Question
over 30 days late and I got accessed 2 late fees, but I paid the entire balance off. I would think as soon as I did that they would re-open my account. The balance was also a tiny amount ($100). One of the reasons it was late was because I don't actively use it and it was an oversight on my part. It is a Citibank card with rewards and I am about to be elgible for $100. Do you think they closed for that reason? Or perhaps because I don't actively use the card. In any case, I asked that the account be re-opened and I have paid off the balance entirely, but Citibank stills says no, and they are sending me a letter.
Answer
I doubt that a bank like Citibank would close your account simply to avoid paying a rebate.
You stated that you were late in making payments twice. That suggests you will not make on-time payments in the future, and increases your liklihood to default. In other words, any bank would see you as higher risk.
You're being late likely triggered a credit review. The bank probably looked at your overall credit rating and payment history with other creditors. Have you been late with any other bank? Are you near your credit lines elsewhere? Are you disputing something with your landlord/mortgage holder? These and other events are not good.
You might want to check out www.myfico.com (http://www.myfico.com) or similar services to see how the banks view your liklihood to pay on time.
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On the road, In the air,
I enjoy travel, From here to there.
[This message has been edited by ontheroad (edited Dec 11, 2003).]
Answer
my credit is excellent. i was late 2 months in a row (over 30 days).
i had another problem with citibank regarding autopay earlier in the year. i tried to change the bank info 3 times because i changed banks, but somehow it wouldn't take on citibank's computers! the reps must not be used to doing that procedure and did some key sequence incorrectly.
since i was late i used speedpay to pay by phone but the rep used the wrong acct number-- off by a digit. this happened again as i discovered today!! anyway, i talked with a manager and he said my account would be re-opened after the payment goes through. but the other day, another manager said it would not be re-opened and that i would have to wait for 6 months!!
i realize these managers don't have an easy job dealing with problem cases day after day, but taking the time to read through my case would have helped instead of rendering a decision in few minutes. the other manager claimed she could read and listen to what i was saying even though there must of at least a screen of reading to do. that's probably how they got my account number screwed up by not listening closely. i am sure the managers/rep performance is based on how fast they can deal with a call as a way of cost cutting, but accuracy is important too.
well, thanks for reading.
Answer
Originally posted by Magna:
my credit is excellent. i was late 2 months in a row (over 30 days).
Why would you say that? Do you know your actual FICO score after all these lateness? You did not have two 30 day late... You had one 60 day late, which is the next level up in the credit risk. It is only sligtly better than a 90 day late, the most severe type of late payment.
When a debt is over 90 days old, most creditors know the chance of recovering that is very slim.
Answer
when i first attempted to pay the balance off i was 40-something days late, but i got hit with 2 late fees. re-reading what i wrote i can see it's unclear. i meant i got hit with 2 fees in a row, not 30 + 30 = 60 days late. when you're late your call goes through to collections not customer service. collections told me i had good credit and also didn't understand why my account would be closed even after i paid off my balance. it seems the previous (first) manager i spoke with was wrong (at least i hope so). so on the third try using speedpay (pay by phone via checking acct), i hope this manager was paying attention and got the correct acct number. i also mailed a payment just to be sure my account gets paid off. if you're over 65 days late, it gets reported to the credit agencies according to what the manager said. if speedpay fails again, it's going to close with the mail payment. if nothing goes wrong with the mail, i think my mail payment will make it in for 64 days late.
you would think in the old days of mailing payments there would be more problems, but i never experienced a problem.
with autopay and speedpay, when it works it's great, but fixing a problem there's big grief. for those who insist on only paying their bills by "pushing" and instead of "pulling" i think you have a great point.
so i should know by next week if everything finally worked out.
Answer
Ok Citibank has acknowledge their mistake of mixing up my account numbers for pay by phone, so they have finally reveersed the late fees and the return check fees. I also requested that my card be re-opened so I can use it. Citibank policy is to close your account if you have a return check fee. So I thought everything was all set until I tried to use it and it wouldn't work--transaction declined. I called Citibank on the spot and the manager said the account was not re-opened but that she would re-open it but it would take 2 business days. So it seems slowly that things are reticfying, but it takes 2 or 3 calls over the same issue!!! I tried to pay by bill via phone but the first time the rep got the wrong account number because he wasn't paying attention, thus put in the computer an account number off by one digit. Call a second time because the first one didn't go through and again the same problem!!! I am guessing that there's some problem/complication with their computer system that doesn't allow changes to be made, thus my payment is returned again even though I had the rep repeat the account number at least 3 times. Does the rep figure that the account number on the computer is correct when in fact it isn't and just hits the enter key or does the rep. revise the account number to the correct one, but the computer system doesn't take it. same problem regarding the re-opening of my account after it got paid off with the correct account number (finally!), i asked the manager to re-open my account, and he said no problem, contrary to what I was told before that i had to wait 5 months. but whatever that manager did, it didn't take which caused the transaction to fail. hopefully this time it will work. similar problem with autopay, i had to call citibank at least 3 times for them to stop autopay on an account of mine that was closed, but for 3 months citibank kept on attempting to take money from my closed checking account (which I told them it was closed) and that would hit my account with fees.
don't know if the reps are not trained properly on the procedures or that the computer system they use is not user-friendly. whatever it is, it's frustrating to have to call LITERALLY 3 times to one tranaction taken care, meanwhile I get hit with fees and on my record on Citibank it looks like I am a problem case.
Also, you all must know now that Citibank CS is not 24 hours anymore. I read all these posts regarding CS, I just don't think excellent or very good CS exists anymore. You're lucky if you get competentent and accurate CS, forget about good CS.
Our interface with these companies is via the phone, why doesn't these companies (not just Citibank) see the value of well-trained reps?? I suppose they're thinking that if all companies have so-so CS then Citibank doesn't seem to standout as having a particularly bad level of service.
I remember when AmEx CS was great. Luckily for me nothing really bad has happened, but I have read numerous posts attacking AmEx CS.
Even DC customer service which has been written about as out of this world is going down a bit in my opinion. I would gladly pay extra for the "insurance" of dealing with a company that supports me and has very good CS. I suppose I am in the minority, otherwise, these companies would stress CS, instead of cutting back. After years of bragging 24 hour CS, Citibank CS closes at midnight. Ok, enough of my rant. Any comments whether for or against my arguement/situation is welcome. :-)