The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered Citibank and some of its subsidiaries to refund approximately $700 million to customers for unfair and deceptive credit card practices.

Citibank apparently billed consumers for credit-card add-on products, marketed those products deceptively and indulged in "deceptive collection practices." Its refunds are to cover about 8.8 million accounts.

Citibank should have already notified all its victims directly. Anyone who has questions about whether he is entitled to a refund can contact Citibank at the number on the back of his credit card. As a general rule, consumers who were signed up for these products on or after 1 January 2009 will receive refunds, although these may only be partial. Anyone might be eligible for a refund if he paid for credit and identity monitoring, credit protection products, or an expedited payment fee.

Nearly 2.2 million consumers who enrolled between 2000 and 2013 have already received or will receive refunds of about $196 million in fees for credit monitoring products (Privacy Guard, DirectAlert, IdentityMonitor, Citi Credit Monitoring Service).

The bureau also found that Citibank broke the law when enrolling some IdentityMonitor consumers and when some IdentityMonitor consumers called to try to cancel that product. The sizes of the refunds depend on whether consumers tried to cancel (even if they were persuaded to keep it), how long they stayed with the product, and other factors.

Consumers who enrolled in IdentityMonitor over the phone on or after 1 January 2009, but who did not upgrade to 'triple bureau' credit monitoring, whatever that may be, will receive refunds which, again, may be only partial. Anyone who enrolled over the Internet between that date and 1 April 2012 is eligible.

The bureau found that Citibank broke the law when selling certain debt protection products (AccountCare, Balance Protector, Credit Protection, Credit Protector, and Payment Safeguard) to some consumers and tried to collect overdue payments from some consumers with cards issued by Citibank’s subsidiary, Department Stores National Bank. During some collection calls, Citibank charged an “expedited payment fee” of $14.95, either while misrepresenting the purpose of the fee or without telling the consumer it was charging it in the first place.

The bureau is also warning consumers to watch out for scammers who claim that they can obtain refunds for them - that is the job of Citibank itself.