Citibank wants to charge me $50/yr to hold my money or $100 to close my account!

[tblue]

Anybody have any ideas? I tried to move my money back on 'the day' but the local bank told me they didn't want my business if I wasn't going to open a checking account. WTF. That one is Heritage Bank.

Looking for any input from anyone who's been through anything like this. I'm almost thinking it's worth it to pay the $100 and be rid of Citibank for life.

[Enrique]

1. explain the fee to close the account

it seems like they shouldn't be able to do that.

[onethatcares]

2. how can they do that?

small print modification in your banking information?

Seriously, I'd like to see that in print from the bank.

[Faux pas]

3. You have to pay to close your account? Never heard of anything

like that. Sounds illegal to me, but what do i know? Sorry to be no help at all :).

[Turbineguy]

4. Hmm.... well let's see

you've already told 178,000 people about it, maybe they would like you to tell more people about it. Is this the kind of advertizing they crave?

[demosincebirth]

5. Open a checking account...keep it a couple of months then write a check

for the balance

[SixthSense]

6. That sounds pretty sketchy to me

You should have gotten away from them a long time ago, but better late than never. You should never have to pay money to close a checking account though - that's very strange.

[dems_rightnow]

7. This is common if...

.... the account hasn't been open for 90 (sometimes 180) days. Not common at all if you've had it longer.

[tblue]

11. It's been open so long I'd forgotten about it.

It's just a little IRA I opened at a job I had years ago.

[FBaggins]

8. Was there a cash incentive to open the account?

And what kind of account are we talking about? An IRA perhaps?

[tblue]

12. It is an IRA. And it's not a lot of money. nt

[FarCenter]

15. Your best bet is to transfer it to another firm

Some receiving firms will pay for the closing fee imposed by the sending firm. This also simplifies the transaction, since there will be no tax withholding and no question that it is non-taxable, and that there is no early withdrawal penalty associated with the transaction.

If you are intending to take the money out of the IRA to spend, then I think you wind up paying the termination fee. $100 is not unusual for IRA accounts. If you are over 59 1/2 there will be no penalty, but if it is a traditional IRA, there may be income tax withholding.

[tblue]

16. Ok. Thanks.

I'm not that age yet but I was going to put it into another IRA. Honestly, this was an account with just a little money in it, and I had forgotten all about it. It's all of a sudden something I have to pay for. I pay THEM to keep my money! Dang, I'm in the wrong business.

Thanks, FarCenter. :hi:

[FBaggins]

17. That's what I figured. It isn't uncommon

Had it been a transaction account that was more than a year or so old, I would be surprised... but account closing fees on IRAs are getting more common. As are annual maintenance fees. There just isn't any money to be made otherwise.

If you don't mind my asking... how is it invested? Are we talking a savings account (savings/cd/etc) or an investment account (stocks/bonds/etc)? If the later, there are still discount brokerages that don't charge those types of fees... and if your balance is lower than what they're looking for you can often still avoid fees by setting up an ongoing monthly investment (even a small one) into the account.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. What about withdrawing all your money, leaving just $1.00 in your account?

I'm working on the $50 annual rent on your savings account? That sounds like you could challenge it via your state's division of banking.

[tblue]

14. Oh! I will check out the state thing.

Thank you for the tip!

[JCMach1]

18. The still may charge you $50 and try to collect

[Bozita]

10. They need that money to pay for their 2-5 mailings sent to me each week.

That's why us non-customers refer to them as ShittyBank.

[tblue]

13. Oh! I have one of those ENVELOPES!

Thanks for reminding me. Wonder if I've got some spare garbage around here somewhere.

[backscatter712]

19. Set up the account at the credit union...

Write a check for the entire balance of your Citibank account, and deposit it at the credit union.

Once it clears, then go close the account. They'll try to demand you pay up for closing, but at that point, you can just give them the middle finger.

Sure they'll ding your credit rating, but these days, that's not as much of a handicap as they'd like you to think.