OH MY GOD the IRS and Citibank
09-26-2008, 09:21 AM
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OK, so I'm a dumbass, but I thought a 0% interest rate was good reason to pay my taxes on my credit card last April by using a credit card convenience check as I had some short term investments that were doing well and I wanted to see if I could eke a little more profit out of them before I cashed out & paid the IRS.
So I called Citibank, told them my plan and asked if I could use credit card checks for that and if it would quality for the 0% interest rate. I was told yes and they sent the checks to me. Now what they failed to tell me & what I didn't know because until that point I had never used a credit card check before, was that your credit line is not really your credit line when it comes to writing checks. They consider those to be a "cash advance" and only allow you a portion of your total credit line. So the long and short of it is that my check to the IRS bounced due to inadequate credit line on my credit card cash advance line.
As soon as I found that out I paid the IRS out of pocket and went on with it. I thought it was case-closed, right? WRONG!
Now all of a sudden 6 months later that check has billed onto my credit card. Citibank evidently decided I was credit-worthy so they increased my cash advance line, and when the IRS recently re-presented the check, it cleared and is sitting on my account. I discovered this on Monday 9/15 when I woke up early and decided to log on to all of our bank accounts and credit cards to just see what's what. As soon as I saw the charge from 8/26 I immediately I knew what it was because of the dollar amount and because it said "check" for the description.
So I called Citibank to dispute it because the IRS is paid in full and I don't owe them anything. The guy I talked to said that was fine after I explained what had happened and said he was putting it into dispute status and that they would send me a dispute form. Later that morning I called the IRS after they opened to find out why they had re-presented the check for payment. Basically I was told that their system does not check a person's account status before re-presenting an NSF check, it just goes through automatically. This is a billion dollar revenue system we're talking about here, and it's that unsophisticated! But I rested easy knowing that Citibank had my back and that they would sort it out.
Today when I logged on to my Citibank account I saw that the $3862 is still sitting in my open transactions and there's no mention anywhere of a dispute so I decided to call and make sure everything is ok. I was put through to a manager who basically told me that I am SOL. She said that with a check the protections offered to customers are not as robust as when you purchase with the actual card. She said that since I wrote the check I am not allowed to dispute it. It doesn't matter that they are re-presenting a check for a balance that I no longer owe for! Furthermore, access checks begin accruing interest from the date they bill to your account and mine bill at 19.99%. So I've got daily interest since 8/26 at 19.99% annually (which is about $2 per day). When I got upset about the fact that the dude on the 15th had not explained this to me and that I had burned up 10 days of interest because of Citibank's failure to explain this to me she was completely unsympathetic and said that I was certainly welcome to ask about whether or not they would refund the interest once the balance was paid off but that she didn't know since I did write the check. Furthermore, she had the gall to correct me and say that it had not been two weeks since I called, but 10 days.
When I asked her if the convenience check could be converted to the 0% interest program that was available when the check was written she said no because that period had expired.
I've already submitted an electronic payment to Citibank to pay the $3862 and have now been on hold with the IRS for 30 minutes trying to get through to them and get them to issue a refund to me for my double payment. God knows how long that's going to take!
Okay, vent over. Lesson? NEVER EVER use credit card convenience checks.
So I called Citibank, told them my plan and asked if I could use credit card checks for that and if it would quality for the 0% interest rate. I was told yes and they sent the checks to me. Now what they failed to tell me & what I didn't know because until that point I had never used a credit card check before, was that your credit line is not really your credit line when it comes to writing checks. They consider those to be a "cash advance" and only allow you a portion of your total credit line. So the long and short of it is that my check to the IRS bounced due to inadequate credit line on my credit card cash advance line.
As soon as I found that out I paid the IRS out of pocket and went on with it. I thought it was case-closed, right? WRONG!
Now all of a sudden 6 months later that check has billed onto my credit card. Citibank evidently decided I was credit-worthy so they increased my cash advance line, and when the IRS recently re-presented the check, it cleared and is sitting on my account. I discovered this on Monday 9/15 when I woke up early and decided to log on to all of our bank accounts and credit cards to just see what's what. As soon as I saw the charge from 8/26 I immediately I knew what it was because of the dollar amount and because it said "check" for the description.
