Citibank To Impose $20 Fees On Certain Customers

Citibank will charge some customers up to $20 per month for low account balances starting later this year, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Starting in December, the bank will charge customers of its Easy Checking Package, previously a free service, $15 per month if an account's checking and saving balance does not total a minimum of $6,000, according to the LAT. Citibank also will charge customers of its mid-level Citi Account package $20 per month for a combined account balance of less than $15,000, an increase from $6,000, starting in November, according to the LAT.

These fees follow Citibank's announcement in September that it would charge Basic Checking customers $10 per month on checking and savings accounts with a combined balance of less than $1,500.

Citibank emphasized in an interview with The Huffington Post that most customers can switch to Basic Checking if they would like to avoid fees, so long as they maintain a minimum $1,500 balance. The bank also noted that Basic Checking customers with less than $1,500 in their accounts can avoid paying the fee by making "one direct deposit and one online bill payment during each monthly statement period."

These are the latest in a slew of new fees by major banks that say they are struggling to raise revenue because of new regulations that limit the amount of money they can gain from overdraft fees and debit-card swipe fees, among others.

Bank of America recently announced that it plans to charge its debit card users $5 per month starting early next year. Wells Fargo will start charging debit card users $3 per month this fall.

JPMorgan Chase tested ATM fees for non-network customers earlier this year, charging $5 in Illinois and $4 in Texas, but they ultimately ended the plan. The banks Regions Financial Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc. have decided to charge $4 and $5 per month, respectively, for some of their debit card users, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Comments

[Hugo Stiglitz1]

08:20 PM on 10/10/2011

'Certain Customers' = poor customers... "if an account's checking and saving balance does not total a minimum of $6,000"....
where I come from if your maintaining a six grand balance your doing pretty good...

[Stay Up Shabazz]

08:15 PM on 10/06/2011

Well I guess it's back to fish tanks, shoebox's and mattress for some peopl

[Tayofthe99]

06:46 PM on 10/06/2011

'...most customers can switch to Basic Checking if they would like to avoid fees, so long as they maintain a minimum $1,500 balance.

lololololololololollololoolololololololoollololololololololoolololololololololololololololollolololololololloloololololololololol *wheeeeze* *coughcough* LOLolo0l0olololololololololololololololololololololol....

Why do people still use with these corporate banks ... :-/ Anyone? Anyone? Anyone at all.

[anastasi]

01:28 PM on 10/06/2011

How about cutting executive bonuses instead of screwing customers? I think I'll start putting my money in a mattress, it pays better interest!

[maddogjohnson]

04:11 PM on 10/05/2011

Burn them to the ground.

[maddogjohnson]

04:10 PM on 10/05/2011

Yet again banks and wall street sticking it to the people who have the least. Bastirds.

[Lew Jones]

02:55 PM on 10/05/2011

I just have to ask, if we think these banks wonder why they are losing customers? They couldn't make this announcement today and expect that this notice be a net gain for them could they?

[NPank501]

02:13 PM on 10/05/2011

By common sense, you would think that if someone keeps low balances most likely do not have $20 to spend on bank fee. HALLOOO!!! Well, that's I guess capitalistic rule...charge people that do not have much so we can charge them even more if the fees we are charging will overdraft their accounts. This is it, I'm going to go back to an old fashion way - MATTRESS!!!

[NYCBri]

12:31 PM on 10/05/2011

This is class warfare. The pay for the board members, ceo's, cfos, and other managers is skyrocketing. Where is the money coming from? Its being vacuumed up from the poor and middle class. Redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich.

Demand from the majority is the foundation of the US economy. All these fees and costs, the increasing cost of health care, rent, mortgages, food, utilities, gas prices, basically everything eats away at the available money that effectuates demand and runs the economy. The wealthy 1% now control 50% of the wealth but do NOT provide the corresponding demand needed to keep the economy going.

Destroy the foundation and the rest comes tumbling down.

[mjredder]

12:00 PM on 10/05/2011

Say it with me now... CREDIT UNIONS! Credit unions don't pull these fee hikes and other nonsense that banks use to rake in their unearned billions. It's YOUR money, stop making it work for the big banks instead and switch to a credit union.

[quindy]

01:42 PM on 10/05/2011

Do you have any experience with credit unions? Did you have any negative experiences?

