IT Milk: entry

I have a Citi Diamond Preferred Card (I’m only telling you this because I do not recommend it), which I’ve been using as my main credit card since I opened it in July. I’ve been using it to rack up Adwords charges on it as well as pay my monthly rent.

Recently, Citi sent me a set of balance transfer checks. Naturally, I suspiciously scanned these checks for any sign of deception, but all I saw was the 7.99% APR. Which didn’t matter to me because I pay off my entire balance at the end of every month. So I decided to try out the balance transfer check to pay my rent for last month.

Citi was right! It worked just like a real check.

But then I received my credit card statement today and there was a charge for $31.80 that said “BALANCE TRANSFER FEE.” There was the following message at the footer of the statement:

Each Balance Transfer is subject to a one-time transaction fee. This fee may
cause your Annual Percentage Rate to exceed the nominal Annual Percentage Rate
listed on this statement.

I was pissed because Citi was trying to scam me. There was no mention of a “Balance Transfer Fee” on the check. So I immediately called Citi’s hotline for account problems.

I managed to get my call transferred to an account manager, who thankfully was not a stubborn Indian like the one before. I explained my problem and, without hesitation, he said he would remove the charges from my account. A true sign that he understands that his company is deceiving its customers.

But the problem is not finished. I’ve checked my statement hours after the phone call, and still Citi has not followed up with its promises. The charges are still there. And now I may have to call in again, only to work my way up the food chain again to speak to a manager.

I plan on closing my credit card with Citi. I do not recommend them because of their deceptive practices and their horrible, outsourced customer service.