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Title: Another Strange Day: CitiBank Increased my Rate from 4.99% to 18.99% Today
Source: Here at 4um
URL Source: [None]
Published: Nov 9, 2009
Author: buckeroo
Post Date: 2009-11-09 20:15:34 by buckeroo
Keywords: None
Views: 2266
Comments: 74

I received a letter today from CitiBank about the credit card I have with them. It is a Diamond Rewards Preferred Card (the black stealthy looking one) that has a credit ceiling beyond $25K.

They have changed their rates on my account from 4.99% to 18.99%. I called their HOTLINE and they say I am an excellent customer with an excellent account with excellent credit and there is nothing they can do about it. That within the current business climate, they MUST remain competitive by extending credit to all customers.

Two months ago American Express did the same. And three months ago, Discover Card simply canceled my cards for lack of usage.

I have come to the realization that other than business purposes there is no reason for credit cards. Yet, sometimes I can not use my bank debit card at local restaurants and businesses without fees or outright decline.

I am afraid, that credit consumerism in America is all but over, even for the most responsible of us.

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 5.

#1. To: buckeroo (#0)

Even post-divorce, my credit rating nudged 800, sometimes a bit over, sometimes under, and all my cards have jacked the rates. I got the same story when I called in, credit has contracted, they're doing this across the board, etc.

I use Amex or debit now.

Samuel Gray  posted on  2009-11-09   20:19:56 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

Former Citibank CEO John Reed: I’m sorry for my rold in building Citigroup

Bloomberg

Friday, November 6th 2009, 1:21 PM John Reed, former Citigroup CEO Sullivan/Getty John Reed, former Citigroup CEO

John S. Reed, who helped engineer the merger that created Citigroup Inc., apologized for his role in building a company that has taken $45 billion in direct U.S. aid and said banks that big should be divided into separate parts.

“I’m sorry,” Reed, 70, said in an interview yesterday. “These are people I love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it’s not easy to see what’s happened.”

Citigroup was formed in 1998 when Citicorp, a commercial bank, combined with Sanford I. Weill’s Travelers Group Inc., which owned the investment firm Salomon Smith Barney Holdings Inc. The New York-based company lost $27.7 billion in 2008 and took $118 billion in writedowns. Now 34 percent-owned by the Treasury Department, Citigroup sought help in the wake of a credit freeze that claimed three of Wall Street’s biggest firms and led to the deepest recession in 70 years.

Congress’ overhaul of U.S. financial regulations should include ordering banks to hold more capital, ensuring executives’ compensation is aligned with long-term profitability and banning firms that take deposits from also engaging in equities and fixed-income trading, Reed said.

“I would compartmentalize the industry for the same reason you compartmentalize ships,” Reed said in the interview in his office on Park Avenue in New York. “If you have a leak, the leak doesn’t spread and sink the whole vessel. So generally speaking you’d have consumer banking separate from trading bonds and equity.”

Glass-Steagall Repeal Lawmakers were wrong to repeal the Depression-era Glass- Steagall Act in 1999, Reed said. At the time, he supported overturn of the law, which required the separation of institutions that engaged in traditional customer banking services from those involved in capital markets.

“We learn from our mistakes,” said Reed, who wrote an Oct. 21 letter to the editor of the New York Times endorsing a division of banking activities. “When you’re running a company, you do what you think is right for the stockholders. Right now I’m looking at this as a citizen.”

Reed headed Citicorp for 14 years until the merger with Travelers. The deal created the world’s biggest financial company in a stock swap valued at about $85 billion. Reed and Weill were co-chairmen and co-chief executive officers until Reed’s retirement in 2000.

Citigroup spokesman Stephen Cohen declined to comment.

Reed’s Compensation From 1997 to 1999, Reed received salary and bonuses totaling $23.4 million, according to Citigroup filings. In 2000, he received a retirement bonus of $5 million, filings show. Citigroup provides him with an assistant and a New York office, for which he pays taxes, he said

The third-largest U.S. bank, Citigroup shed about $300 billion in assets, or 13 percent of its total, in the third quarter and is selling what it calls non-core properties, according to regulatory filings. The company said yesterday that it will spi off its Primerica Financial Services subsidiary.

CEO Vikram S. Pandit has eliminated about 100,000 jobs since late 2007, reducing the headcount by 26 percent as of Sept. 30.

Citigroup pioneered the production of collateralized debt obligations, bundles of loans whose cash flows were sold to investors. When subprime mortgage borrowers began defaulting on payments in 2007, the CDOs lost value and became part of Citigroup’s $118 billion in writedowns and credit losses.

In the last year, the bank received $45 billion from the U.S. government to bolster its capital and another $300 billion in loss guarantees. The Treasury Department retained its 34 percent stake after converting a portion of the $45 billion in rescue funds to equity.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/11/06/2009-11-06_bank_merger_man_john_reed_im_sorry_i_ever_built_citigroup.html#ixzz0WPpOgeMq

buckeroo  posted on  2009-11-09   20:26:45 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

#18. To: buckeroo, all (#5)

Buck, guys,

We have three CC's that we use.

If we get billed for say $525.83, I just round up the payment to $600. 'cause I know that we've jammed it a few times since they've billed us.

Besides, it's much easier to write the check in round numbers these days.

Lod  posted on  2009-11-09 21:05:07 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

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