Citi's change to AutoPay

[Anonymous]

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@pip3man wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@pip3man wrote:

Let's not make this any more complicated than it really is. Bottom line is beginning July 23rd, even if you make a prior payment in the billing cycle, Citi will still draft the autopay regardless. In the event the autopay will create a credit balance then it'll be cancelled. Rest assured I hate the new policy!

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How does this even make any sense?  From my understanding with my current bank if I make the mimimum payment or pay more they won't even try to make a payment and will see that I have already paid.  That makes more sense to me.

Though, now I want to double check with my current bank on how they do this just to make sure.

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You are overthinking it. I'll explain it one more time. Currently, with Citi if u have autopay and u make a payment at any time in the billing cycle that at least covers ur minimum amount due, it effectively cancels out your autopay for that period. That means, say for instance ur due date is the 22nd and u paid earlier on the 15th, when the 22nd comes around, autopay will not be scheduled so no additional money will be drafted from your account. But now it's changing so even if u paid before, the autopay will still be processed unless you pay off the entire balance before it kicks in. My point is I do not like the new changes, they should stick to the status quo. Hopefully this makes more sense to you now!

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I think we were saying the samething just differently.  I agree it shouldn't work the new way they have setup.

[MrDisco99]

Cap1 does this as well.  This is why I disabled autopay on all my accounts.  I'd rather have complete control over how much they get from me and when.

[pip3man]

Yeah Cap1 and Barclay now Citi. Hopefully Chase and Discover doesn't follow their lead cos they're like the last man standing of the big issuers. Don't know bout AMEX tho...

[zerofire]

I hate to tell you guys this but AutoPay is supposed to keep you from paying too much or too little and also avoid all fees. Having a positive balance on a card is actually a liability to a card issuer and you since you are automatically paying off all payments as they come in and will not have the ability to dispute them. Citi's change is making the AutoPay system work as intended while reducing complaints from unexpected double charging and getting into a more predictable behaviour that avoids fees for mistakes like paying ahead with AutoPay. By making these changes Citi is saying they want to be paid on time instead of storing your cash or hitting you with interest so you should be thankfull.

[MrDisco99]

Wouldn't the new policy actually create more potential for unexpected double charging?

[Anonymous]

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@pip3man wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@pip3man wrote:

Let's not make this any more complicated than it really is. Bottom line is beginning July 23rd, even if you make a prior payment in the billing cycle, Citi will still draft the autopay regardless. In the event the autopay will create a credit balance then it'll be cancelled. Rest assured I hate the new policy!

---

How does this even make any sense?  From my understanding with my current bank if I make the mimimum payment or pay more they won't even try to make a payment and will see that I have already paid.  That makes more sense to me.

Though, now I want to double check with my current bank on how they do this just to make sure.

---

You are overthinking it. I'll explain it one more time. Currently, with Citi if u have autopay and u make a payment at any time in the billing cycle that at least covers ur minimum amount due, it effectively cancels out your autopay for that period. That means, say for instance ur due date is the 22nd and u paid earlier on the 15th, when the 22nd comes around, autopay will not be scheduled so no additional money will be drafted from your account. But now it's changing so even if u paid before, the autopay will still be processed unless you pay off the entire balance before it kicks in. My point is I do not like the new changes, they should stick to the status quo. Hopefully this makes more sense to you now!

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(AFAIK, I didn't get the email, but I don't imagine they are changing the policy for only some).   So my question is when I have autopay set to statement balance PIF.on due date.

So statement cuts for $200

I pay $200 (just because!)

Before the due date, I add $300 of charges

Now currently the autopay is cancelled.   If mister-endowed analysis carries over for all autopay types, there would be another payment of $200, since the $300 prevents the account going into credit.  That's negating a lot of my grace period (since those $300 aren't due to the following due date) but I guess it's my fault for paying it myself.....

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@pip3man wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@pip3man wrote:

Let's not make this any more complicated than it really is. Bottom line is beginning July 23rd, even if you make a prior payment in the billing cycle, Citi will still draft the autopay regardless. In the event the autopay will create a credit balance then it'll be cancelled. Rest assured I hate the new policy!

---

How does this even make any sense?  From my understanding with my current bank if I make the mimimum payment or pay more they won't even try to make a payment and will see that I have already paid.  That makes more sense to me.

