Citibank Employs Underhanded Companies to Collect Money

"Our son was behind on his payments to Citibank, but while Citibank
still owned his account he offered to pay the entire charged off
amount and Citibank refused to take his money."

Oh my...where to start.
First this is your son's debt and if he was able to make it why are
you not allowing him to follow through with it now?

Second Citibank does not have to settle for the "charged amount" to
settle the account. Citibank and other financial insitutions such as
they only sell off bad debts when its next to impossible to collect on
them. What you probably have left out is the fact that Citibank may
have tried to work with your son on payments, but he may have failed
to keep his end of agreement which is why they sold his acct.

Third, you punish Citibank for giving you good service all these years
by pulling your accounts because your son messed up his credit and
they would not do what you asked of them.

I am sure Citibank will not like loosing good customers such as your
family (albeit your son) but you can't really expect them to keep you
on as customers if you use threatening tactics on them. Basically you
are telling them do what we ask (no matter how ridiculous it may be)
or loose us as customers.

Don't get me wrong, I have helped my 21yr old out one time to get back
on his feet after he was laid off from his job.

He knows now to save his money and not to go deep into debt. And he
pays his credit cards off every month which means he does not charge
more than he can afford.
Its a hard lesson to learn but he learned it and lives with it. Its
called responsibility.

And as far as this other company sending information to family members
this is a legal issue unless of course his credit was bad and he used
their information as references to get more credit or loans.

If a lawyer agreed, it must be right! Maybe the lawyer could convince
their lawyer which laws were broken and how.

I think if your son is old enough to be irresponsible with his debt,
and with privacy issues the way they are, Citibank does not have to
explain to your husband and yourself the actions of the collection
agency who took over this debt.

He doesn't get to go through life being the victim becuase it's not
his fault he didn't pay his bills. And you have to be more than a few
months behind with no payments to enter into write off status and then
have it sold to a third party. Again.....playing the victim here.
And he was trying to buy a house? Man...this is really messed up
thinking on your part, your sons part, and whoever else is in support
of his victim role. Take responsibility for yourselves. That usually
leads to a struggle free life and taking accountability is actually a
good thing for society.

You should be ashamed for posting a letter like this on this site.
I'm embarrassed for you.

I'm going to say something here that may make a few people not like me
very much. I was a bill collector for a very short time.

First, if you son feels this debt is inaccurate, he can request a
written statement of his debt. When it is turned over to collections,
there is an additional charge, so that may be why it is more. However,
having the actual statement will help him sort out why they say he
owes what he does. There is usually a small charge for this (it was a
dime a page where I used to work), but I would think it's worth it.

Second, when you have a debt turned over to collections, you can often
get a discount if you pay a lump sum. Once the amount is straightened
out ask, "How much of a discount can I get if I pay this all right
now?" It may sound rude, but the collectors are actually thrilled to
hear this since it means they are going to get paid. This works best
if you pay with credit card.

The collection agency can send letters to other addresses if they
don't hear back from an individual. They can also call other numbers
they have on file. However, I have a question. You state that they
revealed details of this debt to relatives. Was these letters really
addressed to his relatives? Usually, those are addressed to the debtor
in question unless he is underaged or in some manner incompetent.

Other people before had mentioned that this is your son's problem. I
know, as his mother, you want only the best for your son, but the
other posters are right. The collectior agency can't even speak to you
or your husband without permission from you son.

On a final note - I guess I should say why I wasn't a collection agent
for long. My boss said my personality was too friendly and perky - and
no one wants an upbeat voice on the phone saying they owe money.

Your son didn't pay in accordance with his cardholder agreement with
Citbank so they charged off his account and sold the debt to a third
party collection company. It doesn't matter how long you and your
husband have had accounts with Citibank or the fact your daughter and
son-in-law also have accounts. Your son did not keep up his end of the
bargain and is now paying the price. And, the answer to your
questions "I can only assume that Citibank would have done the same to
my husband and myself if we had ever had difficulty" is a big, fat
"yes". Finally, this is your son's problem - - not your's - - and
Citibank doesn't owe you and/or your husband an explanation about
their collection policies.

then why are you here posting this letter?

Rule number one of litigation is to keep your mouth shut and say
NOTHING unless it's with your attorney's advise and consent.

And I'm with the others, this is your son's battle, it has NOTHING to
do with you. You really shouldn't be gettin involved in teh first
place.

that it's more like the umbilical cord.

this all could have been avoided. There is no way in the world
Citibank refused to take his money before they wiped their hands clear
of this deadbeat.

