Citi credit card borrowers were misled

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) found that terms and conditions of Citi, the American-owned bank, wrongly claimed that the bank did not share joint liability for overseas credit card transactions. The consumers who feel they may have been misled and have a claim were invited to contact the bank. Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, credit card issuers are individually and jointly liable with suppliers if a consumer has a valid claim against the supplier for misrepresentation or breach of contract. Section 75 covers transactions of more than £100 but less than £30,000. Following an investigation, it was discovered by the OFT that, until December 1 last year, Citi had stated in the terms and conditions of several of its credit cards that use of the cards abroad would not be covered by the provisions of Section 75. But it contradicts the judgment of the Court of Appeal, subsequently upheld by the House of Lords that section 75 did apply to overseas transactions. The Citi-issued credit cards concerned are: Citicard (Platinum Visa, Platinum Mastercard and Visa Gold), Citicard Visa Classic, Ultima, AAdvantage Visa, Private Bank, Audi Mastercard, Shell Mastercard, easyJet Mastercard and Bmibaby Mastercard. Ray Watson, the representative of the OFT, said: "Section 75 provides important protection for consumers who use their credit cards abroad. While in practice Citi has been honoring claims for overseas use of its cards, some of its customers may have been misled into not claiming by its stated exclusion of liability for overseas transactions.”