The class action lawsuit filed against Citibank this year is coming to a close and eligible claimants are expected to receive between $350 and $850 depending on the severity of their case.

Class action lawsuits allow groups of individuals, known as “classes,” to pursue legal action collectively. Typically initiated by one or a few people, these cases claim that a company or entity has harmed a broader group with similar grievances. Once a lawsuit achieves class action status, it applies to all affected members, not just those who initially filed. Companies often choose to settle such cases, compensating class members who, in accepting payments, generally relinquish their right to seek further legal recourse.

The Citibank settlement details

In this specific case, Citibank is accused of bombarding them with unsolicited robocalls about past-due credit card balances over the last 10 years, violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. This Act limits companies or debt collectors from calling clients or prospective customers using automatic dialing systems, artificial or prerecorded voice messages, SMS text messages, and fax machines, which means that if it was found that Citibank abused these mediums to contact their customers, they would be heavily fined.

However, as with most class actions suits, the bank denied any wrongdoing on their part and declared that they had decided to resolve the matter out of court to avoid dragging it on and a possible further investigation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is in charge of overseeing the correct application of the Act. In order to do so, it reached a settlement of $29.5 million to be distributed amongst the victims.

Of course, not everyone was contacted as regularly and not everyone had similar disruptions to their daily lives in relation to the unsolicited calls, and so most claimants will receive between $350 and $850. For those who can prove that they received more than five calls, they may be able to get up to $2,500, which is the maximum allocated amount per affected individual.

In order to get the money, claimants will need to prove that they received these calls, and thus provide evidence of phone records, screenshots, or other evidence of receiving the calls, like recorded messages. All the evidence will have to be gathered and readied for presentation before December 20, which has been determined as the deadline to file a claim. Although the measly four weeks may not seem like enough time, there should be ample opportunity for claimants to ask for any records that they must obtain from the phone company.

For ease of narrowing down dates, the affected individuals will have received calls between August 15, 2014, and July 31, 2024 concerning a past-due credit card account. Most of these affected individuals will have never been clients of Citibank, although some current and former clients may have been affected as well and may be able to claim a piece of the pie.

For those who wish to submit a claim, it can be done so online through the following link. Be sure to submit all relevant information with enough time. The final approval hearing is scheduled for January 14, 2025.

Those who wish to be excluded from the suit in order to be able to file a separate claim in the future will also have to present documentation that explains this, although before doing so it will be best to talk to a separate attorney to figure out if your claim could be substantiated in the future. For this it will be even more crucial to gather as much information as possible and as many documents as possible detailing the harassment.

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