First of all, this is no longer any of Citi's concern. This letter is
going into the cyber trash can, DELETE.

Second of all, your deadbeat son should be writing letters and
attempting to clean up his own debts. If he wants a house and the
responsibility that comes with it, he needs to start by getting his
finances in order.

My mom tried for years to take care of my brother's finances. It all
lead to massive, tragic failure, despite her heroic efforts. Your son
needs to take care of himself.

I can't speak to your situation but I'd agree that Citibank's
collection agency is shady. They keep calling us about an account
with the same name as my husband but it is not his account. Even
though we've confirmed that the Social Security numbers don't match,
they won't stop calling us or sending us letters demanding payment.

I am not an expert when it comes to this, but from all the reading
I've done in trying to repair my own credit, I'll take a stab at
explaining things:

1. Your son's account was CHARGED OFF by Citibank when he offered to
pay it in full. This means that his account was most likely around
120 days late, not a month or two behind as your letter makes it
appear. Once a company has reported a debt as 'charged off', I don't
believe that they can still collect on it, because it becomes a 'loss'
for them and has to do with how they report to the IRS.

2. In order to recoup some of the money that your son owed them, they
sold his account to a junk debt buyer. They now legally own the
account, and probably paid pennies on the dollar for it. Once it no
longer belongs to Citibank, they are not responsible for how it is
handled, and I don't imagine, after being stiffed for money they paid
on your son's behalf, that they care how his account is handled by the
purchaser.

3. The fact that you are writing this for your son, someone old
enough to have a fiancee and buy a house, shows where he gets his lack
of responsibility. While he certainly has the right to have his debt
reported correctly, the fact that he was unable to purchase this house
is no one's fault but his own for not managing his credit in the past.
I of all people know that sometimes stuff happens, and we have to
choose to pay the important bills and let the credit cards go, but
neither then do I blame the credit card companies when I can't buy a
house, or pay 15% interest on a car loan.

4. If your credit is so good, and your son is such the vicitm, why
didn't you offer to cosign on the mortgage for him and his fiancee?

Something doesn't sound right. The only reason I can think of Citibank
not wanting to accept your sons payment is because Citibank no longer
owned the account and it went into collections. I mean, what company
would not want to be paid? That makes no sense. Besides that, your son
should be writing the letter, not you. It's time to cut the umbilical
cord and let him become a man and part of that is taking
responsibility for your actions.

I wish you'd given more detail about Citibank's refusal to take your
son's money. Why would they do that? There has to be more to the
story than you're saying. It sounds almost as if he was willing to
pay the bill *if* Citibank reported the debt in a certain way, and
they weren't willing to make that deal; and you wouldn't really
expect them to, would you?

You also don't give any details about what illegal things the
collection company is doing either. Now, if your son has involved a
lawyer you shouldn't be posting about it online at all, but still,
since you've addressed this complaint to Citibank you need to do more
than establish that the company is breaking the law (which you
haven't: you saying that a lawyer agrees that they're breaking the
law isn't proof). You need to also establish that Citibank knew that
they were going to do that when they sold the debt. Even if you had
made an adequate case for lawbreaking to start with, you'd have a long
way to go to show that Citibank knows about it.

And since your son apparently has the money, why isn't he paying the
debt now? That would seem to be the fastest way for him to get the
collection company off his back.

What you have posted is full of holes, and I really have to wonder
why. Do the parts you're leaving out make your son look bad? Is your
son leaving out the parts that make him look bad when he talks to you
about this? Or are you just not skilled at putting together a
complete story?

And please, either don't threaten them with a lawyer or hire one (or
help your son hire one) and then stand back so that she can do her
job. It makes you look weak to have an imaginary lawyer on your team,
and it makes you look like your own worst enemy if you've got a real
one and you are still posting details of the dispute online.

Shirley M.,

Opening a letter with threats to cancel accounts is not a proven
method for getting desired results.

Assuming that this account is in your son's name he should really be
the one handling the communication.

I suggest that he set up a PF Account and pen his own letter.

We will keep an eye out for his letter.

BillR.

I'm confused about some things: why would Citibank refuse to take
payment in full while they still owned the account? If the son could
pay the debt, why was he behind?

Also, setting aside that this is really the son's complaint and the
letter should really come from him, no letter should be posted here if
a lawyer is involved.