Citibank. Why?

Quick background: Now that I am with job again, I intend to be as aggressive as possible (without being reckless) toward paying off my student loans. As such, I recently made (rather, attempted to make??) a large payment toward my highest interest rate loan. Makes sense, non? Anyway, as explained below, this requires one to mail in a payment (instead of paying online) and include specific instructions about how the payment should be allocated. Which I did (I even kept a copy for myself! Go me.). Alas, my good faith effort was foiled by some kind of super computer. I, Robot, anyone? I suppose that I am annoyed/frustrated for (at least) two reasons: (1) I followed the instructions on Citibank’s website exactly, only to find out about some mythical “Exception Payment” alternate address that I had no way of knowing existed, and (2) That was the biggest check I'd written EVER, so I was already very antsy about the whole affair, and now I’m just extremely anxious for Citibank to get the whole thing fixed.

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[Probably Fruitless] E-mail to Citibank:

This is a comment about an answer to one of the questions on the “Frequently Asked Questions – Making Payments” section of your website. The question is “Can I designate how to apply my online payment to my loans,” and the answer given is “No. Online payments are distributed across all loans listed on your statement. To pay a specific amount on a particular loan, you’ll need to mail us the payment. Please print your online statement, indicate your payment instructions and mail them to The Student Loan Corporation, P.O. Box 6615, The Lakes, Nevada, 88901-6615.”

Recently, I mailed a payment and included specific instructions that the full amount be applied to one loan only (instead of being applied to all loans on my statement). I followed the instructions in the FAQ Answer exactly, including mailing my payment to the address listed. However, when I checked my online account to confirm that the payment had been received and applied, I found out that (despite my instructions) the payment amount had been applied across all loans, NOT applied to the one loan as I requested. When I called Citibank to inquire about this problem, I was told that mail sent to the P.O. Box 6615 address is opened by some kind of computer system, meaning no real live person saw or read the instructions I included. I also learned about an “Exception Payment” address (8725 W. Sahara Avenue, Attn: Exception Payment, Mail Zone 1225, Las Vegas, NV 89117) and was told that “exception payments” (such as mine) should be mailed there, as a real live person opens mail sent to the address.

My comment/question is, if this is the case, why then does the FAQ Answer list the P.O. Box 6615 address, not the “Exception Payment” address? I find it very annoying (and inconvenient) that I followed the FAQ Answer instructions exactly, and yet my payment was misapplied. Moreover, I have been told that due to the “economy” (e.g., I was told that Citibank has been inundated with requests to have payments postponed, thus causing a backup with other pending requests), it will take up to two (2) weeks for my request to have my payment reapplied correctly taken care of, instead of the normal processing time of 2-3 days. While I have been assured by Citibank that everything will be corrected (and that I will not be penalized in any way – which I surely hope is the case, as I have done nothing wrong here), I am frustrated that all of this was even an issue/problem in the first place. Would it not make sense for Citibank to update its website/FAQ section to reflect the “Exception Payment” address? I cannot imagine that I am the ONLY Citibank customer to have encountered this issue. All I am trying to do is pay my Citibank student loans, and up until this point (this is the first time that I have mailed in a payment; before now, I always used the Pay Online feature), I have never had a problem doing so. In fact, in the years that I have been a Citibank student loan customer, I have never had any problems at all!

I expect that within the next two weeks, my online account will reflect the reallocation of my mailed in payment to the appropriate loan. Otherwise, I will definitely be following up with another phone call to Citibank.

Love, me.

Actually, I take back the love.

me.

Bank of America (Or, What Happens When You Do Not Use Your AMEX)

On Bank of America (Or, Those Sneaky Bastards; Or, Why Contract Law Matters...Vomit)...

In December 2006, I opened a second credit card with my longtime bank, Bank of America. I mostly opened a second card (a pretty, clear-design BoA American Express) to have a "back-up", you know, just in case my non-existent dog devoured my primary card, or I needed some emergency credit (uninhibited shopping spree at J.Crew perhaps? no.). Okay, so maybe I also liked the card's pretty, see-thru design. And maybe I was a little obsessed with the American Express brand. ANYWAY.

I only used the card once, in early 2007. After all, it was my "back-up", I didn't want to have to worry about two credit cards bills each month (even though I pay in full every month), and I wanted to keep my World Points (reward points) on one card. So, all is well in credit card land. OR IS IT?

In early March of this year, I came across an article (like this one, but not this one). I thought, oh shit, I should probably make sure my AMEX is still active. I checked my online account, and it was. Next I thought to myself, maybe I should use it, buy a pack of gum or something. But I didn't. BIG mistake. HUGE. A couple weeks later, I'm perusing my online account, and all of a sudden I realize, HM, my AMEX account isn't listed anymore. Oh darn. Yup, a couple phone calls to BoA later, and I've confirmed what I already knew to be true. My AMEX was cancelled for lack of use. Ok, yes, I didn't use it for about two years. My bad. But couldn't you have at least send me a notice letter beforehand? Or something? No. Why? Your notice was in your contract/terms of agreement. Oh no, you did not just pull the contract card on me. (WAS THERE AN OFFER? WAS THERE ACCEPTANCE? DID THE PARTIES INTEND TO BE BOUND? WAS THERE A MEETING OF THE MINDS? RAR! Bad memories.)

So, you have been warned: Use it or lose it. Honestly, I understand why banks/credit card companies cancel credit cards that aren't being used. That $5,000 line of credit that they extended to me, and that I'm not using - that's a liability for them, and they're not making any money off of my non-use. Especially with credit being so hard to come by these days, why would they not want to take that credit and throw it at someone who would actually use it? Makes perfect sense.

Downsides for me: 

(1) My credit score has likely suffered. Luckily, I had a really high score to begin with, and I don't anticipate needing to use my credit score in the near future (mortgage, car loan, etc.), so I think I'm OK. (It's still annoying, though.). 

(2) Now I only have one credit card. Yes, that credit card has an obscenely high credit limit. But, I would feel more comfortable with a second card, a "just in case" card. Plan is to wait for a bit and then possibly open a second one. 

And remind myself to use it once in a blue moon.