I had a 60 month personal loan with CitiFinancial - they solicited me. I needed it at the time and I took advantage of their offer even though the interest was ridiculously high.
After around 48 months they offered me an opportunity to lower my interest rate. I accepted. I'm not sure at this time if that actually happened. Recently I tried to determine my loan balance online and realized that my loan, which was nearly paid off was now nearly the same as it was seven years ago.
That's right - 7 years. They restarted my loan after four years and made it a new seven year loan. I had no idea. Still paying 25.01% interest. My balance on a $10,000 loan is now around $7,800.
Their other ploy is to contact you to ask if you would like to skip a payment at Christmas. This is not an actual courtesy offer. They submit a credit application and require you to requalify - so... Another credit request on your credit report. I pointed this out to them the last time they asked and they apologized. I reported this to the BBB and received an apology, but was told that I would have to contact the credit bureaus myself to have the inquiry removed.
I don't know how I got scammed other than the representative not explaining the terms and/or misrepresenting them.
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