Comments on: Citibank Rate Increases: Be Sure to Opt Out

By: Darin

Darin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:37:08 +0000

I’ve been a Citi Card holder for alomost 3 years. They had a thing on my card saying they were raising rates for several cardholders for the following reasons: late payment (I’ve never been late), overlimit charge (I’ve always been well under my limit) and if a checked bounce. (that has never happend either). It was in my billing statement and since I did not meet any of the criteria; I did not think it applied to me. This week my bill came and my rate was hiked from 9.99 to 29.99. I have very good credit and I have never been late paying a bill since I was college. ( I am almost 40 years old) This rate increase results than more than double my minimum payment. They have definately lost me as a customer.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:40:17 +0000

What are the terms and conditions of opting out? I haven’t heard exactly how this works and if there is any ‘fine print’. How do they work this? How do they bill you for payments–as in do they hit you with huge payments each month or something you can afford? Do you have only an alloted time period to pay off all of the charges? Can someone please enlighten me??????

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:40:58 +0000

If every consumer with good credit called Citi to cancel their card they would be left with the dogs that can’t get any other cards and watch their best customers leave. Now “every” is unreasonable to expect, but if 5% left they would notice, and if 10% left maybe those MBAs that came up with the plan wouldn’t get their multi-million dollar bonus this year.

I know I called and cancelled my card, and let them know why. I opened an account with Chase that is under 10%. Vote with your pockets, people!

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:16:12 +0000

There are some great conversations on this site! I want to thank everyone for your comments and for giving me a better understanding on what is happening to my credit. I am just like everyone else here, in that I am experiencing a change in my interest rate but my institution is Navy Federal Credit Union. My question is, what can I really, truly do about this? Legally? These companies are acting unethically and unmorally and I want to hold them accountable for their actions instead of paying them more money. I would appreciate anyone’s thoughts .10 cent worth (inflation) on this.

By: TodinMS

TodinMS — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:55:49 +0000

BE ADVISED!
I opted out via Phone about two months back per the instruction in the memo. My APR is now 25.99% and every time I call, they tell me my rate is my old rate but the statement has not picked up the correct rate yet, do these people think were all idiots? My Credit score is almost 800, I ALWAYS pay my bills and my prev rate was 5.99% for the last 5 years and now they add on 20% because of their ENRON’esque book keeping and greedy execs. Why do the middle class hard working people have to float these scum bags, they force their cards on you like Viagra and continue to pay they execs in gold, what’s wrong with this picture? That is why this country is going down the toilet; everything is corrupt/out of control from the top down.
To quote Patrick Swaze (RIP) “WOLVERINE!”

CITI LIES like all the rest!

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:39:25 +0000

I think the people that are opting out are missing the point. If you are mad at citi then the best thing you can do is stay in the program and just not use the card very much or at all. This has two benefits, first it maintains your credit score which is most important and second it costs them more money to maintain your account, send statements, etc.

So you get a little bit of revenge and you aren’t dinged on your credit score.

Also depending on how the legal changes go they may be forced to reduce those rates in the future. Not holding my breath but you never know.

By: Martha Hathaway

Martha Hathaway — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:30:15 +0000

I didn’t opt out a year or so ago when they raised the rate a little bit (11% to 15 %), and I understood when my credit limit was lowered in the midst of the financial crisis, but the recent rate increase to 29.99% has lost them a customer. My account was in good standing, and had citibank given any thought to customer satisfaction, I’m sure they would not have imposed such a rapacious interest rate on customers across the board (according to the news). This is the sort of move that seems destined to backfire in a big way.

By: bill

bill — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:03:51 +0000

My Citi card is going from 9.9% to 29.99% so I opt. out. It’s bullsh-t and I hope they go down !

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:42:39 +0000

Kitty actually has it right except for one thing. Forgot to include that it was poor management that caused all of this. The handwriting was on the wall for this collapse long before it was even made public. Anyone with common sense could have seen that Wall Street was highly inflated. Fortunately I work in the housing industry (building and construction). I watched how people who couldn’t afford a 100,000 home were getting loans of 300,000 or more. Our job, however was to build these homes. We were getting paid. But we were also smart enough to expect the roof to come tumbling down. I rid myself of all stocks save for a few and probably lost a few thousand as my timing was not perfect, but at the same time, I didn’t take a hit like so many others did and lost 60% of my worth.

Prince was an idiot and Pandit is no better. They are doing this because of their global division is in total chaos. Right now, management has no clue what to do. They are grasping at straws. But from the many blogs out there regarding what Citi, as well as other major banks are doing with their rate increase, this strategy might not work. If they alienate too many people and they see their balances transferred as I did, this is going to hurt them badly. When you ask people you lent money to, who barely could afford to make their minimums at a lower rate to pay a higher rate, you are asking for default.

I can agree that many people have no business with a credit card as they are irresponsible with them. If I were in charge, the first thing I would do is look at risk assessment management, which in the case of Citi was grossly mismanaged. They made bad decisions with their CDO’s as well as CDS’s. They saw an opportunity to cash in but neglected to maintain a proper balance to ensure that if things went bad, they wouldn’t take the hit that they did. It was a classic case of GREED. They weren’t happy enough make a few billion dollars. They wanted 10’s of billions. And now they want us to pay for their mistakes.

As for them going under. I wish they would. In a free society, like any other business, there will always be responsibly managed institutions that can step in and pick up the slack. This isn’t as easy as I make it out to be but it is done everyday. If I ran my company into the ground because of poor management and decision making, no one is going to toss me the money I would need for basically free. My competitors would swoop in like vultures and take away my clientel. That’s the way a free-market system works. And that can be done to any business on any scale.

Without sounding socialist (which I am not) stricter regulations need to be placed on any institution that if fails, can cause economic turmoil to our country. When a company grows so large that it can affect an economy the size of the United States, it needs oversight. Not just the whims and desires of a board interested in it’s own interests. This would insure that these companies remain solvent. We all want to make as much money as we can and that is a given right in the United States. But the line between GREED and it’s inherent failure can’t outweigh the economic future of the masses.

By: JS

JS — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:13:04 +0000

As someone who pays their bills on time I too am getting letters from most of my credit cards that they are raising my interest rates. Not just a little but a lot. Aren’t they getting their money at 0% from the Feds?
Everybody just stop paying your credit cards and mortage payments. Soon we will all get a bailout and those greedy bastards will be begging us for their business.