Citibank - BAH!

Never EVER apply for a credit card with Citibank. I don't think I've voiced my grieveances over my blog before but my fresh call to them is just the last straw.

When I applied for the card five years ago, they had asked me for a photo so that they could scan it on the front of the card. After going through the difficulty in getting a passport sized photo, I happily handed in my application form.

A few weeks later, they sent me my card, without the picture. So I called them up to find out what happened to my photo if it wasn't used. They said they would send me the one with the photo. So I waited several weeks before frustration got me to call them again. This time, a different person took my call and upon explaining this to him, he assured me the card would arrive in a week and the reason why they sent me the first card was because they were "eager" for me to have a card first while they made my actual one. What bull!

In between, there were many slip ups which led me to call them and give them a piece of my mind and in the end, I decided not to continue using the credit card. After all, I've got another one that is free for life and has excellent service. So last year, I sent them a fax saying I wanted to cancel all my cards with them and they called me back and begged me to hold on to the cards as they will waive my annual fees for two years.

I thought, why not and just in case my other card doesn't work overseas, I have a spare to back me up. Then in July, I got a statement saying I owed them for this year's annual fees. I immediately called them and told them I was promised for two years annual fees. The customer service told me it was only stated as free for one year in their system so I got fed up and said I wanted to cancel my cards for good now.

I wrote them the fax and faxed it in on 8 August 05. There was no news on this for the whole month and today, I get another statement with the same annual fees being charged, impounded with late payment AND finance fees!

Keeping my voice as pleasant as I could, I called them up just now and explained the whole story all over again. The girl told me that yes, they received the letter at the end of August and that I will need to wait one week before the cards are cancelled. That was fine with me.

Until she said, "But M'am, you are liable to pay the annual fees once it is already billed to you". That's when I exploded and got really harsh with her and also demanded to know why their fax only spews out faxes three weeks later!

Oh, and my contact numbers which have been changed for years with me updating them each time I call, still remain as the old numbers in their system.

If they demand me to pay up the annual fees for cards which I have tried to cancel again and again and which I have never used for years now, I'm going to write to the papers.