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August 25, 2007
CITI Bank student loans suck update
I got a response from CITI - they will allow me to pay the backdated interest before it is capitalized onto the loan (though, not really, because they're offering to let me pay the amount which increased from capitalization for each backdated month - gee, thanks guys!!!)
To quote:
"On 08/15/07, we were notified that you were no longer in school as of 5/20/07. Therefore we ended your In-School deferment for loan 21 on 05/20/07; which would make your first payment due 06/18/07. [...] Since your deferment had ended in the past, we could not make your first payment due in the past; therefore, an Administrative forbearance was approved for the period -5/21/07 to 08/14/07."
Gotta love their logic. We can't bill you retroactively, but damnit we'll charge you interest! I suppose I should be happy they didn't charge me late fees and put liens against my property and paychecks?
Oh, wait - speaking of late fees - a bonus: my American Airlines credit card with CITI got slapped with an (1-day) past due charge, even though my bank records indicate that they withdrew the funds (epayment) on the due date. Yeah, I'll be canceling this card; I want as little to do with CITI as possible.
Posted by griffjon at 08:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 17, 2007
Loan Sharks
So, one of my loans will have entered repayment on the 25th (or at least that's when citi will mail me my first bill). It's already gathering interest dust on it however.
I can't set up an auto-payment from my bank that's more than the minimum amount due (said amount of course maximizes the interest I pay to citi; not something I want to do). I can reschedule my loans once they both enter repayment (the other will do so in November). To pay more than the minimum I have to go through a rather painful web process to extract money from my bank with no way to automate/schedule payments.
Said online payment system is wonderful, not only because of its usefulness, but because you have to go out of your way to read the fine print and click the box to apply your payment to the principle. Otherwise, it just applies it to your monthly interest servicing. So I could make a payment of $500, and if I didn't check that box, it would just pay a fraction of that every month to my monthly statement, prolonging (and increasing) my interest payments.
Double extra bonus? if you go to the trouble of paying online and remember to post the "extra" to your principle, your automated monthly payments of the minimum get fubared: "Attention E-Z Pay customers: Payments made online may advance your next payment due date. Please note this may change or prevent your regularly scheduled automatic payment from processing."
So not only have they started charging me interest without telling me (nor is the date of when these things change available online, and the customer reps have to do extra work to find it), it's made very difficult to pay anything but the interest-payment maximizing minimum. Thanks, Citi, are you familiar with the term "predatory" ?
This story gets better; I've earned $100 in backdated interest. The backstory:
I graduated GWU in May. They're horribly slow about updating CITI about my graduation date - surprise. I'd called CITI in early June to check with them, and as I'd not been listed as graduated I was told that I was not gathering any interest. I checked - when GWU did get around to updating my information, would I get backdated charges? I was explicitly told that I would not. GWU just notified CITI yesterday (Aug 16th), and I immediately got three backdated interest charges applied to my account. I just got off a huffy call with a CSR who basically told me that yes the agent had given me incorrect charges but no they would not remove them or backdate a payment to June... So I find their online contact system:
I am very displeased with CITI's handling of my loans and customer service representatives I have spoken with. Upon my May 07 graduation, I called CITI to investigate payment options. I was told that GWU had not listed me as graduated and that I would not accrue any interest payments until they had done that. I clarified this statement to make sure that none would be applied as back-dated, and was told they would not be. On August 16th, however, three interest amounts were added to my account (21) for a total of $95.12. I called customer service to investigate this charge and was told that these were interest charges from June, July and August, and what the representative had told me in June was incorrect. Had I been told that interest would be back dated, something I specifically asked about, I would have begun making payments, which is why I carefully clarified that point. It is reprehensible that CITIs representatives would give false information in the first place, and worse that they are powerless to remove these charges which I was ensured would not exist. Providing false information and not offering to do anything to make up for it, especially with loans, is irresponsible, poor business practice, and bordering on predatory.I will be satisfied when these three interest payments are removed from my account. I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and will remove it once this issue is resolved.
Their response rate to BBB complaints is decent, so I'm hopeful for something at least.
To quote xkcd, "what now, bitches?"
Posted by griffjon at 01:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 14, 2007
XYZZY
I can't think of anything geekier than my liking this article: Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original “Adventure” in Code and in Kentucky
Posted by griffjon at 07:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 07, 2007
Linux.com review of CoffeeWars
I'm partially to blame for DefCon's (the annual hacker con in Vegas) CoffeeWars, where hackers put their favorite coffee beans in battle to determine the best brew.
Linux.com, in their review of this year's con, gives us a mention and a short piece of history of our chambean-ion ship. So if you were wondering, is it "that" griffjon that they mentioned while you were reading Linux.com, the answer is yes.
Posted by griffjon at 03:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Smells like facism
Former DOJ Lawyer's home raided - the FBI took his computer and his childrens' laptops. He's suspected of... wait for it... leaking the news about illegal warrantless wiretaps to the press (back when they were still illegal, oh how I long for last week).
Posted by griffjon at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack