I'm being preyed upon by Citi MasterCard

[brentspeak]

If this isn't 'predatory lending', I don't know what is.

A few months ago, I opted to enroll in the Citi MasterCard, with a 0% APR for three months after purchase. I received a statement on March 14th for a minimum balance that's due on March 27th.

That's cutting it kinda close. So I attempted to pay my balance online. Uh oh! Turns out, Citi doesn't allow their MasterCards to be paid online. So, I went to the nearest CitiBank branch (about 20 minutes away). Nope, not there either: you can't pay your Citi MC bill at CitiBank branches. Finally, today, I paid $5.25 to send a payment to Des Moines, Iowa, Priority Mail, to make sure it gets there by the 27th.

Something tells me Citi wants to make it hard for its customers to pay their balances on time.

[alarimer]

1. All of my credit cards can be paid online

That still does not guarantee it's on time, however.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. My employer uses CitiCard for both company and personal purchases.

Each month we pay the bill, in full, on time with two checks, one for the company and one for his personal purchases. We got our statement today and saw that they had only posted one payment which left a balance on our statement of less than $40.00. They had also charged a finance charge of over $80.00. He called customer service to find out why this had happened. He was told that they only show receipt of one payment, they don't advise sending more than one check with a payment and that the finance charge was indeed for the unpaid balance. The customer service rep then asked if there was anything else she could help him with! I expect we will discontinue the use of that card.

[hippywife]

3. They'll probably still

sit on it until the 28th. :eyes:

[philosophie_en_rose]

4. You need another card.

I pay my cards online and they post on the same day I click the button. Credit Card companies make enough money without intentionally screwing people over.

[pitohui]

5. they do allow you to pay your citibank mastercard online

i don't know what your issue is but we've been doing it for years

since it is too expensive to keep sending payments by priority mail, if you can't work it out with them -- and i admit their customer service has been non responsive when i've asked them questions in the past about online payments, i had to figure it out myself -- i would suggest returning the card and requesting them to close the account and be sure to let them know why

there are a lot of credit cards out there, you don't have to put up with this crap

i've noticed what you mention about the very short "grace period," giving you really only two weeks to pay, so you really HAVE to pay online these days with citibank in my humble opinion -- we used to have 30 days to pay and they tightened this period without any notice very suddenly a few years back

again, if they won't help you set up to pay online, return the card, we shouldn't reward lenders for acting like buttholes

[brentspeak]

9. I just called customer service, and asked why I can't pay online

They said that the kind of card I have is a "new" type of Citi MC, not a Citi banking card, and is maintained by some private agency, not Goodyear.

I asked when online payment will be available for these new cards, and I was told that "they're working on it", but no time-frame is available.

Yeah, I'm going to quickly pay off this card and then cancel.

[Madrone]

6. I pay my citibank MC online.

And have since my very first payment. You DO have to have your bank routing number in order to set it up though.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. I'll make a guess here on what happened.

I remember that the first time I tried to pay online they required that I specify a checking account that had been used to make payments in the past, else they would only allow me to make the minimum payment online for the first month. If this is a new account and the first bill, they have no record of ANY valid checking account for you and their fraud algorithm won't allow online payment yet. As I said, just a guess.

[Midlodemocrat]

8. I pay my Citibank MasterCard online.

:shrug:

[Wcross]

10. No grace period? Drop them like the bad habit they are!

Mine always transfers online when I hit the button. In three months I am cutting them up, I will have no further need for credit. Pay it off & live free!

[Lex]

11. A not-so-secret: They are all trying to screw you if they are a credit card co.

nt

[barb162]

17. Whoa... isn't that the truth.

[auntAgonist]

12. I have citi MC

and I pay online. You have to set it up and it takes (I think) a week to become live once they have the information re your bank account.

I've had no problems with it so far and it's been a year.

[RebelOne]

13. Don't you have online bill payment with your bank?

That would solve the problem. You just specify what accounts you want to pay and the bank sends the checks.

[cloudbase]

14. I pay all my bills online

through my bank's system. The bank guarantees payment within two days for any company that accepts electronic payments, or they'll eat the charges. They haven't let me down yet.

[LynneSin]

15. Fortunately I bank where I have my credit cards

And they're pretty good with transferring the money on time

[lunatica]

16. Get another credit card and transfer the entire balance

This freaks them out and they will immediately send you letters offering great deals again. They view other credit card companies as their major competition. They don't want to lose their customers, they only want to squeeze them. This also works if you don't have enough to make payments (which happens sometimes if you have other unexpected expenses) You can transfer balances and then just pay one credit card. The interest rates come down very fast when they want you back. I don't suggest you make a habit of this, but it helps in a pinch. Then do your best to pay them debt down, at the lower interest rates.

If you're ever 'late' which they seem to be forcing you to be, they will suddenly increase the interest rate to astronomical levels, but if you respond by transferring the entire balance to another credit card they will turn around and offer you the low interest introductory rate again, and the 'penalty' disappears.

[Mutley]

18. Of course they want to make it difficult.

They make money on late fees.

[racaulk]

19. I have a Citibank MasterCard and can make my payments online.

:shrug:

But I'm sorry you're having problems with it.