So I called Citibank to dispute it because the IRS is paid in full and I don't owe them anything. The guy I talked to said that was fine after I explained what had happened and said he was putting it into dispute status and that they would send me a dispute form. Later that morning I called the IRS after they opened to find out why they had re-presented the check for payment. Basically I was told that their system does not check a person's account status before re-presenting an NSF check, it just goes through automatically. This is a billion dollar revenue system we're talking about here, and it's that unsophisticated! But I rested easy knowing that Citibank had my back and that they would sort it out.
Today when I logged on to my Citibank account I saw that the $3862 is still sitting in my open transactions and there's no mention anywhere of a dispute so I decided to call and make sure everything is ok. I was put through to a manager who basically told me that I am SOL. She said that with a check the protections offered to customers are not as robust as when you purchase with the actual card. She said that since I wrote the check I am not allowed to dispute it. It doesn't matter that they are re-presenting a check for a balance that I no longer owe for! Furthermore, access checks begin accruing interest from the date they bill to your account and mine bill at 19.99%. So I've got daily interest since 8/26 at 19.99% annually (which is about $2 per day). When I got upset about the fact that the dude on the 15th had not explained this to me and that I had burned up 10 days of interest because of Citibank's failure to explain this to me she was completely unsympathetic and said that I was certainly welcome to ask about whether or not they would refund the interest once the balance was paid off but that she didn't know since I did write the check. Furthermore, she had the gall to correct me and say that it had not been two weeks since I called, but 10 days.
When I asked her if the convenience check could be converted to the 0% interest program that was available when the check was written she said no because that period had expired.
I've already submitted an electronic payment to Citibank to pay the $3862 and have now been on hold with the IRS for 30 minutes trying to get through to them and get them to issue a refund to me for my double payment. God knows how long that's going to take!
Okay, vent over. Lesson? NEVER EVER use credit card convenience checks.
09-26-2008, 09:35 AM
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Originally Posted by bimmerlust' post='679059' date='Sep 26 2008, 01:21 PM
OK, so I'm a dumbass, but I thought a 0% interest rate was good reason to pay my taxes on my credit card last April by using a credit card convenience check as I had some short term investments that were doing well and I wanted to see if I could eke a little more profit out of them before I cashed out & paid the IRS.
So I called Citibank, told them my plan and asked if I could use credit card checks for that and if it would quality for the 0% interest rate. I was told yes and they sent the checks to me. Now what they failed to tell me & what I didn't know because until that point I had never used a credit card check before, was that your credit line is not really your credit line when it comes to writing checks. They consider those to be a "cash advance" and only allow you a portion of your total credit line. So the long and short of it is that my check to the IRS bounced due to inadequate credit line on my credit card cash advance line.
As soon as I found that out I paid the IRS out of pocket and went on with it. I thought it was case-closed, right? WRONG!
Now all of a sudden 6 months later that check has billed onto my credit card. Citibank evidently decided I was credit-worthy so they increased my cash advance line, and when the IRS recently re-presented the check, it cleared and is sitting on my account. I discovered this on Monday 9/15 when I woke up early and decided to log on to all of our bank accounts and credit cards to just see what's what. As soon as I saw the charge from 8/26 I immediately I knew what it was because of the dollar amount and because it said "check" for the description.
So I called Citibank to dispute it because the IRS is paid in full and I don't owe them anything. The guy I talked to said that was fine after I explained what had happened and said he was putting it into dispute status and that they would send me a dispute form. Later that morning I called the IRS after they opened to find out why they had re-presented the check for payment. Basically I was told that their system does not check a person's account status before re-presenting an NSF check, it just goes through automatically. This is a billion dollar revenue system we're talking about here, and it's that unsophisticated! But I rested easy knowing that Citibank had my back and that they would sort it out.
