Credit Card BS...

[radas]

I'm glad that someone mentioned Wells Fargo's business practices. I personally will never do business with Well Fargo in any way.

They truly are a terrible, unethical company.

 

[Henro]

Oops! I‘d blame it on fat fingers but just bonehead mistake in my thoughts. With Citi 1 point = $0.01. It hasn’t changed anything. What I had in dollars before is now in points X 100. You can still cash the points in and redeem as cash to your bank account if you wish. This is the only option I do. Sorry for the mistake.

I was thinking the same thing, although I was suspicious of the motivation for the change. Something like "In order to server our customers better, we are using an automated call answering system"...BS...we all know they are doing it to cut costs at the expense of customer service.

Anyway, I figured it was a non issue, until I somehow got charged 25% more for a purchase, for unknown reasons, as I did not intend to use point for the purchase, and would never have agreed to it had it been an obvious choice. I concede that I may have missed something...but if so, it was not obvious...I guess they were looking out for my best interest again...LOL

Why would I EVER use points rather than cash if it cost me 25% more for the purchase than just paying cash would????

As far as business practices go, I bet they all are equally undesirable, just that some are exposed and others are not.

In the end, this insignificant episode will probably cost Citi Bank a lot more than the two bucks I lost in the experience.

 

[ejb11235]

I was thinking the same thing, although I was suspicious of the motivation for the change. Something like "In order to server our customers better, we are using an automated call answering system"...BS...we all know they are doing it to cut costs at the expense of customer service.

Anyway, I figured it was a non issue, until I somehow got charged 25% more for a purchase, for unknown reasons, as I did not intend to use point for the purchase, and would never have agreed to it had it been an obvious choice. I concede that I may have missed something...but if so, it was not obvious...I guess they were looking out for my best interest again...LOL

Why would I EVER use points rather than cash if it cost me 25% more for the purchase than just paying cash would????

As far as business practices go, I bet they all are equally undesirable, just that some are exposed and others are not.

In the end, this insignificant episode will probably cost Citi Bank a lot more than the two bucks I lost in the experience.

Good to see that I'm not the only one who writes "server" instead of "serve". I'm a computer guy ... what's your excuse?

Using points directly for purchasers ... I would guess that the majority go for the convenience without doing the math.

Citi Bank's history includes taking gold looted by the Nazis, so yeah, I suspect none of these banks is particularly clean.

 

[Henro]

Good to see that I'm not the only one who writes "server" instead of "serve". I'm a computer guy ... what's your excuse?

English was my least favorite subject in HS...LOL

Got past that when I attended a university, starting in my mid 20's.

I will claim "server" was the result of the spell check effect though...certainly cannot be my responsibility in any way...We all know it is ALWAYS the other guy, right?

 

[Henro]

Got a letter from Wells Fargo today. My credit rating is 832 on a scale of 850 that they use, but they declined me be cause I am dead (deceased in their language).

ROFLMAO…

Reality is that I must have mistyped my SSN.

I’ll try again, just for fun…

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I surprised no one has mentioned Credit Unions?
I won't use a Bank, all they want to do is charge fee's for everything including keeping my money or giving me my money.
I have 4 loans (personal and business), and 4 accounts (personal and business) and never have issues.
I can walk into the local branch and they all know me by name and don't give me any grief.
And when I don't hit a local branch which is rare, they just ask for ID then they are more than helpful.

I get money back on my Debit card just like my Credit Card, and none of my accounts charge me any fees!

 

[Henro]

I surprised no one has mentioned Credit Unions?
I won't use a Bank, all they want to do is charge fee's for everything including keeping my money or giving me my money.
I have 4 loans (personal and business), and 4 accounts (personal and business) and never have issues.
I can walk into the local branch and they all know me by name and don't give me any grief.
And when I don't hit a local branch which is rare, they just ask for ID then they are more than helpful.

I get money back on my Debit card just like my Credit Card, and none of my accounts charge me any fees!

I am only looking for the max cash back from making credit card purchases...I do have a 1.5 percent cash back card from USAA, but 2 percent is better. Always pay everything off monthly, and NEVER pay interest.

So I get another rejection letter today from WF stating AGAIN that I am dead!

I call again for fun, and this woman says I need to visit a branch office...certainly not going to waste my time. Guess I will just get used to playing the points game with Citi bank.