[mjredder]

03:10 PM on 10/05/2011

I have experience using the Pentagon Federal Credit Union, and I have ZERO complaints. Free checking accounts, online banking, credit card (ridiculously low APR, compared to others, and hasn't risen since I got the card years ago), auto loan (again, lower APR than average).

Or perhaps consider online banking at places like ING Direct or E*Trade. E*Trade I know refunds any ATM fees you might incur because they don't own any of their own machines. Because of that, the refund any fee you might get for using any ATM.

There are a lot of other options besides these big banks. Time to, as the Dem Senator said, vote with our feet and move our money somewhere else!

[h23154]

11:01 AM on 10/05/2011

Here is how it works. Every account regardless of size costs the bank a some minimum amount to maintain. If an account is so small that what the bank can earn from the account is less than the cost of maintaining the account, so that the per account costs of larger accounts pay for other accounts that can not pay to be maintained. Lots of banks charge small account fees because they are otherwise losses on the bottom line. I get the idea that around here having some depositors pay other peoples' bill is considered the thing to do. It would be like charging for a hamburger according to the customers' balance sheets.

[NYCBri]

12:38 PM on 10/05/2011

Given the profits these banks already make, they can eat the cost. They simply choose not to. They want to reward their board members, management, ceo's etc more and more millions. They can only justify that with more profits. So they charge fees like this on the poor and middle class. This is wealth redistribution from the poor to the rich. Class warfare never stopped; it just became a dirty word. The rich are winning. Unfortunately, its an unsustainable path considering our economy runs on demand from the multitudes. All the increasing costs, fees, mortgage issues, gas costs, health care costs, education debt, etc not to mention the unemployment is eating away at the foundation of the economy. The rich never pick up the corresponding demand needed. Instead, they horde the their money. This inevitably leads to economic collapse.

[h23154]

01:28 PM on 10/05/2011

"inevitably" is quite a statement since you can never be wrong. The amounts they are talking about are not that enormous and if someone does not have that much they probably don't need a bank and can use cash. If they want the services and convenience of a bank, then expect not to be able to tell others to pay for them but excuse you. On the other hand, all of these who think this is the end of the world and will lead t "inevitable economic collapse, just start a wholly non-profit bank You will get tens of millions of customers fleeing from these rapacious fees of as much as 0.2% of their accounts.

[Changeover]

01:30 PM on 10/05/2011

So saving money is a crime?  Depression not hitting hard enough I take it.

[Sraige]

01:16 PM on 10/14/2011

I meant to reply, not to mark it as my favorite comment. Anyway.
Here is how it works.
The banks take our money small accounts, big accounts, all of them go into one pool. Money gets recycled by lending it back to the same customers, except with interest. Another part of it gets invested, shuffled, played with, all actions taken to make the profits. WITH YOUR MONEY, INTEREST FREE. It's not about whether banks can afford to maintain the accounts. IT'S ABOUT GREED and it's a global trend.

[Bowie Cat Cat]

05:02 AM on 10/05/2011

I haven't been with any bank in about 7 years... I've never trusted banks....

[MOTurkeyLeg]

02:25 PM on 10/05/2011

Not all banks are bad. Just go to a local bank or a credit union. They'll take care of you, unlike BofA or any of the other mega banks. To them, it's all about screwing you over to maximize profit.

[parrotfish]

09:24 PM on 10/04/2011

This banks customers must be really, really stupid to stick with them...so they deserve being charged loan shark fees.

[lvdragonlady]

07:45 PM on 10/04/2011

Discrimination!!!

[terry63]

03:30 PM on 10/04/2011

Could someone PLEASE, keep Frank, Dodd and Durban away from the banks. How bad do you need to screw up in Washington, in order to be removed? Stop fixing the problem! Your the problem! Go ahead folks and blame the banks, move your money. The banks are out to make a profit. Nobody goes into buisness to lose money. Washington has already tanked the banks once this decade and now thanks to the Frank, Dodd bill. The banks will simply pass the cost on to you. They dont get that in Washington . They never have figured out how that works.

[Changeover]

01:33 PM on 10/05/2011

Durbins amendment caused the fees and now he is crying like he is the victim.  Stones lyrics Sympathy for the devil is what he sounds like.

[quindy]

01:46 PM on 10/05/2011

I disagree. I remember the days when we used to get decent interest on our savings. These days - close to zero! On top of it we are burdened with fees and charges. Something's very wrong here.

[maddogjohnson]

04:19 PM on 10/05/2011

Yes and it's called gopers, baggers banks and wallstreet. Or republicans for short.