I HATE CITIBANK
Warning: What follows is a vitriolic diatribe against that credit card company I so love to hate - Citibank. If you do not share my antipathy for credit card companies, this may make you uncomfortable! So let the rant begin…
I HATE CITIBANK! Of all the credit card companies I love to hate, there truly is none my hatred burns as brightly for as Citibank. My apologies to the unfortunate shareholders, but this article on CNN Money about Citibank’s woes makes me smile.
I HATE CITIBANK. In the fall of 1991, they gave a severely underemployed 18 year old college freshman coed a credit card…who had absolutely no earthly business having one. That was me, and of course it was at the college student interest rate, which happens to be the highest credit card interest rate. I thought that meant I was now an adult! What did I know at age 18? I didn’t even have a clue to how little I truly knew. And making minimum wage ($4.25 per hour) at Taco Bell on the weekends to pay for my college did not leave me any money. My stupidity was digging myself in so deep; Citibank’s stupidity was in giving me the shovel to dig my hole!
I HATE CITIBANK. They say studies reveal people feel intense loyalty to their very first credit card. Dave Ramsey says people cling to their very first credit card even after cutting all others up. Not me! And not in this lifetime! Yes I have very strong feelings towards the first company that handed me the financial equivalent of a loaded gun with the safety removed; that feeling is intense hatred.
I truly hate Citibank. Every single semester they are out on the college campuses across the nation, trying to lure more unsuspecting 18 and 19 year olds into the same trap they lured me into over sixteen years ago. I see them on my campus, and so dearly want to picket their table and warn the young college kids away. I’d probably be hauled off by the campus police, since universities get a substantial kickback from allowing credit card companies to push their financial drugs on campus. They are preying on our young and naive.
Let’s not forget their current financial woes are directly caused by their heavy involvement in the subprime mortgage fiasco. Here’s a “great idea” - let’s rip off the same generation we enslaved in credit card debt at ridiculous student interest rates by putting them into truly terrible mortgages…then wonder why they default and get foreclosed on….Yes, I REALLY hate Citibank!
If it is possible to kill a corporate entity, then by all means let us sacrifice Citi Financial on the altar of retribution! If any corporation deserves it, Citibank surely does.
Note to new readers: I am usually not this negative, but reading of Citibank’s misfortune brought it all back up. Tomorrow I will be back to my usual self.
