CitiCunts
I've been a customer of CitiBank since that Spring day in 1993 when I pulled a flyer off a bulletin board in Gruening Building and applied for a credit card. This was my first credit card ever. After the second year they sent me a letter saying I was a good customer and that they'd waive my annual fee thereafter for as long as I had my account (I still do...and I still have that letter just in case they ever changed their mind.)
Over the years they increased my credit limit from the paltry $600 when I first opened the account, to over $21,000 today (which is WAY too much, but I didn't ask for it). Over the years I've carried a month-to-month balance about 40% of the time (by my estimation), and during two particular periods of hardships, these were large balances. At one time about a third of my car (now paid off) was financed on my credit card when I couldn't get a car loan because I'd just changed jobs (they said I didn't have an employment history since I'd only been at my current job for a month when my car got totalled-not by me-despite the fact I'd had a steady full-time job for the four years previous).
Anyway, they made money off me and I wasn't upset about it because they gave me money when I needed it and so it was symbiosis. I always paid much more than the minimum, however, and this showed that I both needed credit and that I took good care of it. I have a really nice credit score now. There were two times before this year that I missed a payment, usually because life got hectic and I got careless minding my business. I paid the late fee and they never reported it to my credit history.
And then the current economic crisis occurred, largely because those cunts got so greedy their whole fiscal world imploded. It's like a star that grows so large causing its own gravity to grow so big that it sucks itself in and goes supernova.
That's when things changed for me, and not for the better. My statements close on the 21st of each month. Until 2007, those statements would be mailed the next day. Rarely (even in the boonies of Alaska) would I receive the statement later than the 28th. And I'd make my payment immediately, and it would arrive two weeks before the due date of the 16th.
After 2007, the statements would be mailed about the 28th. I'd receive them about the 10th. At least two times I received the statement on the 15th, with a payment due the next day. Once I received my statement after the due date and I was officially late. "Hrm, something funny is going on here," I said to myself, and I switched to electronic statements and payments because these would be instantaneous.
Last May was the first time I did not receive an e-mail notification that my statement was due. I happened to be carrying a balance at the time for who-knows-what, and so I had a payment due June 16. Not receiving a statement, I forgot about it until June 21 when I received an e-mail "Your statement is ready". Imagine my surprise to find out "Crap! I'm a month late! There's a $20 late fee." That also explains why my card was declined for the first time ever earlier that day.
My statement closed August 21. I paid off the balance. Then I had to pay tuition while I was out of town (hooray for credit card payments over the Internet). On September 9, I paid off half the tuition. Great! I've made a September payment. September 21 came and my statement closed... with a balance. And for the second time this year, they did not send me a statement. I forgot about it-I'd made a payment after all-and then on Friday, October 23 I receive an e-mail: "Your statement is ready."
"Oh wait," I said, "I haven't seen a statement in a long time.... Crap! They did it to me again!" So, I immediately scheduled a $500 payment. I received a confirmation number (which I did not write down, dammit!) that my payment would be applied Monday morning.
Today going to pay for my brake repairs, my credit card was again declined. I used my debit card, instead, but ran it as a credit so it wouldn't go through instantaneously. I figured this would buy me a couple of hours to transfer funds. I got home, and I discover over $800 in my checking account. My checkbook says $200-something. Investigation reveals the $500 payment did not go through. I log-on to my credit card, and there's absolutely no record I ever even initiated a payment! (Although it does show that I logged in at that time.)
I'm very suspicious about this. I don't want to make a double payment, but obviously something has happened. I think and decided that I know better than to call the customer service number. That will be a mistake. The last time I called, I couldn't understand Bengali or Hindi or whatever that person was babbling. They'd want to force me to do a check-by-phone. Hell no to that.
So, I try to put in another electronic payment. Only this time, the payment system is different. It's no longer asking if I want to debit money from my checking account. Instead, I have to go through a series of screens asking some very personal questions about "why am I having financial hardships" and "how long will this situation last" and "what forms of income do I expect to use to maintain regular payments". Oh this is bad... really bad. This isn't right. I'm not in financial hardships; the problem is with the bank... but they're making it look like it's my fault! Then I get to a page that requires me to agree to regularly scheduled payments before I can continue. Fuck that, cunts, and I canceled out of the whole thing.
I change the debit in my checkbook to a check number and I print out my statement from the web and I'm mailing them a paper check for $500. In two weeks I'll pay the remainder off. Meanwhile, I have to take $200 out of my Save-for-a-Downpayment-on-a-House Fund to cover today's car repair, leaving me with $88 until Friday after next (unless I dip into that fund some more).
I am absolutely livid. I am very calm now as I write this, but there was a great deal of shouting earlier. I'm still livid, though.
I need to contact a credit counselor and find out if I should close the account before applying for a mortgage (its longevity really bumps up my score) or should I close it before applying for a mortgage (its huge credit limit is a liability). I've had it. Getting screwed over twice in six months is the gratitude I get for being a good, income-generating customer of theirs for 16 years. Greed, greed, greed; I hope they do eventually fail.
I HATE YOU CUNTSUCKERS AT CITIBANK!!!!!