Though, now I want to double check with my current bank on how they do this just to make sure.

---

You are overthinking it. I'll explain it one more time. Currently, with Citi if u have autopay and u make a payment at any time in the billing cycle that at least covers ur minimum amount due, it effectively cancels out your autopay for that period. That means, say for instance ur due date is the 22nd and u paid earlier on the 15th, when the 22nd comes around, autopay will not be scheduled so no additional money will be drafted from your account. But now it's changing so even if u paid before, the autopay will still be processed unless you pay off the entire balance before it kicks in. My point is I do not like the new changes, they should stick to the status quo. Hopefully this makes more sense to you now!

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(AFAIK, I didn't get the email, but I don't imagine they are changing the policy for only some).   So my question is when I have autopay set to statement balance PIF.on due date.

So statement cuts for $200

I pay $200 (just because!)

Before the due date, I add $300 of charges

Now currently the autopay is cancelled.   If mister-endowed analysis carries over for all autopay types, there would be another payment of $200, since the $300 prevents the account going into credit.  That's negating a lot of my grace period (since those $300 aren't due to the following due date) but I guess it's my fault for paying it myself.....

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That's a good question LTL.. I wonder how it would work in that situation. Someone should reach out to Citi via Twitter.

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@pip3man wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@pip3man wrote:

Let's not make this any more complicated than it really is. Bottom line is beginning July 23rd, even if you make a prior payment in the billing cycle, Citi will still draft the autopay regardless. In the event the autopay will create a credit balance then it'll be cancelled. Rest assured I hate the new policy!

---

How does this even make any sense?  From my understanding with my current bank if I make the mimimum payment or pay more they won't even try to make a payment and will see that I have already paid.  That makes more sense to me.

Though, now I want to double check with my current bank on how they do this just to make sure.

---

You are overthinking it. I'll explain it one more time. Currently, with Citi if u have autopay and u make a payment at any time in the billing cycle that at least covers ur minimum amount due, it effectively cancels out your autopay for that period. That means, say for instance ur due date is the 22nd and u paid earlier on the 15th, when the 22nd comes around, autopay will not be scheduled so no additional money will be drafted from your account. But now it's changing so even if u paid before, the autopay will still be processed unless you pay off the entire balance before it kicks in. My point is I do not like the new changes, they should stick to the status quo. Hopefully this makes more sense to you now!

---

(AFAIK, I didn't get the email, but I don't imagine they are changing the policy for only some).   So my question is when I have autopay set to statement balance PIF.on due date.

So statement cuts for $200

I pay $200 (just because!)

Before the due date, I add $300 of charges

Now currently the autopay is cancelled.   If mister-endowed analysis carries over for all autopay types, there would be another payment of $200, since the $300 prevents the account going into credit.  That's negating a lot of my grace period (since those $300 aren't due to the following due date) but I guess it's my fault for paying it myself.....

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Your scenarios (all the above) are not relevant to the topic. Go back to page 1 to look at the actual language Irish posted.

This only deals with Autopay if you have the minimum payment set up as autopay. If someone has a large autopayment setup, those actions (whatever Citi does today) should not change at all.

If one has only a Minimum Payment autopayment set up, and Citi takes the Minimum payment anyway, it should not break the bank. With carrying a $1k balance, the typical Minimum Payment is $30 or less. If your balance is $15 after making the earlier payment, it will only take $15. If you run up $300 in new charges in the new period, Citi likely takes $30 based on your prior period Minimum Payment.

Not an issue worth worrying about.

[Anonymous]

It makes sense to me.

You have an autopay set up to pay $50 on a given day. Then you make an additional payment of$40.

There were several ways to interpret that. You are trying to get ahead of your debt by making an additional payment, paying $90 total. Or you are moving part of your payment early and still light intend to pay the minimum, carrying more debt.

CITI used to assume you wanted to carry more debt, now they are assuming you're getting ahead of your debt.

I like the new way better.

[vanillabean]

The statement cuts for $30. I pay the $30 balance just for the kicks of it. I charge $25 before the due date. Citi applies the autopay minimum of $25 even though charges for the current billing cycle are not due until a month later. This is my only credit card, and Citi zeroed it, my scores drop 25 points to below 760, my mortgage scores are being pulled, and I no longer qualify for the best interest rate for my upcoming house, stuck with losing out on thousands of dollars...