I have been a cardholder of Citibank for over ten years (under a previously married name). Although I had closed the account when I divorced, I asked to reopen it a few years later, and they had no problem with that request. I used it a few times and put it away and paid it off and forgot about it for a long time.

My Nightmare Begins

Incident #1--Ballooning Interest from Faulty Automated System

Then a year and a half ago, I had an emergency and had to use the card again. I was astounded at how the interest rate had skyrocketed even though I hadn't used the card. After a few months of paying with a balance, I received my bill with a 25% interest charge and a form-letter type imprint on the bill stating that my credit rating caused this higher percentage rate. I immediately got on the phone and called their customer service.

The customer service representative looked over my account and agreed that there must be a mistake because I was in good standing and had always paid on time and changed it back to the lower rate (which is still way too high). I paid it off at the first opportunity. I did not EVER want to carry a balance on that card again.

Incident #2--Billing Cycle/Payment Cycle Shortened

As time passed, I made several purchases via Internet with the card and paid it off at the end of the month. I also noticed that the time in which my bills came in the mail and the payment due date was coming closer and closer together. This was starting to become a problem because I pay my bills in a batch process once a week only. It was beginning to become harder and inconvenient to me to make timely payments (and it is a rarity that I am ever late on payments to any utility or bill. I have the ulcers to prove it). Even writing the check and placing the payment in the mail the next day was barely making it on time according to them.

Earlier this year, I paid a $5.00 charge to have the payment taken from my checking account just to make sure it was paid on time to alleviate a $15.00 late fee. This was getting ridiculous. I should have cut the card up and closed the account then. I regret I did not especially after my next "Incident".

Incident #3--Unauthorized Charges

In July 2001, I received my bill (once again one week and a couple of days before the due date) and to my surprise, I found several unauthorized purchases on my account. I had bought two new pieces of hardware for our computers, and I knew exactly how much I should owe, and the bill was more than twice what I was expecting.

I was shocked and livid that someone would dare steal my identity and make fraudulent charges on my account. Not only that, after I had traced some of the purchases, I am even more surprised that Citibank allowed purchases of illegal drugs from a foreign website! Even scarier is that they did not even call me to verify this out-of-character charge.

Some charges were cash advances and another was Firecash.com where the Customer Service Representative told me they get a lot of bad charges to that one. If that is true, then you would think Citibank would come up with a new, more secure method of verifying high-risk charges such as gambling sites (which was also uncharacteristic of me because I do not gamble).

On my next statement, these charges were tagged as "Under Investigation" and with this comes to my "Incident #4".

Incident #4--Charges and Fees Upon Unauthorized Charges and Fees

After receiving my Affidavit for Fraudulent charges and filling out all the paperwork, I paid my bill exactly what the difference was. However, as I was breathing, more fees were occurring which made me still owe around 50 cents. On top of this, I was charged a fee for a cash advance that was under investigation from the fraudulent charges and interest on these charges to boot!

I once again called Citibank's Customer Service Representatives. The lady was nice and took off the fees and interest and made my account zero and said I did not owe anything that month. There was only one charge pending and not posted yet (I made this over the phone. I will not purchase over the Internet ever again even though I had purchased things for four years previously with no problems. Only if there is email confirmation by the credit card company will I ever take that risk again I'm afraid.).

Incident #5--Late Fees on Zero Balances

This company is really trying to make me cut up my card, and I almost did had the Customer Service Representative not cleared my account of a $15.00 late fee on what was a zero balance that had apparently accrued interest of 50 cents the other Customer Service Representative did not catch or it had accrued and not showed up until after the other person had taken off the other charges.

I tell you this, this company makes money while YOU sleep. They charge for services that other cards provide for free such as the automatic bank withdrawal. I have never had fees been applied so hap hazardously as this Citibank system has done to me this year. If it wasn't dealing with money and it being MY money, it might be laughable.

I had the scissors poised and ready to cut the card in two when the Customer Service Representative came back on the line and told me she fixed the problem (until next month, right???).

Incident #6--WWW.Citicards.com's Lame Site

Since I have just barely a week to remit a payment, I decided to pay them online (which was FREE the last time I looked, unlike calling them on the phone and having it directly withdrawn from your checking account...go figure).

I logged onto http://www.citicards.com and signed on. I had previously created the account two months ago before the thieves stole my number and went on an Internet shopping spree. Since it would not let me add my new card number, I had to create another account with a new user name and password using the new number.

The site was slow and clunky. Believe it or not, it took me ONE HOUR to process one payment to Citibank using their website. I even called their Technical Support line thinking I was doing something wrong, but no, their site is simply terrible (to be polite).

I tried repeatedly (and hoping I wasn't getting my checking account cleaned out in the process) to complete the one transaction to pay off the account before a late fee or any other hidden interest charges was tacked on to my account. At the rate I was going, the due date would be here before I finished the single transaction!

To say the least, I was not happy. I missed The Weakest Link trying to get this site to take my payment. Finally, after repeated attempts at what looked like an ftp client trying to hammer a site, I finally got my slow confirmation page. I immediately copied and pasted this just in case they give me a hard time next month. I DID pay it on July 10, 2001, and it will take up to THREE business days to process. Gee, I'm glad I planned a week in advance to pay them and not a couple of days before the due date or I'd be screwed.

After paying Citibank via online website, I signed up at MBNA and decided to try my luck there with their online payment system. A friend at work said that's how her husband pays their account and has had no problems with it. With Citibank being my first experience with online credit card payments, I was cringing with the thought at paying my MBNA bill online and was expecting to miss reruns of Star Trek if it took as long to do a simple transaction as it did with the Citibank card.

However, MBNA was simple, fast, and I was finished in less than five minutes. I was not only signed up, but I had completed the transaction of paying my bill and would be POSTED in two days! Now that's online service.Summing up this review, Citibank has changed over the years. I had never had any problems with them until last year, and now I find their computer systems inhuman, unintelligent, and downright crooked!

If you have a Citibank card, I would not keep a balance on it, and if you do, pay it off as soon as possible.


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