Angelina Lemus was puzzled. She had no idea why every month as much as $96 was disappearing from herCitibank checking account.
Months later, Ms. Lemus finally figured out the mystery — or at least part of it. Citibank was taking out the money to pay a loan, with an interest rate of 18 percent, that was devised to cover the shortfall every time Ms. Lemus overdrew her checking account.
The problem was that Ms. Lemus, a home health care worker from Queens, said she never signed up for the line of credit and was unaware that she was borrowing from it every time her account dipped below zero.
