I enrolled in the Credit Protection Fee program through Citibank, because I had a Citi credit card. I paid a MONTLY bill on this fee, even up to $40-$50 a month for this program...
However, when I needed it the most, it did NOT live up to its promises! Quoted from their website, they claim,
" With Credit Protector, pay no minimum monthly payments and accumulate no interest on your credit card during times of:
* JOB LOSS
* Short-term disability
* Hospitalization
* Family Leave
* MILITARY RESERVE or GUARD CALL TO DUTY"
However, they did NOTHING for me!!! I was living in Florida at the time with my fiance, who is in the MILITARY GUARD (as they state above), and he found out on VERY SHORT NOTICE (less than a week) that he was going to be getting deployed to Iraq. All of my family is in Michigan, and I was not established enough to stay down in Florida alone, as we had just moved there a few months earlier. Therefore, we had less than a week to pack up all of our belongings, and I drove back to Michigan to live. NATURALLY, just moving back to Michigan at the last minute, I was unemployed (which they also state they cover "JOB LOSS" above)!!
Also, at that time (January), Citi had just DOUBLED the minimum payments, so my payments were OUTRAGEOUS.
When I called to ask them about cancelling my minumum payments for the time being (since that's what they CLAIM they do— see above), they said that all that they could do was REDUCE my payments instead! And then, without my knowledge, they sent my account to COLLECTIONS, and I'm sure my credit has suffered because of it. Before this incident (and even to date), I had never ONCE been late on a payment— EVER!!! My credit was excellent. And now my credit is probably suffering because of what THEY did (and didn't do!)
Save your money. This program does NOT live up to its promises! I've paid money for this program, probably amounting to 100's of dollars; yet, they've done nothing for me when I needed them to. This has been a waste of money!
When I called Citi and COMPLAINED about their empty promises with the Credit Protector Fee, they said they could not help me, because, now that my account was in collections (which, this was the first I'd heard of that), the Credit Protector Fee which I'd been paying for, for all of these months, was no longer active!
Not to mention, the customer service reps were EXTREMELY rude, as if I was the one in the wrong! This whole situation was definitely UNFORSEEN and was NOT my fault, and I WILL NOT accept responsibility for it. These people treated me as if I was just a typical "bad credit" type who wouldn't pay my bills, and that's why my account got sent to collections; when, in reality, the whole situation was out of my control. I've had to MOUTH OFF to these idiots on more than one occasion— and, rest assured, I will NEVER do business with these people again!
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