Help with Citibank\Shell

[JJF]

Making a long story short, many years ago my wife signed up for some sort of Identity Monitoring service billed to her Shell Oil credit card.  I remember catching an over due bill in Dec 2006, getting on the phone disputing the charge and "I thought" cancelling the service.  Christmas 2007, I check all my wife's credit card statements, and found the same charge all over again, only this time I caught the charge before it was past due.  Unfortunately next year, I did not check her Shell Oil credit card until January 2008 when I found yet another past due, Identify Monitoring charge.  I raised holy (*&^%, I was told that Shell was not the provider of the service so we never actually cancelled the service in 2006 or 2007 and this was why the yearly charge kept re-appearing.

I sent a very polite GW letter off to Shell several weeks ago asking for the 30 day late from Jan 2006 and  Dec 2007 to be removed from her credit history.  Tonight I checked my wife's 3 bureau credit report and find that  Experian no longer reports Dec 2007 but now reports Jan 2008 as 30 days late.   I so enjoy when OC's update your account history to the worse after sending them a GW letter, but never actually respond to the letter.

I am open to suggestions on the next step with this account?  Who to write, what to write?  Even though it has been several years, is it worth while actually disputing the charges that caused the late?

Thanks

[JJF]

Can I dispute charges posted to a credit card account over two years ago?

[JJF]

I have written Citibank twice now.  In the last letter, I presented my case for a GW to my wifes account.  I also asked a question with the following premise:

If the account history from October to March shows either no balance or a $0 balance, then how can the account also be reported as 30 days past due.

Their response was a single line letter, please call us to discuss your account.

After their first response of our reporting is consistent with credit reporting practices . . . 

I did alot of research and facts make an interesting story.  Either on 3 different occasions Citibank failed to tell us the correct information (most likely an error of ommision).  An error that directly allowed Citibank to continue to bill for an optional annual service the following year.  It wasn't until Citibank sold their "service" to another company, that Citibank told us that Citibank credit card customer service could not cancel the Citibank "service". Late payment history was cause by these optional annual service charges. 

Is the pendulm swinging toward consumers?  Rather than continuing to write polite GW letters to Citibank, what if I write polite letters to Attorney Generals, member of Congress who were involved with the recent credit card consumer bill of rights, and President Obama.

There are 50 AGs, 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 Senators,  I could write one letter a day and cc:  Citibank with each one.  Any thoughts on whether this might lead to a GW respone or am I wasting my time and postage?  

Message Edited by JJF on 05-14-2009 06:50 PM