Consumer has PRISM/CBSD on her

Does anyone know of a current suit or a lawyer willing to take these cases? I'd like to get involved

I had the same situation happen to my credit report. I've been trying to figure this out since October. I googled this information and also came across this blog. Had it not been for this blog I would never had figured out how this got on my credit score. I had an old Gordon's Jewelers credit card that was randomly upgraded to the citibank mastercard. Frank from citibank was kind enough to explain how it happened and also explained that the card was closed in October the very same month my disputes had been submitted. Thanks guys

Thanks for this site! My situation was not connected to a Macy's acct but related to a Citi Diamond acct which I had not used in quite some time. Citi Diamond closed my acct, without notice, and then opened a NEW acct with Citi Mastercard without my consent. When I called the Citi Diamond number they gave me a wrong number and had it not been for the blog I would not have been able to find the correct number 1-866-510-2761. Thanks Again

I did receive the 'opt out' letter from Macy's...did not respond to it...and now see that prism/cbsd has appeared on my credit report. I agree with many of you, that 'opt out' letter was BS and I am surprised that it is even legal.

Well, Citibank is STILL doing the same thing. My fraud alert monitor recently notified me by email that a new acct. was opened in my name - & just like many of you, I was on the phone for quite a while investigating, only to find out that it was my old Macy's account bought out by Citibank w/ which they reopened the acct. in my name as a Citibank Mastercard, & with a very high limit, much higher than I'd ever had w/ Macy's. Their customer service rep told me an "opt out" letter had been mailed to me 6 months ago & since I never responded they went ahead & opened this account. I'm so angry, this is such an unethical practice, I cannot believe this practice would not be considered illegal!

Macy's - converted to CitiBank----they mailed a letter, which people surly believed to be junk mail...

So I probably won't be doing business with them EVER -- many banks to do business with --- AMEX rules......

I recieved the same alert from Experian. I called Citibank who confirmed Citibank bought all old inactive Macy's cards and sent out new active Citibank cards

Thanks for providing the toll free number. That definitely saved me a lot of hassle time in investigating how a new account was activated without my permission when I was checking the credit bureau reports.

Thanks for providing the toll free number. That definitely saved me a lot of hassle time in investigating how a new account was activated without my permission when I was checking the credit bureau reports.

I'm so glad I found this forum! Thank you for posting all of this helpful information. I too realized that I had a new credit card account opened without my knowledge or authorization when my MyFico Scorewatch sent me an update on my credit score, which showed it went down. I then pulled my credit report to find out what Credit Card this was - I thought someone was maybe using my name or SS#, but no it was a scheme thought up by Citibank and Macys executives to drum up more business in these economic times. I typed in the info provided on my credit report: Citibank USA NA/CCSMC-SPEC and I came to this forum. I then called the number that "Frusterated" provided: 1-866-533-5440 to close the account (which also closes your Macys account as well). The representative was very defensive and rude on the phone defending Citibank and Macys saying that I should have received a letter in the mail informing me of this "Upgrade" and it was my fault that I did reply by the cut-off date. This is completely unethical for them to authorize an upgrade without my authorization - I can't believe they are getting away with this! Where is the oversight and regulation of these big companies trying to pull one over on the public. It is just getting worse and worse - they think they can do whatever they want - and it looks like they can! I am glad I closed my Macys account and I will certainly write a letter to the Macys credit department explaining my thoughts and I suggest we all do the same and think twice before shopping at Macys when they are plently of local shop owners who conduct business honestly and ethically.

I had a similar experience trying to get an account number when neither my card nor statement were available. No one at Citibank could find my account or even tell me where to call. The card and statement say nothing other than "Citibank", yet they act like the account does not exist.

The statement has a different contact number, but if you don't have the card or statement, they don't know how to find your account, or how to refer you to someone who does. Even branch personnel have no idea why they can't find the account. Heaven help someone who is traveling away from home and needs to contact customer service, because they are useless if it is Prism, and the customer doesn't know they have that kind of account

I closed a Home Depot card--or so I thought--but just ordered my free credit report online and not only does the old home Depot card show as open, but there is a new Citi card. I called the number given and was told that the new Citi card was opened as a new Home Depot card.

Hopefully both are now closed.

ARGH. WHY do they do this???? It is not going to make me more likely to shop at Home Depot, but just the opposite. And, I will NEVER open a Citi card because of this.

citi mastercard 1866 510 2761 is wrong.........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hi all. thanks to all who posted earlier. i received a copy of my credit report this summer and found a new citi bank mastercard on it. i was able to track the phone number based on earlier postings. i was told that my macy's account had been converted without, in my opinion, my formal consent. a new account was opened. it gets better. after my call in june i was told they would not remove the account from my credit report AND the account had been closed due to inactivity for 7 months. a double whammy to my credit which i monitor on a pretty regular basis. not only did they open the account in 2008, by 2009 they decide to close an account i never knew i had! i am extremely pissed and am inquiring as to whether or not anyone has pursued a class action law suit yet. this is clearly still happening to people. it is ridiculous. i have to now spend my precious time writing and trying to dispute this through citibank with no guaranteed result.

Dispute it through the credit reporting agency.

Sorry guys. My bad. I worked for Citi a few years back. After we bought the Sears Credit Card and all it's receivables, our legal team instructed us to close several million Sears accounts because they had been inactive for a number of years and we could no longer consider them "customers" in a legal sense.

We came up with a different idea.

Lending laws allow a credit card issuer to issue a customer an alternate card if the customer stops using one (it's called "migrating" an account in the credit card biz - and again, it's all perfectly legal). Before that card can be issued, an opt-out letter must be sent, along with all new interest rate and terms disclosures. If a person doesn't respond to that notice, the new card is issued and sent out.

So instead of closing all these accounts, we ran credit scores for them, and started the process of issuing new cards (the Prism Card) to those who were credit qualified. The terms on Prism were pretty good - low base interest rate, a true 6- or 12-months "same as cash" offers, cash incentives for spending $X on the card during the first few months. It was actually a very desirable card - for those that read the opt-out disclosure info. It was wildly successful - we reactivated a whole lot of accounts for not very much money. And a lot of people loved the new card - but obviously not all of you...

I left Citi in Jun 2006 and at that point the first mailing had been out for about 9 months. The balances on the Prism cards were way higher than we'd forecasted. The credit quality was all very good. And Citi had found a way to reactivate millions of accounts that it had acquired in the 2000's from a variety of card portfolios, including: Sears, Home Depot, Macy's/Bloomingdales/May's/Marshall Fields, Texaco/Chevron/BP/Amoco/Citgo/most other gas cards, just about any jewelry store that has a credit card, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, etc. As cards neared the threshold that Citi's lawyers told them they needed to close an account due to inactivity, they "migrated" them to Prism instead. If they still didn't activate, the Prism account eventually got closed as well. But the good terms and bonuses on Prism made it an attractive card. Lots of people used it. And we got lots of calls from non-Citi-customers asking how they could get one. But they couldn't. You had to be a Citi customer with a long-term inactive card and we had to make you the Prism offer. Don't call us, we'll call you.

That's how the whole thing worked. And it was all my doing. And I assure you, it was all perfectly legal. Sorry about the confusion...

BTW - I have no idea if they're still doing Prism. Everyone cut credit issuance a lot in 2008. I haven't talked to anyone back at Citi about it since about that time...