Citibank zero cooperation
Date: Mon, 05/03/2010 - 22:50
In Brief - my wife has a Credit Card which she took out from Citibank in India. We have since moved to Ethiopia and are about to move again. We ran up a bill of around 140,000rs and then subsequently tried to pay it from here. The card limit was 120000. As the amounts rose we tried to pay it - once we made a payment of 500USD and then later a payment of 800USD but on neither occasion were we able to bring the debt down sufficently in order to cope with the charges. We contacted Citibank and they made an agreement with us that they would take of the excess charges and we could pay 200USD per month. Great!
They gave us a month to pay the first installment and then we were told that they would only accept a written cheque. We explained that we could not give a cheque since we were in ethiopia but we were quite happy to pay online. We were told only a cheque would suffice. We heard nothing more from them despite writing frequently and two days before the payment was due they called us up and demanded that we pay up. So they agreed to accept an online payment. We paid. Then they called us the next day and said since it was not a paper check the deal was off and the minimum was about 200rs more than we paid otherwise we would get the full bill added back on top. Through an insane series of phone calls from an indian friend of mine here we managed to make a payment.
Thereafter tyhe same process repeated itself but this time they harassed us considerably, throughout my wife's latter pregnancy, to get us to pay. No matter how many times we told them, having to scream this at them on the phone, that we could not pay be a paper check but could only pay online - never would they accept this. This went on and on and we paid like this while the debt went back to its original and the EMI was cancelled. As a result of the harassment and seeing no way to actually pay we cancelled our phone cards and changed numbers.
Now we are getting mails threatening to take us to court, and we will be liable for the full amount. Since we cannot pay except online I see no solution. What I want to know is, is this just a threat? We would still be willing to pay but they have left us no option. Exactly what can they do? And what options do we have? We cannot easily travel to India anyway. Can they pursue a court action across international borders? best we want to pay but they give us no chance!
Thanks
They gave us a month to pay the first installment and then we were told that they would only accept a written cheque. We explained that we could not give a cheque since we were in ethiopia but we were quite happy to pay online. We were told only a cheque would suffice. We heard nothing more from them despite writing frequently and two days before the payment was due they called us up and demanded that we pay up. So they agreed to accept an online payment. We paid. Then they called us the next day and said since it was not a paper check the deal was off and the minimum was about 200rs more than we paid otherwise we would get the full bill added back on top. Through an insane series of phone calls from an indian friend of mine here we managed to make a payment.
Thereafter tyhe same process repeated itself but this time they harassed us considerably, throughout my wife's latter pregnancy, to get us to pay. No matter how many times we told them, having to scream this at them on the phone, that we could not pay be a paper check but could only pay online - never would they accept this. This went on and on and we paid like this while the debt went back to its original and the EMI was cancelled. As a result of the harassment and seeing no way to actually pay we cancelled our phone cards and changed numbers.
Now we are getting mails threatening to take us to court, and we will be liable for the full amount. Since we cannot pay except online I see no solution. What I want to know is, is this just a threat? We would still be willing to pay but they have left us no option. Exactly what can they do? And what options do we have? We cannot easily travel to India anyway. Can they pursue a court action across international borders? best we want to pay but they give us no chance!
Thanks
P.S. my wife is from the Philippines and I am from the UK.
P.S. my wife is from the Philippines and I am from the UK.
