Out for blood

Banks are such parasitical, wretched bloodsuckers! Especially those that issue credit cards. Specifically, Citibank. Particular Citibank in Singapore. I swear they will suck the patience and life out of me.

It felt like only yesterday that I lodged a complain to them when it took them ages to sort 5 fraudulent credit card charges on my visa card. To date, they have yet to explain to me how on earth they had managed to allow fraudsters to continue transacting on my blocked credit card two days later. This was right after I made an immediate report the moment I discovered the fraud charges and they assured me there and then that they had blocked my card immediately. I knew they did coz I checked and I couldn't log in to my account anymore. Yet, they approved further transactions to an already blocked card. That was sometime last year. I never did get any answer for that, even though they compensated my loss eventually. I supposed they have buried the matter deep into their hell-hole, devoid of explanations that might jeopardize their standings.

Seems like I did nothing but complain lately. It is not without a reason, though. Citibank is slowly pushing me to the edge with their recent antics of extorting money from me. They really are behaving like thugs as they slapped me a late payment fine of SGD 50 on my previous credit bill of SGD 126.98. While I wasn't too happy about the fine, I decided to be a good citizen and took it in my stride without any complains. I figured, the oversight was partly my fault for something I bought online months ago. But, let me get this straight: The only reason I missed the payment was simply because Citibank did not in any way, send me a statement of outstanding bills. Not even a reminder. That's just plain unfair considering:

a) The late payment fine for May was charged to me on 3rd June. This is not even a month from the last amount that was charged dated 5th May 2009.I definitely was not aware of applicable non-payment late charges before the month is up. It was only just ONE goddamn transaction.

b) As far as I’m concerned, I have always been a good customer. I don't owe the bank any money, I have never ever over-drawn on my credit line and any amount charged to my credit cards are always paid promptly upon usage. And that's usually within 48 hoours.

Like I said, I was willing to suck it up without creating havoc about it. I grudingly shouldered the blame and cursed myself silly for not checking my balance online. This was so, until I received a chaser from Citibank just last evening via snail mail, telling me that my bill is overdue, that Citibank is unable to reach me by phone and that I should make my payment within 5 days. (The letter had a "pay or or else" tone to it) ! What kind of nonsensical crap is that? They claimed they can't contact me or even bothered to send me a reminder before slapping me with the unnecessary fine, yet they are able to send me a letter to demand payment from me? For crying out loud, Citibank has my email address. How is it that they cannot contact me? Absofuckinglutely ridiculous.

Naturally, I blew my top. It does feel like Citibank is really out for your blood, hounding and demanding for payment, to the point of being unethically bothersome. If I'm a terrible debtor, yes I can understand their anxiety. But the fact is, I am not, have never been, don't intend to be, and so, isn't it only right to cut me some bloody slack? I seriously question Citibank's ethics and sincerity. If this is the way they treat their good and reliable customers, I'm seriously considering to move my business somewhere else. I hate the way they treat people. Morons.