Paul
Anaheim,#2Consumer Suggestion
Sat, October 08, 2005
When citi manages to steal billions of dollars each year, you have to assume one thing. They figured out all the angles.
They already looked at every avenue that consumers will try to use to avoid their fraud. And, they made sure each one is a dead-end.
Once you get involved with citi, nobody will come to your rescue. Citi has made sure they're immune from any outside interference.
All you can do is pay the early termination fees and take your losses.
That's exactly what most consumers end up doing.
Of course, citi and primerica don't care either way. They simply move on to the next poor sucker and proceed to clean them out too.
All you can do is avoid both citi and primerica at all costs. Anything else will cost you dearly.
Samantha
Peoria,#3Author of original report
Sat, October 08, 2005
I just wanted to update this information.
After filing the original complaint on this site (under citicorp), I contacted every organization that I could think of in trying to get this issue resolved. I contact attorney generals in Arizona, Texas and Pennsylvania. I contacted BBB in all three states, I contacted the national bank of morgage financing, and the list continues. I tried contacting the Primerica people that had convinced us into going with this program, needless to say they didn't return our calls, they would avoid us in public and my husband works as a dog groomer at Petsmart and use to groom their dogs, well they quit taking their dogs to him. I continued to make calls to the customer service department about these discrepancies and even after speaking to the loan supervisor (or whatever he calls himself), I still had not got anywhere.
When asked about why there was money that was paid that wasn't reflected, I was told that the first time was a simple "ENTRY MISTAKE". When asked about the remaining "ENTRY MISTAKES", I was told that they weren't mistakes that the other money was being applied to a seperate account setup due to the fact that there was a "Promise to Repay" on the account. (Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought when I signed the loan papers I was promising to repay the loan.)
After everything was said and done, I heard back from every agency that I sent correspondence to and found out that noone could really help. The BBB would list this as an resolved legitimate problem with this company but that was really about it. The reason for this is that this SMART loan ISN'T a mortgage loan. This loan is nothing more than an elevated credit line on a credit card. That's right. That interest is accured daily and therefore if your payment isn't received the same day everymonth you're payments won't be the same.
Example: The month of August your payment is received by citicorp on the 1st and then your September payment is received by August 28. In this instance you're ok and theoretically the additional interest that is already figured for the 1st - the 1st should then be applied as additional principal paid.
But now for the next month your payment isn't received until October 8th. At this point you won't be charged a late fee since the payment is still received before the 15th but you will be charged additional on your Novemeber statement.
You would have the additional payment like this. Since your payment wasn't received on the 28th but on the 8th you have unpaid interst that is outstanding on your account. In my case, for my loan balance, the daily accrued interest was $36.47, so now multiply that by the number of difference in days (10 in this case Sept 28 - Oct 8) that extra fee would be $364.70. This extra amount would need to be included in the next month's payment. If it's not paid with the next month's payment, the following month you would then be charged late fees and since that money is still considered past due and unpaid you still accrue interest.
This company is the biggest rip off I've ever seen before. And since they claim to be a mortgage company, credit card disputing agencies can't touch them. But due to the way that they finance the loans the mortgage disputing companies can't touch them either.
The only way this was resolved was to refinance and to just pay them their ungodly amount of an early payoff and walk away. I'm much happier now with a legitimate mortgage company, that really issues mortgages, but I do warn people to be very careful of who you let handle your loan.
Paul
Anaheim,#4Consumer Suggestion
Sat, October 08, 2005
Citi calls this their smart loan. Honestly, it's probably the dumbest thing you'll ever do.
Primerica hustles this scam off to people using the con that the victim will get out of debt faster. Primerica comes in and pretends to educate you about money. That how the fraud works.
They use this fraudulent presentation to convince people that they will save money and end up out of debt faster.
That's exactly the con these companies use in order to lure people into this scam.
The truth is that this is probably the WORST loan you could ever have. A few months in, most people come to their senses and try to get out.
That's when citi hits them with this huge early payoff penalty. So, you lose no matter what you do. Whether you ride it out or pay it off early, they still make a ton of money off you.
That's exactly how citi got to be the largest fraud on the planet. Most people don't realize that this company was behind both the enron and the worldcom scams too.
You can file a complaint on this company with the OCC. That's the comptroller of currency. Look it up in google. Of course, don't hold your breath. A giant fraud like citi doesn't follow the laws or worry about some government agency.
But, your OCC complaint can't hurt. So, give it a try if you've been cheated in this scam.
For the rest of you, STAY the hell away from CITI.
Learn from the misery these people are having to deal with!
Doug
Laurel,#5Consumer Comment
Thu, October 06, 2005
To make a long story short, at one point I had paid $1100.00 in advance. When the extra payment did not appear on my statement for the next three months, customer service explained that it had been placed in a "bucket". Heh..."bucket", "theft", tomato, tomah-to...
I went ahead and paid the $3000 prepayment penalty in order to go with another company and I'll STILL come out ahead in the long run. As a matter of fact, I can pay my mortgage whenever the hell I want, ONLINE. Make my monthly payment? I do it online. Pay extra principal? I do it online. Shore up my escrow? I do that online. View a complete history of all of my payments over the span of several years? I do it online. How much do these valuable services cost? FREE. (Actually, included as services of a LEGITIMATE company, which Citicorp Trust Bank is not.)
$MART LOAN = THEFT.
Paul
Anaheim,#6Consumer Suggestion
Thu, October 06, 2005
There are hundreds of complaints here from consumers who encountered some kind of fraud from primerica and citi.
And, you complaint is a perfect example of what you can expect if you get involved with these fraudulent companies. Little by little, they will bleed you dry.
When it's all said and done, Americans just like you will lose billions of dollars to this scam company.
There is only one way to keep this from happening. Don't EVER get involved with either primerica or citi in the first place.
They're like quicksand. Once you're in, there is almost no way out. Their mortgages have huge fees for early payoffs. If you ride the loan out, you will lose. And, if you try to bail out early, you will still lose.
Quicksand.
The only good here will come from your complaint. Millions of other will be able to see what happened and hopefully they will avoid making this same mistake.
Update your complaint to keep it current. Perhaps other readers in the same jam as you can contribute something they have learned about fighting this scam company.