than they could reasonably pay.
Basically, when you sign up for credit protection with Citibank, you automatically become a member of the credit card arbitration panel. Whenever you incur a debt, you are expected to immediately contact the credit card arbitrator and explain your circumstances.
If the arbitrator agrees with you, he may order the bank to pay you the amount in arrears plus interest, minus any applicable late fees.
You should then send a letter to Citibank informing them of the decision, which the company must comply with. If you are not a member of the credit protection plan, then the California law protects you from having to repay any costs and fees that you have been ordered to pay by the court. Therefore, if you signed up for the plan, then you need to ensure that you will continue to be paid for any costs that you have been ordered to pay.
If you were not a member of the plan, then you need to find out whether the court has ruled that the arbitration clause is unenforceable. If it is found to be unenforceable, then you can make a claim for damages against Citibank based on the public policy established under the statute.