Citibank: Bad, but Happy Ending

I had a major problem with Citibank "repricing."

After Citibank bought Associates, they decided to raise the interest rates on the old "subprime" Associates cards. My little $500 Visa with no annual fee, on which I had faithfully made payments for two years, was targeted for the typical "repricing" strategy: notify of increase, allow me to close account in writing to escape increase, count on me not reading notice or not writing letter, raise interest on 99% of all targeted accounts.

My payment record was perfect, and I had no new derogs since the card was issued, but a report from Experian (!@#$%) was used as a flimsy pretext for the increased interest rate.

I sent a letter well before the deadline, but noticed that the rate was increased anyway. I sent a second letter right before the deadline, and saw no results. Then two months ago, four months after their initial assault, the rate was back down to 20.74% (they had raised it to 26.99%). The minimum payment, which they had raised from $15 to $20 to accommodate the usurious interest rate, was back down to $15 again. But they had overcharged me on interest for two months, and I was debating what to do.

A few days ago, I noticed a balance much lower than I expected. There was a credit of about $30 on the account, and today I confirmed that it was indeed an interest rate adjustment. But it works out to the difference between 21% and 27% not just for the two months, but for an entire year.

I'm really surprised that they finally did something after such a long time, and without any further action by me, but I'm not complaining.

By the way, I had two platinum cards in good standing with Citibank at the same time they tried to gouge me on my little tiny ex-Associates Visa. The idiots who took over the subprime division were so intent on getting an extra $2.50 per month that they were willing to disrupt my entire relationship with Citibank, which goes back 9 years now.

But apparently, at least one person at Citibank has both a brain and access to the controls. That's all it takes.

 

Apparently my letters circulated for 6 months until someone decided to do something. Only at Citibank!

 

I know Saar was convinced Associates was great. He found something called the Prime Card Unit that helped him get higher CL's and lower APR's. I believe that he started with a student card like you, and took it to unimaginable heights. BTW, what is your APR like now?

I was definitely classified by Associates as subprime from the very start. A few hints would be the $500 credit limit, the 25% variable APR in the initial offer, and the fact that the offer was preapproved when I had a marginal credit history.

I asked several times for lower APR's and higher CL's, and never made any progress.

While Associates had judged me to be "subprime forever," at least they didn't charge an annual fee like so many others. They didn't start any "repricing" nonsense, either. It's truly ironic that Citibank, which offered me genuinely prime credit at one end, was so intolerant of supposedly "subprime" customers at the other that they "repriced" me. Associates had been content with the original terms, which were hardly generous to me anyway.