The Modern Day Loan Shark
Last week I made a deposit at a Citibank ATM but days later the deposit still hadn’t posted to my account so I gave them a call. My call was of course routed to India. (I say ‘of course’ because that seems to be the norm these days.)
Anyway, after resolving the missing deposit issue, the representative, who of course (ditto above note) introduced herself to me in heavily accented broken English… something like Alice or Amanda… told me that because of my good standing with the bank, I was eligible for a consolidation loan for up to $25,000 and wouldn’t it be wonderful to consolidate all of my high interest credit cards and make one small payment every month…yadayadayada… and would I be interested in applying. I said sure, why not.
Well, today I received a letter from the bank congratulating me on my loan approval. I didn’t qualify for the $25,000 but they were pleased to inform me that I was approved for $12,500. My interest rate over the term of 60 months would be 22.49%. I am sure they were very pleased – but I certainly wasn’t!
I wonder what rate they would have offered if I had been in bad standing with the bank.
Maybe it’s me… maybe I’m just not with the times, but if the bank I have been dealing with for more than 10 years is ‘offering me a deal’ at 22.49%, what rates are loan sharks offering these days? And what rates do they think I am paying now that would make 22.49% seem like a good deal?
Their offer would have me paying a higher interest rate than I am currently paying on any of the credit cards that I would have consolidated.
I mean, seriously, the WSJ prime interest rate is only 8.25%! That means Citibank has jacked up their rate by 14.24%.
Shouldn’t the rate have been lower? After all, aren’t they saving money by employing what’s her name over in India? Shouldn’t those savings be passed on to the customer? They could consider it compensation for the additional time spent on the phone trying to decipher what what’s her name is trying to say in broken English!
Izzitme?
Anyway, after resolving the missing deposit issue, the representative, who of course (ditto above note) introduced herself to me in heavily accented broken English… something like Alice or Amanda… told me that because of my good standing with the bank, I was eligible for a consolidation loan for up to $25,000 and wouldn’t it be wonderful to consolidate all of my high interest credit cards and make one small payment every month…yadayadayada… and would I be interested in applying. I said sure, why not.
Well, today I received a letter from the bank congratulating me on my loan approval. I didn’t qualify for the $25,000 but they were pleased to inform me that I was approved for $12,500. My interest rate over the term of 60 months would be 22.49%. I am sure they were very pleased – but I certainly wasn’t!
I wonder what rate they would have offered if I had been in bad standing with the bank.
Maybe it’s me… maybe I’m just not with the times, but if the bank I have been dealing with for more than 10 years is ‘offering me a deal’ at 22.49%, what rates are loan sharks offering these days? And what rates do they think I am paying now that would make 22.49% seem like a good deal?
Their offer would have me paying a higher interest rate than I am currently paying on any of the credit cards that I would have consolidated.
I mean, seriously, the WSJ prime interest rate is only 8.25%! That means Citibank has jacked up their rate by 14.24%.
Shouldn’t the rate have been lower? After all, aren’t they saving money by employing what’s her name over in India? Shouldn’t those savings be passed on to the customer? They could consider it compensation for the additional time spent on the phone trying to decipher what what’s her name is trying to say in broken English!
Izzitme?
Labels: Citibank, consolidation loans, interest rates, loan sharking, outsourcing, prime interest rates
posted by Toi at 1:28 AM
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