I just got a letter from these people offering me the chance to apply for a $5,000 60 month loan at 18.9%. Hey my credit is not the best so who are these guys? I do have Providian gold and Cap One gold but I also have 3 chargeoffs on my record including CIIBANK. When I looked these guys up on the search key here Gulf states collection agency was mentioned. Is this a scam? I am concerned that I am about to be ripped off.
Look for the typical Citibank logo, with the red arch joining the two i's. That means it's legitimate, from CitiFinancial, part of Citigroup. It sounds as if there's some nasty collection agency with a similar name. Let the logo decide whether there's a connection to Citigroup, which would rule out a collection agency scam. If legitimate, this could be good. You could add an installment loan to your reports, and maybe pay off some subprime debt or close some subprime accounts. On the other hand, finance companies like CitiFinancial are looked down upon by some prime creditors...
Thanks Richguy. The arch is there but it is black. They say they are a member of Citigroup, a $716 billion family of financial services companies. Sounds like Citibank to me. But if it is I am shocked. Why do business with me after the chargeoff? Any further ideas?
I would guess that Citibank and CitiFinancial have separate businesses and databases. CitiFinancial used to be called Commercial Credit, and was totally separate. It was part of Travelers Group before they merged with Citibank. It's kind of like Associates, which merged into Citigroup but is still largely separate.
You are one knowledgeable guy! I just found the Ctifinancial website and located the office they want me to contact. They are the finance company of Citigroup. Travelers was being advertised. Their interest is high but just imagine getting a loan from them???? Boggles the mind. LOL
Citifinancial is actually what was known as AVCO. Please Don't believe all those letters--I get them ALL the time. We deal at my job with Citi daily--it's one of the companies that we go thru for financing of furniture. I cannot get a loan thru them and all my bad stuff is almost 3 years old--the charge offs are around 5 years. Just a note, the letters that I get offfering loans are signed by a branch "manager" Like I said, I see this guy all the time and it's not even his signature am
Angela, I'm brand new in this forum and pretty much in the credit-repair arena, but from the little I've read, Gulf State (who also goes under OVI or OTI something-or-other) is an unscrupulous ghost company that would rather pay the fines imposed by the law WHEN they are caught, than do legitimate business. I've read about them in other forums... pretty bad stuff. I hope we're not talking about the same company.
I heard Citifinancial unsecured loan is pretty high. It get up to 18%-19%. I can borrow from my credit card and it has much lower rate.