[pause]
[pause]
[pause]
HA! (1) get card out of wallet; (2) get scissors from drawer; (3) march into living room and make a dramatic production of cutting up your credit card into a half-dozen tiny pieces; (4) gloat and feel smug; (5) come back and post about it on LiveJournal.
Good riddance to bad rubbish!
Over the years they increased my credit limit from the paltry $600 when I first opened the account, to over $21,000 today (which is WAY too much, but I didn't ask for it). Over the years I've carried a month-to-month balance about 40% of the time (by my estimation), and during two particular periods of hardships, these were large balances. At one time about a third of my car (now paid off) was financed on my credit card when I couldn't get a car loan because I'd just changed jobs (they said I didn't have an employment history since I'd only been at my current job for a month when my car got totalled-not by me-despite the fact I'd had a steady full-time job for the four years previous).
Anyway, they made money off me and I wasn't upset about it because they gave me money when I needed it and so it was symbiosis. I always paid much more than the minimum, however, and this showed that I both needed credit and that I took good care of it. I have a really nice credit score now. There were two times before this year that I missed a payment, usually because life got hectic and I got careless minding my business. I paid the late fee and they never reported it to my credit history.
And then the current economic crisis occurred, largely because those cunts got so greedy their whole fiscal world imploded. It's like a star that grows so large causing its own gravity to grow so big that it sucks itself in and goes supernova.
That's when things changed for me, and not for the better. My statements close on the 21st of each month. Until 2007, those statements would be mailed the next day. Rarely (even in the boonies of Alaska) would I receive the statement later than the 28th. And I'd make my payment immediately, and it would arrive two weeks before the due date of the 16th.
After 2007, the statements would be mailed about the 28th. I'd receive them about the 10th. At least two times I received the statement on the 15th, with a payment due the next day. Once I received my statement after the due date and I was officially late. "Hrm, something funny is going on here," I said to myself, and I switched to electronic statements and payments because these would be instantaneous.
Last May was the first time I did not receive an e-mail notification that my statement was due. I happened to be carrying a balance at the time for who-knows-what, and so I had a payment due June 16. Not receiving a statement, I forgot about it until June 21 when I received an e-mail "Your statement is ready". Imagine my surprise to find out "Crap! I'm a month late! There's a $20 late fee." That also explains why my card was declined for the first time ever earlier that day.
My statement closed August 21. I paid off the balance. Then I had to pay tuition while I was out of town (hooray for credit card payments over the Internet). On September 9, I paid off half the tuition. Great! I've made a September payment. September 21 came and my statement closed... with a balance. And for the second time this year, they did not send me a statement. I forgot about it-I'd made a payment after all-and then on Friday, October 23 I receive an e-mail: "Your statement is ready."
"Oh wait," I said, "I haven't seen a statement in a long time.... Crap! They did it to me again!" So, I immediately scheduled a $500 payment. I received a confirmation number (which I did not write down, dammit!) that my payment would be applied Monday morning.
Today going to pay for my brake repairs, my credit card was again declined. I used my debit card, instead, but ran it as a credit so it wouldn't go through instantaneously. I figured this would buy me a couple of hours to transfer funds. I got home, and I discover over $800 in my checking account. My checkbook says $200-something. Investigation reveals the $500 payment did not go through. I log-on to my credit card, and there's absolutely no record I ever even initiated a payment! (Although it does show that I logged in at that time.)
I'm very suspicious about this. I don't want to make a double payment, but obviously something has happened. I think and decided that I know better than to call the customer service number. That will be a mistake. The last time I called, I couldn't understand Bengali or Hindi or whatever that person was babbling. They'd want to force me to do a check-by-phone. Hell no to that.
So, I try to put in another electronic payment. Only this time, the payment system is different. It's no longer asking if I want to debit money from my checking account. Instead, I have to go through a series of screens asking some very personal questions about "why am I having financial hardships" and "how long will this situation last" and "what forms of income do I expect to use to maintain regular payments". Oh this is bad... really bad. This isn't right. I'm not in financial hardships; the problem is with the bank... but they're making it look like it's my fault! Then I get to a page that requires me to agree to regularly scheduled payments before I can continue. Fuck that, cunts, and I canceled out of the whole thing.
I change the debit in my checkbook to a check number and I print out my statement from the web and I'm mailing them a paper check for $500. In two weeks I'll pay the remainder off. Meanwhile, I have to take $200 out of my Save-for-a-Downpayment-on-a-House Fund to cover today's car repair, leaving me with $88 until Friday after next (unless I dip into that fund some more).
I am absolutely livid. I am very calm now as I write this, but there was a great deal of shouting earlier. I'm still livid, though.
I need to contact a credit counselor and find out if I should close the account before applying for a mortgage (its longevity really bumps up my score) or should I close it before applying for a mortgage (its huge credit limit is a liability). I've had it. Getting screwed over twice in six months is the gratitude I get for being a good, income-generating customer of theirs for 16 years. Greed, greed, greed; I hope they do eventually fail.
I HATE YOU CUNTSUCKERS AT CITIBANK!!!!!
[pause]
[pause]
[pause]
HA! (1) get card out of wallet; (2) get scissors from drawer; (3) march into living room and make a dramatic production of cutting up your credit card into a half-dozen tiny pieces; (4) gloat and feel smug; (5) come back and post about it on LiveJournal.
Good riddance to bad rubbish!