Nicholas
West Chester,#2UPDATE Employee
Fri, March 19, 2004
Willie, I will take your comments one by one: 1. The $2.00/month charge on your gas card is the minimum finance charge. If you have a balance this is the minimum amount you can be charged in finance charges. This is stated in your cardholder agreement. 2. Citibank probably refused the proposal from the CCCS. 3. Citibank of South Dakota is the credit card division. All Citibank credit cards are held by this bank. This is actually not uncommon. You'll find most credit card companies are based in South Dakota, Delaware, or Utah. The reason behind this is simple, these states have lax Usury laws. Susan: 4. The 2% of the balance request is standard for a credit card. Honestly people will complain about this both ways. On one hand people will say that the minimum is too low so Citibank gets lots of interest. On the other hand people think their minimum payment is too high. A general comment: If people complain about being able to borrow money but you don't like to pay it back, you should do one simple thing: Don't borrow money. Citibank or any other lender doesn't force you to borrow money from them, if you like you can pay cash for almost everything. I just heard recently Citibank writes off several billion dollars in consumer loans yearly. If consumers don't want to pay their debts, they should stop accruing debt, plain and simple.
Nicholas
West Chester,#3UPDATE Employee
Fri, March 19, 2004
Willie, I will take your comments one by one: 1. The $2.00/month charge on your gas card is the minimum finance charge. If you have a balance this is the minimum amount you can be charged in finance charges. This is stated in your cardholder agreement. 2. Citibank probably refused the proposal from the CCCS. 3. Citibank of South Dakota is the credit card division. All Citibank credit cards are held by this bank. This is actually not uncommon. You'll find most credit card companies are based in South Dakota, Delaware, or Utah. The reason behind this is simple, these states have lax Usury laws. Susan: 4. The 2% of the balance request is standard for a credit card. Honestly people will complain about this both ways. On one hand people will say that the minimum is too low so Citibank gets lots of interest. On the other hand people think their minimum payment is too high. A general comment: If people complain about being able to borrow money but you don't like to pay it back, you should do one simple thing: Don't borrow money. Citibank or any other lender doesn't force you to borrow money from them, if you like you can pay cash for almost everything. I just heard recently Citibank writes off several billion dollars in consumer loans yearly. If consumers don't want to pay their debts, they should stop accruing debt, plain and simple.
Nicholas
West Chester,#4UPDATE Employee
Fri, March 19, 2004
Willie, I will take your comments one by one: 1. The $2.00/month charge on your gas card is the minimum finance charge. If you have a balance this is the minimum amount you can be charged in finance charges. This is stated in your cardholder agreement. 2. Citibank probably refused the proposal from the CCCS. 3. Citibank of South Dakota is the credit card division. All Citibank credit cards are held by this bank. This is actually not uncommon. You'll find most credit card companies are based in South Dakota, Delaware, or Utah. The reason behind this is simple, these states have lax Usury laws. Susan: 4. The 2% of the balance request is standard for a credit card. Honestly people will complain about this both ways. On one hand people will say that the minimum is too low so Citibank gets lots of interest. On the other hand people think their minimum payment is too high. A general comment: If people complain about being able to borrow money but you don't like to pay it back, you should do one simple thing: Don't borrow money. Citibank or any other lender doesn't force you to borrow money from them, if you like you can pay cash for almost everything. I just heard recently Citibank writes off several billion dollars in consumer loans yearly. If consumers don't want to pay their debts, they should stop accruing debt, plain and simple.
Nicholas
West Chester,#5UPDATE Employee
Fri, March 19, 2004
Willie, I will take your comments one by one: 1. The $2.00/month charge on your gas card is the minimum finance charge. If you have a balance this is the minimum amount you can be charged in finance charges. This is stated in your cardholder agreement. 2. Citibank probably refused the proposal from the CCCS. 3. Citibank of South Dakota is the credit card division. All Citibank credit cards are held by this bank. This is actually not uncommon. You'll find most credit card companies are based in South Dakota, Delaware, or Utah. The reason behind this is simple, these states have lax Usury laws. Susan: 4. The 2% of the balance request is standard for a credit card. Honestly people will complain about this both ways. On one hand people will say that the minimum is too low so Citibank gets lots of interest. On the other hand people think their minimum payment is too high. A general comment: If people complain about being able to borrow money but you don't like to pay it back, you should do one simple thing: Don't borrow money. Citibank or any other lender doesn't force you to borrow money from them, if you like you can pay cash for almost everything. I just heard recently Citibank writes off several billion dollars in consumer loans yearly. If consumers don't want to pay their debts, they should stop accruing debt, plain and simple.
Susan
La Center,#6Consumer Suggestion
Thu, March 04, 2004
Willie, your story is to familiar and similar to our's. Citibank will not deal with you, no matter what your circumstances are. My husband is disabled after a job injury from '96. All letters and calls fell on deaf ears. I finally got caller ID and ignored any number that showed UNKNOWN and stopped making payments for 6 mo. They finally offered(in writing) a referral program that lasted about a year interest free. We also went through a debt managment program that ended up a nightmare. I found out those programs hurt your credit more than anything, cause a prospective lender views it as if you can't manage your finances. The government suggests you work with your creditors, well they need to tell the creditors that cause it doesn't work either. Washington State allows a creditor to place a lien on your property for unpaid debt. The debt people cannot stop this or do anything about it. We also received a summons from Suttell & Assoc. and they wanted about 2% of the unpaid balance as a monthly payment (and they add on attorney's fees). When you got that summons that indicated a lien has already been placed on your property if you didn't dispute the bill, but Citibank will not dispute it, it's a losing situation. You don't pay them, they will enforce that lien. However, they will be willing to settle for about 80% of the balance if you can get that paid. I've been dealing with creditors for the last two years and have become very savvy to their bull. Your first priority is to save your property. Stay away from banks and contact Majestic Mortgage in Portland, OR. Tell them your situation and refinance your property with an FHA. They got us a 5.5% and will pay off our last two creditors and with a payment that we can handle. If you do that be sure to check with Citibank about a settlement offer on the unpaid card. GET AWAY FROM CITIBANK, THEY'LL RUIN YOUR CREDIT. The reason most card company's main branches are on the East Coast is their laws are different and they can legally raise interest rates to outlandish rates. Citibank uses a most vicious collection agency in Florida and they use threatening tactics that are unlawful, not to mention what they already did to you with Suttell & Assoc. If you search, you'll find the banking system for unsecured debt (CC's) is a ponzi scam that they have gotten away with for years to the public. It's based on the Euorpean Banking System. Until the laws change, the people are at their mercy. Also for your info, ALL card company's deal only with their selected debt management outfits, as some of them are owned (YES OWNED) by the card company's, and most card company's will not work with outside agency's if their's is the only card you're putting through a debt management program. CCC being one of the biggest debt counseling agency's. Also if you received a "change in contract terms" from Citibank, contact your Attorney General, as you can't change an orignal signed "agreement contract" that's one sided, THEIR'S. Hope this helps. It has for us.