E-payment blues
Written: Feb 10 '01
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Pros: About average as far as credit cards go these days, but nice ads on TV
Cons: Nothing special about them. Poor customer service.
The Bottom Line: Internet payers are second class citizens at Citibank!
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| broadbandbilly's Full Review: Citibank |
I don't expect much from credit card companies these days. They've all become masters at milking even the most conscientious consumers for every last dollar, and Citibank is no exception. As a credit card, my Citibank Visa as performed unexceptionally average, if you know what I mean. No fee, no special interest rates, accepted everywhere, etc. Nothing to write home about but nothing to complain about either. My opinions and experiences may be of some use in two areas that may still be differentiators among credit card companies today: customer service and account management via the Internet.
Account management via Internet: Citibank has a well designed site that allows you to do almost anything on the Internet. That's good. What's not good is that the site continues to be buggy. Problem 1: Every other page refuses to load, sometimes 5 or more times in a row, and then it will finally load. This is just a hassle when trying to view account info, but is downright terrifying when trying to make an electronic payment to your account. Imagine: "Click here to authorize your $1000 payment" - You click and up pops the familiar "Page not Found" error from Internet Explorer. What do you do then? Go back and pay $1000 again? Or would that mean you're paying $1000 twice? Oh no! That's Citibank's web site for you. And it has happened to me at work, at home, and at a friend's house, on dial up, T1 and cable modem, so it's not just my PC set-up. I've contacted Citibank twice via email regarding this problem with no response. I've had this problem since I started using their website (about Sept 2000) and continue to have it (Feb 2001). Problem 2: Citibank does have an electronic payment function, but even when you do manage to make one payment instead of two or three (because of the buggy pages), you are not allowed to schedule the payment. It's automatically deducted from your checking account via the ACH system about 3 days after you "make" it. "Make" is in quotes because Citibank does not recognize your ACH payment until they actually receive the cash. This is totally inconsistent with the way they treat paper checks (when they receive a paper check, they post is to your account even though they don't get the cash until the check clears the system 3 or so days later - the check also uses the ACH system). So, they are actually PENALIZING you for using the Internet to make a payment despite the fact that it almost surely saves them money and in most cases means they get their cash faster. This also adds a lot of inconvenience to electronic payments. You cannot just make your electronic payment on the due date because Citibank will then charge you a late fee since the ACH won't clear for 3 or so days (note that if they receive a paper check on the due date, you are not charged a late fee, even though they still don't receive the cash for 3 or so days since the check also uses the ACH to clear). Internet payers are essentially second-class citizens at Citibank. Even worse, you can't just make your Internet payment, say, 3 days before your due date, because if your due date's a Monday, 3 days before is a Friday which means they won't get the ACH cleared until Wednesday... get my drift? It's even worse with holidays. And since you can't schedule your payment, to be safe you better make your Internet payment 6-7 days before your due date. Hmmm... sounds like good old snail mail might be easier. Oh, watch out for those late fees too. One day "late" and, ZAP! You're charged.
That moves us on to problem 3: Customer service. I've called Citibank customer service many times and always have to wade through a 2-3 minute touch-tone menu to get put on hold for a real person. I guess what do you expect these days? One time sticks out in my mind. Once, I called to ask for an increased credit line (I have an excellent payment history and am a very profitable customer for them). I was a few dollars over my limit (maybe $20-$30), hence I wanted to increase the limit. I remember all those ads Citibank used to run, about the customer being in a jam and needing some credit and all it takes is a few keystrokes from the nice customer service person and - poof - they have more credit. Well, it didn't exactly work that way. I found myself in Catch-22's-ville with a powerless customer service rep. Seems that as long as I was over my limit I couldn't get a limit increase, hmmm... The solution, I had to track down one of the merchants and get them to cancel a charge, call Citibank who then increased my limit, and then contact the cooperative merchant and let them know it was ok to make the charge again. The merchant was my savior, not Citibank.
Bottom line: Definitely nothing special about them. If you want good service, keep looking since you won't find it with Citibank.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
broadbandbilly
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Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 2 members
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