I realize this is a pretty harsh title, but one of the benefits (in my opinion) of a blog is that it gives a voice to the customer. The ordinary consumer that normally wouldn't be heard by much of anyone. But nowadays blogs posted online can and should be read throughout the nation if not the world. I love being able to search for a company or product and coming across some guy ranting and raving about a particular company or product. This blog is no different. Yes, it's mostly about my family and friends and photos of us in our daily lives, but I also want to be able to rant and rave.
So my rant for this week is Citibank. I got a credit card with them when I lived in LA and I had a reasonably low interest rate (as credit card rates go). Less than a year later, I'm ready to pay this sucker off. But I can't. I have to make the maximum payment and then wait a month. Then get my bill of interest and make another payment. Now maybe I'm a negative nancy here, but this is stupid in my opinion. I'm willing to bet that next month when I get my bill in the mail, I'll call to try and make another payment and they'll tell me the same sticking thing!! It's so frustrating because the people on the other end don't have an ounce to compasion or care in their voice. They could care less, their still getting paid to answer the phone and go through the prompts. Perhaps this is what every credit card company does. I know that when I worked at a local bank, Peoples Bank (www.peoplesbank-wa.com a great local family owned financial institution in the Pacific Northwest) they would allow those with loans to make the full payoff amount with the interest included so that one could rest easy and know, 'hey, I just paid off my loan!'
My suggestion to any of you reading this, unless you live in the state of California where Citibank branches are on every other corner, don't get a citibank credit card. It's a hassle (pain in the butt) to pay it off and close it down (which I would hope you would plan on doing someday).
I figure if I'm going to have a rant, I should be polite and offer a rave. How about Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover (www.mytotalmoneymakeover.com). This book (again, in my opinion) is great. I highly recommend his books, philosophies (most of them), website and podcasts. Check him out.
6 Comments
May 2, 2006 at 8:59 am
I had the same problem a couple years back with a Capital One card. I owed less than $150 and when I went to pay it off they made me keep it another month to pay the couple bucks of interest. After I was on hold with them for about 40 minutes they said they would close the account for me after the next month. I didn’t get any more notice til I got a statement for the interest and a $30 late fee on my ‘closed account.” I got it all cleared up and only paid the interest but it took more hold time. So much for a “Hassle Free” card. I guess my guardian angel really screwed up that time.
May 2, 2006 at 3:30 pm
Well at least you didn’t get attacked by killer jelly fish (like in the commercial). But when it comes down to a choice, I don’t know if I’d rather take the hour on hold and talking to their ‘customer specialists’ or take the Australian poisonous jelly fish!!
July 6, 2006 at 1:48 pm
At last – someplace where I can tell my CitiBank horror story!
I had a home equity loan through CitiBank. Somehow they could never figure out where to send the bill for a home equity loan. Every couple of months I would get a call demanding to know why I hadn’t paid my bill yet. Ummm… because I haven’t received it!
Can you change my billing address? No, but if you call our customer service number, they will be happy to change it for you.
So I call customer service, wait 20 minutes on hold, and talk to a nice young man in India who is happy to change my billing address. Two months later, still no bill. But I do get another call demanding to know why I haven’t paid my bill.
After several cycles of this, I finally asked if I could just pay the bill online. No, but if you set up this new spiffy account, then you can pay everything online. So I spend 90 minutes on the phone, setting up a new account. At last they have all the necessary information – home value, mother’s maiden name, monthly income, latest sperm count, and so on. Oh, and I needed to take out another $10,000 of equity on my home, whether I wanted it or not. Now if only there were some way to get money into this new account, I could even use it to pay my home equity bill.
July 7, 2006 at 11:09 pm
That’s pretty bad! Far worse then my inconvinience.
October 17, 2006 at 12:18 pm
You said it, jack. Credit card companies are nothing but a bunch of idiots in cubicles 500 miles away. Thanks for spreading the word about deep-sixing your debt. That’s Dave Ramsey’s plan all right, and it makes tons of sense. As far as credit cards go, cut ‘em up and close ‘em down.
October 17, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Thanks for the encouragement. My wife and I are enjoying paying down our debts. We recently sold our car and bought a less expensive one with better financing so we can pay off our car faster and easier. We’re also making extra payment on our one existing credit card so we can cut it up as well!