I had a Mastercard account with Citibank. Unfortunately, I got behind on payments and it ended up in collection.
I was contacted by a gentleman by the name of Bill Cardine, however I dont believe they use their real names. The initial contact from Bill was a very sarcastic message on my answering machine. He did not identify himself, other than stating a phone number and that he "needed an IMMEDIATE return phone call" from me. I never dodged Mr Cardine and called him back.
He began telling me that my account with Citibank had been turned over to them for "litigation" unless I paid it immediately. The balance was around $8000, and if I had that kind of money laying around, would never have gotten behind in the first place.
I work in a job where any civil action against me can damage my career. I told Mr Cardine that I would need to see what I could do (family, friends, ect) and get back to him. This was not acceptable. He told me that he needed something to tell Citibank "now" to show my intent to resolve this.
I told him I could not and would not commit to anything. Mr Cardine then told me that my answer may have serious repercussions, as my account was sent to them in "pre-legal" status and not just "collection" status, and that at anytime Citibank wants to, they will just sue me. His tone was very sarcastic and he seemed to enjoy upsetting me and using all the buzz words to scare me, which is one of their tactics.
I told him that I did not appreciate his attitude at all and I planned to make UCB aware of it. His reply was, "You don't pay your bills. Do you think anyone is going to listen to you or even care?" He said this at least twice.
I ended up borrowing from family and paying this debt off within a couple weeks. I never followed through on reporting Mr Cardine and after reading these posts and seeing similar complaints, I wish I would have. That was 10 months ago and at this point, I am sure no one would care. Citibank and UCB got their monies and that's all they care about.
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