Feb 03, 2009 02:06 AM
7451 Views
(Updated Mar 02, 2009 12:53 PM)
I work in a US bank and during the course of the job, it was getting clearer that many foreign banks including Citibank were eyeing the slow down in the years of 2007/2008. There projections were showing some sort of recession in the world economy and that they need to cover up their losses from any given source. The best option was to move towards the developing countries and offer them loans/credit cards/ schemes and try to make the good of the most inevitable loss.
If you all remember some years back the banks went crazy to offer credit cards to almost everyone! They kept calling you everyday to get you a card and they didn't left you even when you were in malls/outside cinema halls/ hotels etc. So the reason being that the entire gimmick was a pure business! And why not, they are not in love with us to offer anything for free. A credit card can earn them as good as 40% p.a or even more these days. Just read their charges and you will discover how our pockets die a silent death when we swipe our hard earned money to them!
Coming to our most trusted cheater in the industry - Citibank, I was blessed (read cursed) with one of their cards. Would like to mention that I got a welcome kit from the office while in induction and I never applied for this card. It came over all of a sudden. The story started when I asked them that I need a photo embossed card on the card for security. They demanded 16 photos with an interval of almost 4 months. Nothing happened as expected. Further I got almost 21 ATM pins for their debit card and same nuber for this credit card during intervals of 3 months. I requested them that all the communication shall be and should be only my home address. They made sure that the request is entertained and sent all the Debit cards (Where I get my salary) and credit card statments towards my office address! Very professional!
Part two: My credit card got stolen and I called the bank to block the usage/card. They didn’t! The card got swiped for all the 4 months and my outstanding roused to Rs.22000. Due to cost cutting measures they stopped the physical statements to my house, (I had to change the address from office to home and for that I had visited their bank in person with all the documents). I was getting normal SMSs of the various transactions that were running out of my card just helplessly. I thought to stop the payments on the card unless I get the physical statements delivered. To my horror they gave me a New Year gift of blacklisting me and putting my name under CIBIL on the basis of continuous default! Due to this I cant get any personal loan/education loan (loans where a physical asset is not involved for the bank as a security).
I pleaded to get the issue resolved and that I am ready to pay my actual outstanding of Rs.8500. They charged me huge interest charges and penalties and settled the issue @ Rs.13000. I have their receipt that my name shall be removed from the CIBIL since the account is settled. To test this I anonymously applied for a personal loan which got rejected on basis of poor credit rating. THAT IS CITIBANK FOR YOU!
Characteristics of Citibank:
Their prime motto is to cheat as many as they can and as much as they can.
They are here to indemnify there losses and blacklist as many Indians as they can.
They levy charges which are not even mentioned in their fine printed documents.(* conditins apply and rules are subject to change without prior notice and as per the liking and in favour of the bank)
They are masters of forgery and can forge your signatures. (They did this to issue me C card by applying for one without me asking for it!)
Customer care is rude as expected.
And finally, they are your customer and they make you pay for everything that they do!
God help those who are in their clutches and save them who might get into their nets.
The agony is that we have to share this planet with them before they get knock out naturally.
Thank you for reading the review and your valuable comments are deeply requested.
