I bought furniture on April 1 on an interest-free credit plan at Rooms To Go Furniture for a total of $2336.46, which I was told was to be due in April. On April 10th I received a bill from CitiFinancial showing a new balance of $2336.46 due 4/19/07 (billing date 3/25/07).
On April 11th I sent CitiFinancial an online banking check for $2336.46, which was received by CitiFinancial and which cleared my bank April 16th. I assumed the account was satisfied.
On May 3rd (one month later) I received another bill from CitiFinancial for $2336.46, payment due May 20th (billing date 4/25/07). I disregarded this bill because, like I said, I paid them $2336.46 in April.
Then on May 5th I received another bill for $557.64 for accrued interest due on the $2336.46. I had no idea what was going on, so I called CitiFinancial, and all they said was to read the fine print: the $2336.46 was due on or before April 2.
So I asked them two questions:
1. Why did they send me a bill for $2336.46, which they knew I wouldn't receive until after 4/2/07? Knowing that, CitiFinancial should have sent me an April bill reflecting an additional amount of $557.64, for a total of $2894.10, if I really owed interest.
2. Why did I receive another bill on May 5th showing a balance due of $2336.46 and, two days later, receive another bill for interest?
Their answer was "Billing Anomaly."
CitiFinancial now claims I owe them $1025.45, and it is growing at over $60 per month in interest and late fees. I'm 71 years old, on a fixed income, and couldn't give them the money if I wanted to.
Now I get two calls every day, for about the last 8 months. So in a sense I'm paying my interest, along with losing my ounce of good credit rating.
0 comments