I've been having trouble with a personal loan through CitiFinancial. I took out the loan for approx. $8,000 about 2 years ago using my car as collateral. During that time I also took out an extra $900 for some hefty car repairs. I immediately paid back $600 of it because I didn't need all the money after all.
When I took out my loan, I asked if overpayments could be applied to the principal balance, and they said yes. So over time I kept making overpayments, granted it was only $10 to $50 each time, but I figured it would help out in the long run. It turns out all the overpayments I made went to lower my following payment, so it was like I was paying a month or two in advance instead of paying down the principal. When I asked about this, they denied even the ability for me to pay on the principal, leaving me very confused.
Another complaint I have is that I was recently in a car accident, and since I have a lien on my car, I accepted the fact that my entire insurance claim amount would be released to my lien holder, CitiFinancial. I'm still not sure I understand how, even though my payments are up to date, they somehow own my car. That's what that claim money was, after all: my car in money form.
Anyway, I figured they might let me keep a portion of it for a down payment on a new car, but instead of splitting the check, they said I would have to refinance my loan, which meant applying my claim payment to my existing account and loaning me additional money with interest. That just seems very wrong to me, since I was handing them a check made out to both of us and they're going to charge me interest if I want to use any part of it.
I've been without a car for at least a week already while things were grinding out with my insurance company. I've been bumming rides to work and borrowing other people's vehicles because I don't have the resources to get another vehicle. I figured that since there was such a big payment made to my account, I would skip two payments, which would help me with car funds. Not even a week after giving them my insurance claim, CitiFinancial started calling, telling me I am late on my payment. For some reason this doesn't work like all my other payments. This large sum went somewhere and doesn't count as a payment at all.
I'm just having a really hard time comprehending how they can be so oblivious to my situation. The loan ate my car, without a car I can't go to work, and without work I can not pay them back.
Random other complaints I have:
During the course of my business with CitiFinancial, they've accidentally added my sister's payments to my account and mine to hers (we both, unfortunately, have accounts through them). My sister ended up going back and correcting the issue, but honestly, they gave her a receipt with all my account information on it. I brought this to their attention, and they chalked it up to a small mistake and pretty much disregarded it.
When I applied for a personal loan through my credit union to pay off CitiFinancial (I'd rather owe money to a credit union), I was told that the way CitiFinancial calculates their interest does me great disfavor because of the way it's reported to the credit bureaus. Instead of showing the regular payoff amount, it shows the total amount with interest included, so what should show as, say, $8000 shows as $14,000. Since the credit union loans by a percentage of personal combined debt, it actually appears much higher than it really is. These guys have the weirdest business hours ever, which wouldn't normally bother me, but there are only two ways to pay: send a check or bring your payment in to the branch office.
After all this time and with the insurance claim payment, my balance shows as $12,000, which really has to be my biggest complaint. That and they keep sending me ads with a lower rate than what I have now. Don't they know I have an account with them already, and why can't they just give me that lower rate?
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