Complain about a product or service

Citibank Student Loans

Dominique of Kansas City, MO November 14, 2009

I signed up for auto payment deductions on my 3 student loans because I was told my interest rates would be lowered by .25% on each loan. The deduction has yet to be applied to my loans and was supposed to be effective as of the 1st auto deducted payment made. I also have had to call and speak to Citi in order to have any additonal payments applied towards my prinicals on the loans I indicate. They have routinely messed up the payments as I've indicated and applied the extra towards loans with the lowest interest rates, and not the highest which I told them to do.

Anonymous of NY, NY October 8, 2009

Citibank basically runs a scam with their student loans. They push you into thinking that their private loans are the same as Federally backed loans and they aren't. If you run into financial problems, stay the hell away from Citi. They will NOT put your loans into forbearance without a payment of 50 into the account, and said forbearance only lasts up to three months and then you must reapply again. I've been unemployed since 2008, and I've exhausted every option I have for repayment and my finances are depleted. I am filing for bankruptcy in the hope that these loans can be dealt with before I consider my life as hopeless and commit suicide.

Penelope of Cleveland, OH September 24, 2009

I'm sure this will surprise no one, but something is going very seriously wrong at Citibank. I have fantastic credit and comparatively small student loans. I owe Citibank about 3,000 and my monthly payment, if I follow their schedule, is 50 a month. this month, between moving and getting a new job, my payment was (gasp!) SIX DAYS LATE. On their bill,they hit me with a whopping 2 fee after 2 weeks. Six days after the initial due date, someone is calling me to shake me down for the money. Bearing in mind that Citibank's bread and butter are the late fees, like any bank or credit issuer, and that even according to what they have in writing, fees don't enter in until 14 days later, I've been getting calls like I've borrowed from Mafiosi. Threats to my credit report (six days in) and the whole works, even calling and threatening my cosigner. The reason I say something is going really wrong over there is the heavy handed tactics with "good" customers. I can cash in a convenience check and pay someone else to service the loan. I won't, I'll pay it off from savings to avoid giving them any more interest money. But I can't be the only one who will move money to deal with more rational people. They told me on the phone that people who are ONE DAY LATE are sent to external collections. I am really put off by the treatment but much more confused and frankly worried about what we don't know about what's going on at Citibank. It doesn't make business sense to harass and potentially lose customers before profitable fees even kick in. Investors need to seriously beware of Citibank. Students need to borrow from someone else.

Alice of Delmar, NY September 18, 2009

I have all of my student loans consolidated with Citi. When I was setting up repayment I noticed a notice on their website that indicates that, if you set up an automatic debit plan with them, they will reduce your rate by 0.25%. I called customers service in July, when my first payment was due, to confirm that this was still a valid offer and that it applied to my loans. I was tols that it did apply to me and that all I would need to do is fill out an application and send it to them with a void check & everything would be in place for my August payment.

I did all of this and made my July payment. In August they withdrew my payment of 900.67 without a problem. I never thought to look at the interest rate on my statement. In September I checked my bank statement and saw that they withdrew 1026.55. That was a red flag to me to check everything. This is when I noticed that not only had they arbitrarily increased my monthly payment by 125.88, but they never reduced my rate.

I called customer service and was first told that the easy pay was not set up on my account and that was why the reduction had not taken place. I had to tell the rep on the phone 3 times that she was wrong because Citi had taken out 2 automatic payments already. She put me on hold to speak to her "supervisor". Next, she comes back on the phone and tells me that I am not eligible for the rate reduction because the program was not in place when my loans became due and payable. I told her that that was not true. That repayment started in July and that I signed up for the Auto Debit program in July.

I asked for an explaination for this and an explaination as to why my minimum monthly payment increased. All she kept saying over and over again is that the program was not available when my loans became due. I asked to speak to her supervisor. I was informed that the supervisor was on another call and I would have to wait for her to call me back. I was told that I'd receive a phone call within 24 hours. 24 hours have passed and I have received no such call.

Benjamin of Staten Island, NY September 16, 2009

In jan/feb of 2008 my bank account with staten island bank and trust had been the victom of fraudulent charges. When i spoke with the bank they had told me that they would not investigate the charges due to the type of charge and the amount of time that had elapsed. with that they told me that i would have to pay all of it back to the bank. so i began making the payments. while this was going on i contacted CITIBANK and explained the problem i was having and asked if i could put all of my student loans on forbarance and the rep said that would not be a problem. first the rep did a verbal forbarance for 2 of my loans and she informed me that the other 2 loans she would send me the proper forms to fill out and return in order to receive forarance time on the second set of loans. during the time that i was waiting for the paper work i was contacted by the CITIBANK collections department and i explain the problem, this is when the rep told me that i had no time left for forbarance on 2 of the loans. now because of how late they were since i was waiting on that paper work i asked to speek with a supervisor and was connected to April, a supervisor at the sioux falls location, who explained to me that i was misinformed by the CITIBANK rep i had spoke with weeks prior and that once i brought the account current that she (April) would see to it that my and my mothers credit would be fixed. once i got the account current CITIBANK has done nothing to repair the damage to my and my mothers credit as promised as per April and this has been going on for almost a year now. i have all proper documentation to fully suport my side and CITIBANK also has the proper notes on my account that prove the conversations that took place and the dates of those conversations are march 5 2008 and march 11 2008. CITIBANK refuses to release them to me probably because if i could get them i could bury them and they would have to do the right thing and repair the credit damage. Since i have been current they have made more mistakes to my account which if i didnt catch them i could have been in the same prediciment. so i put my loans on auto pay with my new bank and have not had a problem since. just my credit report thanks to CITIBANK

