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Original Comment CONSUMER ALERT: COSTCO & CITI CARDS - In spring or summer of 2016, Costco Wholesale Club & Citi credit cards open an unauthorized credit card account in my name using my personal information that Costco had on file. Once the account was opened they UNJUSTLY ENRICHED both Citi & Costco by charging fees that were never authorized. In all of 2016, Citi & Costco failed to send and have me acknowledge credit cards by activating them. In December of 2016, Citi & Costco posted unauthorized charges to the account for intangible fees to unjustly enriched Costco. The Charge was made on an account which was set up without my authorization or knowledge and had never been activated. Costco and Citi cards failed to notify me of the charge against the "secret" account that they had set up without my authorization. The fees charged to the account were: 1. Never authorized by me. 2. Not for any tangible or consumable product whatsoever, they were only for intangible membership fees, service fees or late fees provided either by Costco or Citi card. On January 30th 2017, I received my first communication from Costco & Citi card concerning this account in the form of a statement which was now one month PAST DUE with late fees and service charges. I promptly called the Citi card customer service line for an explanation. I complained about this and disputed the bogus charges and the late fees which would unjustly and enrich both Citi & Costco. I was outraged at this fraud for the following reasons: 1. I never authorized this account. 2. I never activated the any credit card for it. 3. I never authorized any charges to this account since I did not know it existed as an open and active account. 4. I have another account with Citi card which is in good standing and I do get my statements from them on that account. 5. I have an exceptional credit score, this unauthorized use of my personal information may damage my credit. The customer service agent agreed to refund all charges and fees and offered to send me out a credit card for this account if I wanted to keep the account by activating the card. I agreed to keep it open on the condition that Citi would show it current and refund the unauthorized charges. The card was sent out and received the first week in February of 2017. On February 7th 2017 I went online to view this account and saw that nothing had been credited back to it. I then called customer service at Citi again to explain the situation a second time and disputed the charges a second time. Once again Citi agreed to refund the fraudulent charges. In addition to that they got a Costco representative on the recorded line and the Costco agreed to refund their charges. The Costco representative further directed me to go into the a Costco store and pay a membership if I desired to be a member. I have been a member of Costco since the year 2000 and I expressed outrage it how they could do this. The Costco representative advised that I had an American Express - Costco card and Costco used to honor American Express... Costco discontinued that relationship with American Express and had allowed American Express to "sell me" to Citibank. I did not know that becoming a Costco member somehow made me an "indentured servant" with no constitutional or consumer rights where one of their vendors could actually "sell me" to another as if I was some sort of slave. I seriously doubt that this explanation is legal. On February 13th 2017 I logged on and checked Costco Citi account. Proper credits were not made and it was still past due. It was clear that Costco & Citi were either negligent or intentionally trying to "rip off" consumers so I filed a complainant with the CFPB on both companies. Disclaimer: the above is my story and opinion.

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