This CAN'T be legal! Can it??????

[Beeheery]

OK,
I have an account with Citibank that had an original balance of 3500.00 or close to it. Anyways, I have been getting letters each month from the collection agency it was sent to and there were always a late fees/misc fees added to the previous month balance. My last letter from the collection agency said my balance was 3974.80. So anyways....I got a letter from them Friday, didn't open it until now, and it says my balance is over 8K!!!! It is for the SAME account # but it is a different collection agency now. Is this legal??? My balance jumped over 50% in one month! I mean, I am worried because my balances were around 30k when I defaulted and now its way over 50k with this new bill. Is this allowed? I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I am afraid I am going to be like 100k in the hole when I file and I was nowhere close to that when I stopped paying my bills last year. If anyone has had this happen or knows if it is legal/illegal, please tell me cause I'm freaking out!

[freshstartfl]

Ask them to verify the debt and show how they came up with that figure.

[queenfluff]

Hey there,

I don't know about the collection agency deal. I think that they can pass your account over to other ca's but not sure on that. I haven't been in collections before so I am not sure about how it works.

But I am just answering your post because I have had a few odd issues with Citibank lately myself - not in balances but Citibank had some security breach issues with some of their accounts. They issued me a new card. My account didn't seem to be compromised by someone else but there were some that were which was why they issued me a new card with a different number. Actually I think it was mostly a Mastercard issue and not necessary a Citibank one. This was just this past week that my new card and account number was issued.

I am just wondering if someone got a hold of your account number and has been using it to charge stuff. You might want to check on this is your account is still active and it is still able to be used.

Only saying this because that sounds like a ridiculously high jump.

Is your account with Citibank still open and can you check your charges online or something? Otherwise, if you know what you charged on there, call Customer Service to check.

I do know that Citibank has been jacking up their rates pretty badly lately. But I owe them three times as much as you do and mine didn't go up that high to merit an increase like you just got.

[albacore44]

Send them a Debt verification letter. They will probably send it back to Citibank and you wont hear from that Ca again. You can find out how in the Collections forum

[Beeheery]

Nope. Its been closed down for months and months and months. I even think it says charged off on my account and it was with one credit agency this whole time until this new letter with the 50% increase. I don't want to call Citi cause i think it is out of their hands now and i certainly dont want to call the credit agency cause then they will be calling my house a million times a day. it was funny though because it said they would settle for 60% of the 8k debt which is more than the original debt! maybe its their stupid way of trying to make me think i am getting a deal or something???

[queenfluff]

Nope. Its been closed down for months and months and months. I even think it says charged off on my account and it was with one credit agency this whole time until this new letter with the 50% increase. I don't want to call Citi cause i think it is out of their hands now and i certainly dont want to call the credit agency cause then they will be calling my house a million times a day. it was funny though because it said they would settle for 60% of the 8k debt which is more than the original debt! maybe its their stupid way of trying to make me think i am getting a deal or something???

Well that is good at least you don't have to worry about that. I don't have any other advice to give you but if you want to find out where that extra debt came from you might have to call them. If you haven't been using the account since it is closed, there has to be a reason this happened. Citibank can't charge you anymore fees to add to your bill right? Do you have any other accounts that might go to collections? Maybe they are all combined at the same place or something?

(maybe you might want to post this under the Collections Forum - someone might have better answer for you there)

Let us know when you find out what happened though.

[StartingOver08]

This is typical CA overcharges. They add on fees and interest and more fees. Remember this, when you file you get rid of the entire debt. In the long term, it does not matter if you file on Citi with $3500 or $8000, it is the same result, the debt will be discharged.

What you are going to want to do though is keep the letter so you can list the debt as Citi and then list the CA that has it. Put both in the petition and on your matrix.

[Flamingo]

You had better ask for a breakdown of your account ASAP cause nothing can cause a $4,000 jump in one month in one's account with fees only - either you charged something or took cash advances that are just showing up or someone is using your account.

[Beeheery]

Haven't touched a card since Dec 07. Don't even have any. Cut them all up. Only have my debit. All my charging priviledges would revoked in Feb 08. I am going to wait till I get another letter and see if maybe it was a typo. If it is the same or more, i guess i have no choice but to call. I just dont want the trustee asking me how in the hell i racked up so much debt when it wasnt even close to that amount when I stopped paying.