Today when I logged on to my Citibank account I saw that the $3862 is still sitting in my open transactions and there's no mention anywhere of a dispute so I decided to call and make sure everything is ok. I was put through to a manager who basically told me that I am SOL. She said that with a check the protections offered to customers are not as robust as when you purchase with the actual card. She said that since I wrote the check I am not allowed to dispute it. It doesn't matter that they are re-presenting a check for a balance that I no longer owe for! Furthermore, access checks begin accruing interest from the date they bill to your account and mine bill at 19.99%. So I've got daily interest since 8/26 at 19.99% annually (which is about $2 per day). When I got upset about the fact that the dude on the 15th had not explained this to me and that I had burned up 10 days of interest because of Citibank's failure to explain this to me she was completely unsympathetic and said that I was certainly welcome to ask about whether or not they would refund the interest once the balance was paid off but that she didn't know since I did write the check. Furthermore, she had the gall to correct me and say that it had not been two weeks since I called, but 10 days.
When I asked her if the convenience check could be converted to the 0% interest program that was available when the check was written she said no because that period had expired.
I've already submitted an electronic payment to Citibank to pay the $3862 and have now been on hold with the IRS for 30 minutes trying to get through to them and get them to issue a refund to me for my double payment. God knows how long that's going to take!
Okay, vent over. Lesson? NEVER EVER use credit card convenience checks.
So I called Citibank, told them my plan and asked if I could use credit card checks for that and if it would quality for the 0% interest rate. I was told yes and they sent the checks to me. Now what they failed to tell me & what I didn't know because until that point I had never used a credit card check before, was that your credit line is not really your credit line when it comes to writing checks. They consider those to be a "cash advance" and only allow you a portion of your total credit line. So the long and short of it is that my check to the IRS bounced due to inadequate credit line on my credit card cash advance line.
As soon as I found that out I paid the IRS out of pocket and went on with it. I thought it was case-closed, right? WRONG!
Now all of a sudden 6 months later that check has billed onto my credit card. Citibank evidently decided I was credit-worthy so they increased my cash advance line, and when the IRS recently re-presented the check, it cleared and is sitting on my account. I discovered this on Monday 9/15 when I woke up early and decided to log on to all of our bank accounts and credit cards to just see what's what. As soon as I saw the charge from 8/26 I immediately I knew what it was because of the dollar amount and because it said "check" for the description.
So I called Citibank to dispute it because the IRS is paid in full and I don't owe them anything. The guy I talked to said that was fine after I explained what had happened and said he was putting it into dispute status and that they would send me a dispute form. Later that morning I called the IRS after they opened to find out why they had re-presented the check for payment. Basically I was told that their system does not check a person's account status before re-presenting an NSF check, it just goes through automatically. This is a billion dollar revenue system we're talking about here, and it's that unsophisticated! But I rested easy knowing that Citibank had my back and that they would sort it out.
Today when I logged on to my Citibank account I saw that the $3862 is still sitting in my open transactions and there's no mention anywhere of a dispute so I decided to call and make sure everything is ok. I was put through to a manager who basically told me that I am SOL. She said that with a check the protections offered to customers are not as robust as when you purchase with the actual card. She said that since I wrote the check I am not allowed to dispute it. It doesn't matter that they are re-presenting a check for a balance that I no longer owe for! Furthermore, access checks begin accruing interest from the date they bill to your account and mine bill at 19.99%. So I've got daily interest since 8/26 at 19.99% annually (which is about $2 per day). When I got upset about the fact that the dude on the 15th had not explained this to me and that I had burned up 10 days of interest because of Citibank's failure to explain this to me she was completely unsympathetic and said that I was certainly welcome to ask about whether or not they would refund the interest once the balance was paid off but that she didn't know since I did write the check. Furthermore, she had the gall to correct me and say that it had not been two weeks since I called, but 10 days.
When I asked her if the convenience check could be converted to the 0% interest program that was available when the check was written she said no because that period had expired.
I've already submitted an electronic payment to Citibank to pay the $3862 and have now been on hold with the IRS for 30 minutes trying to get through to them and get them to issue a refund to me for my double payment. God knows how long that's going to take!
Okay, vent over. Lesson? NEVER EVER use credit card convenience checks.