Mary of Middlesex, NY September 13, 2009

My son is a student at Ithaca College, New York. For the last 3 years (2006-2009) he has taken out Subsidized Stafford loans with Citibank. During this time we have been very satisfied with the service. He has decided not to accept any student loans for the 2009-10 school year. In July he was notified by email from Citibank,in regards to the loan award for the 2009-10 school year. He followed the directions, went to the website and cancelled the loan.

Since July, he has received 3 additional student loan notifications from Citibank. Each having a different monetary amount and a new loan number. Each time, he was notified by email, he went immediately to the studentloan.com website and cancelled the new loan. I want to make it clear that he has not applied for any loans since 2006. I don't understand how this company can keep generating new loans when the customer has already declined and cancelled a loan award for this year.

Last Wednesday, Sept. 9th, a new email notification was sent that he was awarded yet another loan. The email was generated at 2:18 pm (ET)on 9/9/09. This loan was to be disbursed on the next day, 9/10/09. Because of the time factor, Nicholas was unable to cancel the loan on-line. He followed the instructions to immediately call the 800 number if he was to cancel. I have authorization from Nicholas to contact the loan company as well.

Both he and I made several calls to Citibank, trying to cancel the loan before the 11:00 pm (ET) deadline. Both of us were given the run around by representatives. Finally, Nick had a conversation with a representative (9/9/09) at approxiamately 9:15 pm (ET) to cancel the loan for both the fall (09) and spring (10) semesters and thought that the problem was settled.

Now he has received a notification letter dated Sept. 9, 2009 that the money has been disbursed to Ithaca College for the fall semester. This particular loan is an Unsubsidized Stafford loan which makes us even angrier. Nicholas would never have accepted an unsubsidized stafford loan, under any circumstances. I feel that this whole scenario is completely underhanded and is an attempt to take advantage of the consumer.

I can't believe that it can be ethical or even legal for Citibank to generate and notify my son about a loan the day before it is to be disbursed to the college. (Again, a loan that he never applied for!) I feel that this company is trying to strong-arm my son into accepting money that he clearly does not want.

Tracy of Fairbanks, AK September 5, 2009

I am completely frustrated with the lack of humans working at Citibank. I called the to increase my monthly payment and went through the maze of electronic voice selections and not one gave me the ability to speak to a person. I will never do business with Citibank Student loan and hope something can be done to require them to employ humans at the end of their phone line.

brenda of Lithia Springs, GA September 2, 2009

I have been disabled (per Soc Sec) since 2006, and have sent Citibank the Soc Sec papers. They will not remove my loans until I release detailed medical information - diagnoses, meds, symptoms, etc. My disability is both physical and mental health. They say they have to have the information - although a federal agency (social security) has already gone through all my records since 1993 at first diagnoses through to current state.

When I was in between places to saty - they told me they blocked my account for online access, forms downloads, conact etc - unless i could provide them a valid address - however after sept 11 - you cant even get a PO box unless the post office can verify an address. Today _ learned after discussign disability with them since 2006 - there were no notations in my account of my even claiming disability (whether they approved it or not) but they are ready to default my 66 day past due loan.

My credit is suffering. Having lost my home and being homeless waiting on the Soc Sec process I have been trying to get established in my own place again. Credit is an issue. After college I owed @30K and had it down to @ 6500. Legally - they should have removed the loan when I first notified them. But they keep insisting on this economic hardship route.

Kalpana of Coral Springs, FL September 1, 2009

I had a Federal Grad PLUS loan with CITI for my first year at the Kellogg School of Management. When I went to get a new loan for the second year, they suprsingly denied it. I have called them at least 6 times to find out why since I have a very good credit report. On the third call or so, they informed that it was their mistake, and would reprocess the loans. They have now reprocessed 6 times saying it was denied but every time they say the loan denied was their fault. I have spoken to three different managers who said they would get back to me after 24 hours. None did. I have faxed the underwriters, and have had every single call result in "we'll have to check with origination or undewriting to get back to you." Supposedly my loan was supposed to be approved (quoting a manager) by Monday August 30th. Of course it hasn't. My loans are due Sep 1st.

Carmen of West Hills, CA August 26, 2009

Since January 2009, my son has tried to send the forms Citibank needed to prove his student status, money on a monthly basis to prevent late fees, and to stop collections from calling us. He was given different instructions everytime. After several months of trying to solve bank's misapplication of late fees, payments, school end dates with my son's student loans, we wire transferred the entire amount due as per Citibank's instructions to pay-off and close this account. Bank was wired the money on August 14, 2009. My credit union confirms the wire transfer sent. Citibank will not confirm having received it. It has been 11 days, now. Citibank says that have to continue with an investigation that may take another 7 - 10 days. In the meantime, they're collections department is harrassing us for payments. The supervisors say there is no other contact address or number to get this resolved, only through them.

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