A Letter to Citibank

Dear Citibank,

I. Hate. You.

Over the past few months, you have harassed me over 1 missed student loan payment and 2 payments made ON TIME.  Let’s put this in perspective.  The government gave you a 300 BILLION dollar bailout.  My student loan payment is $70 a month.  Um, really?

Let’s review the facts:

Two months ago I forgot to hit the submit button, so my payment didn’t go through.  It was an honest mistake, and it was the only late payment I’ve made in the 4 years I’ve had this loan.  Still, you felt the need to call me multiple times a day for 3 days until the payment went through.

One month ago, I made my online payment on the due date.  The following day, a pleasant woman called to say my payment was late and asked if I could make a payment over the phone.  When I pointed out that I had made a payment the day before, she checked my account and confirmed that the payment was pending.  (By the way, glad to see that you’re up to speed on technology; it’s 2011- your system doesn’t recognize pending payments before you start calling people?!)

Your representative then proceeded to insult me by asking “Is there any reason your payment was late this month?”

Excuse me?!  Last I checked, payments made ON THE DUE DATE, aren’t “late.”  I told her that, as politely as possible, and she informed me that online payments take 3 days to process.  Okaaaay.  If payments take 3 days to process and it’s so important to you that payments post by the due date, why wouldn’t you mention that somewhere on the website, BEFORE I schedule my payment?  

For fun, I made this month’s payment the day before the due date.  You didn’t disappoint.  You called me the day after the due date and left a voicemail urging me to call you back.  I did not.  I knew what it was about, I knew my payment was pending, and I knew our conversation would entail the same BS as last month.  

Check your system, quit calling me, and if you really need my $70 that badly, ask one of your executives.  I hear they have a couple million lying around.

Thanks,

Jenny