09-26-2008, 09:41 AM
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Wow ...that is a horrible experience. Those convenience checks can be very dangerous because there are soo many catches....I think they know exactly what they are doing though and they are hoping that they catch you somehow so they can make extra money. I think sometimes the folks in customer service at the CC companies forget that they are actually speaking to one of their customers and need to be a little more mindful(respectful) of that. Hopefully you get it all worked out. Good luck.
09-26-2008, 09:57 AM
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UPDATE: After being on hold for 45 minutes and waiting another 40 minutes while the IRS agent researched my account, the bad news is the the convenience check did not credit to my tax account and they have no idea whose account it credited to. I'm now calling Citibank to try to get a copy of the front and back of the checks so that we can see what account numbers are stamped on it.
This is absolutely insane and my stomach is in complete knots.
This is absolutely insane and my stomach is in complete knots.
09-26-2008, 11:53 AM
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My Ride: 2007 530i. Purchased 6/28/07. Titanium Silver Metallic, Black Dakota Leather, Dark Poplar Trim, Steptronic, Premium Package, Cold Weather Package, Bluetooth, Adaptive Control Xenons. 10/30/07 Added OEM 124s with 245/40/18 & 275/35/18 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires. Installed red Cal Covers� from BavAuto. 11/21/07 Added OEM all-weather floor mats (for winter, carpet in summer) and coat rack. 6/26/08 installed M5-style rear spoiler. 6/30/08 put on red reflectors. 8/22/08 Euro turn signal stickers applied. 3/20/09 Installed Shadowline Trim. 3/27/09 Added Matte Black Kidney Grilles from Trinity. 4/03/09 Installed Bimmian Shadow Matte Black 530i Badges. 4/04/09 Installed LED license plate lights from Trinity. 5/01/09 Installed Brabus Interior LED Kit and White Angel Eyes. 5/02/09 Put in Brabus 6K Fogs. 5/14/09 Removed charcoal filter. 5/15/09 Installed light smoke LED side marker lamps from Trinity. 5/21/09 Sprint Booster. 6/12/09 Painted exhaust tips flat black. 6/13/09 Pulled red Cal Covers and painted calipers low gloss black. 6/27/09 RPI Ram Air Scoop from Trinity. 8/15/09 Installed Brabus's silver invisibulbs front and rear. 9/24/09 Installed R-Dash license plate LEDs from Brabaus (John).
Originally Posted by bimmerlust' post='679105' date='Sep 26 2008, 12:57 PM
UPDATE: After being on hold for 45 minutes and waiting another 40 minutes while the IRS agent researched my account, the bad news is the the convenience check did not credit to my tax account and they have no idea whose account it credited to. I'm now calling Citibank to try to get a copy of the front and back of the checks so that we can see what account numbers are stamped on it.
This is absolutely insane and my stomach is in complete knots.
This is absolutely insane and my stomach is in complete knots.
09-26-2008, 11:56 AM
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Originally Posted by bimmerlust' post='679105' date='Sep 26 2008, 01:57 PM
UPDATE: After being on hold for 45 minutes and waiting another 40 minutes while the IRS agent researched my account, the bad news is the the convenience check did not credit to my tax account and they have no idea whose account it credited to. I'm now calling Citibank to try to get a copy of the front and back of the checks so that we can see what account numbers are stamped on it.
This is absolutely insane and my stomach is in complete knots.
This is absolutely insane and my stomach is in complete knots.
09-26-2008, 01:15 PM
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Originally Posted by 530ISPORT' post='679223' date='Sep 26 2008, 03:56 PM
it figuers... the irs sucks.. you would think they would be on top of things like this.. just goes to show us whats going on in the U.S..
09-26-2008, 08:18 PM
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Originally Posted by moschse' post='679271' date='Sep 26 2008, 04:15 PM
I'm a CPA, and deal w/ the IRS often. They essentially have monkeys opening the mail and processing the "paper"...its terrible, but thats why they are pushing efiling. Sorry to hear of your issue. I hope all goes well.
There's a lot of truths to the above statement.Thanks for the lessons learned.
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