Kind of amazes me, as I did log into Experian, the credit Bureau that WF uses, and found that my credit rating with them is 832 out of 850. AND no notice that I am deceased either. LOL

The one desirable thing about the WF card for me is that it is a Visa card, while Citi is a Mastercard. Costco only accepts Visa, so I lose .5 percent cash back at Costco. Don't buy that much there anyway...

Maybe since I am dead, that explains why I seem to get less of the "you're pre approved for our credit card..." mail.

End of story here.

 

[fried1765]

The plot thickens a bit...

The issue is really a non issue, but I really wanted to understand it!

Tried again this morning, and after suffering through maybe 10 layers of telephone prompts, I did get a person that I could hear and pretty much understand when I called this morning.

What puzzled me yesterday was I could not see the transaction on my Citibank account when viewed online. Talking to this person this morning it turns out they are not seeing the transaction either, and since it cannot be viewed it can only be assumed that it was canceled. Now this person claimed that there is no record maintained of transactions that are canceled. I kind of found that hard to believe but thought maybe it’s the truth.

So at that point in time rather than feeling like I was overcharged, now I felt like I was under charged and actually did not pay for the hoagie...But I felt I should pay for it, since I picked it up and ate it.

I kept asking questions until I felt I was understanding what he was claiming...totally...without question I understood.

Hung up, then looked on line at the Citi Bank credit card again, and something did not make sense. The points I had at the beginning of May, showed up as being about 1100 points more than now. BUT I did not cash any in.

So I call back and fight through the automated system AGAIN, only because I can do it while reading the news, woodworking and tractor sites as I always do in the morning...and chose a different option this time. I get a person that is obviously in India again, but I can actually hear him and understand him mostly.

He ends up transferring me to the rewards department (I assume), and the guy I get there is still on a pretty good connection, which suddenly turns bad, and I can only hear every other word! I ask him to speak very slowly, as the connection is really bad. He does and somehow we are able to actually communicate.

Turns out he can see that indeed points were deducted from my account in payment of the hoagie. BUT instead of charging one point per penny of purchase, PayPal charges 1.25 points per penny of purchase. So my purchase that should have been $9.08 was charged in points, which are real money to me, at 25% higher than the purchase price.

Now I did not agree, at least not intentionally, to pay for the purchase in points. I never do and never would. BUT I now know the answer to what happened.

My guess this is a kind of scam driven by both Citi Bank and PayPal. PayPal likely ends up with more commission for a purchase, and Citi Bank ends up with paying less to PayPal, all covered by the 25% excess charged to me.

The guy I talked to said he can cancel PayPal's ability to charge me points for purchases, and that he had done that.

Still, I am turned off by this experience. I will start using the Wells Fargo card if they send one, which I think they will, as my credit rating is pretty high, in the exceptional range, whatever that means.

Anyway, the story has an ending...LOL...not necessarily a happy one, but at least something...

Edit: I used to use Discover but 2% back is MUCH better than 1% back, so I cancelled the Discover card and went with Citi. For me it is all about cash back...usually have no need for customer service...If they actually answer the phone, with a native speaker at the end, that is all I need, which is rare. Also want a good connection. LOL Wells Fargo actually did that when I tested them. BUT that could change tomorrow.

I do have a 1.5% cash back with USAA Bank...but again, 2% is better than 1.5%.

I switched from Citi Card to Wells Fargo back in December.
So far.......there has been no game playing at Wells Fargo!
Just called Wells Fargo with a potential charge dispute yesterday.
I spoke with a English first language agent,.... wherever he was.

 

[fried1765]

I surprised no one has mentioned Credit Unions?
I won't use a Bank, all they want to do is charge fee's for everything including keeping my money or giving me my money.
I have 4 loans (personal and business), and 4 accounts (personal and business) and never have issues.
I can walk into the local branch and they all know me by name and don't give me any grief.
And when I don't hit a local branch which is rare, they just ask for ID then they are more than helpful.

I get money back on my Debit card just like my Credit Card, and none of my accounts charge me any fees!

I live hundreds of miles distant from my credit union!

 

[Henro]

I switched from Citi Card to Wells Fargo back in December.
So far.......there has been no game playing at Wells Fargo!
Just called Wells Fargo with a potential charge dispute yesterday.
I spoke with a English first language agent,.... wherever he was.

I'm sure in my case it is just falling into the wrong slot, and digging out is more effort than it is worth...