May 23, 2011: I went to the Lakewood Ohio office of CitiFinancial to apply for a consumer loan. Account executive Sam Calvin greeted me and began to service my request.

After gathering personal information, Sam asked me to verbally authorize him to do a credit search so he could complete the loan request. I agreed. After a few minutes, he stated he was having difficulty with the computer. He stated that there was an issue with the computer that was not allowing him to complete the request. He stated that he needed to contact TECH support to seek a resolution to the problem.He did so, but after a long time, no resolution was found to correct the glitch.

I had been sitting there, uncomfortably for an hour already, so he said he didn't think there was going to be a resolution any time soon and was going to send me away until a resolution could be found.I told him not to make another credit inquiry, as too many credit inquiries are detrimental to one's credit. He agreed. He said he would call me before the end of the day to apprise me of the progress made toward finding a solution, but that call never came.

I called back the next day, Today: May 24 th 2011 to find out what had transpired. He said the issue had not been resolved yet. I asked how long I should expect to wait. He said he would call me back within an hour or two. That was at 9:15 am...By 3:00pm I had not recieved a call back. I called the office again. I asked to speak to the branch manager(Jenniffer) I have no last name available for her. I was informed by her the loan had been approved. I asked what the resolution had been to the problem. She stated a SECOND credit inquiry had been done.

I asked her why a second inquiry had been done, as I had stricttly forbidden Sam to do so.. She said she would talk to Sam and find out/. I told her I no longer wanted to have Sam handle my account!. She stated that I could deal with her directly/. I was concerned about the whole process(plus Sam's desk is only 3 feet from Jenniffer's);. That I felt uncomfortable about going in there as it would be clear that I had refused to let my account be handled by sam any more'. I told Jennifer that what Sam did was disrespectful, unprofessional and maybe even fraudulent, and I didn't want this moron initiate any kind of action with me when I arrived or I would turn his desk over!. Jennifer said..."well, you can't threaten my employees, so I will not allow you to come to my office" I apologized for my comment saying, I was upset over what Sam had done and had spoken out of indignation.I told her I wasn't going to cause any problems. I just wanted to get my loan and go. She cancelled the loan approval.

Now I have TWO credit inquiries...an approval...and NO LOAN. I have already contacted CitiFinancial Corporate offices but have not gotten any response. I also contacted the next nearest CitiFinantial Branch. They will not proceed with anything until the current debacle is cleared up.

Sam Calvin LIED to me on multiple occasions. He did an unauthorized credit search and his Branch Manager refused to do any more business with me because I "threatened " her staff.

As a former employee of CitiFinancial, I can tell with all honesty and sincerity that this company is a true Predatory Lender. CitiFinancial provides personal loans and mortgages to consumers who have less than perfect credit. They offer interest rates that range from 16% – 30% in most cases. As an employee for CitiFinancial we were encouraged to make the biggest loan possible that the customer qualified for.

For example, if the customer came in to borrow $1500 for auto repairs but qualified for $7500 we were encouraged to do whatever it took to get them to go for the biggest loan. Even if it meant the customer would struggle to pay a high monthly payment, but still qualified for the loan under CitiFinancial’s ability to pay guidelines, we were to talk them into the higher loan. And to add to the company’s bottom line we were made to offer the customer optional credit insurance that would “protect” their loan in the event of death, disability, or unemployment.

Of course these products added premiums to the overall cost of the loan and increased the customer’s monthly payment but if we didn’t sell these products we would get written up by our managers.

It was highly frowned upon if we did not sell optional credit insurance on each and every loan we made. And as for our mortgages, we had to offer mortgages to prospective customers at interest rates well above sub-prime. The average interest rate with CitiFinancial is 12%. How can you possibly sit across the table from someone and tell them it is in their best interest to consolidate a few bills with a mortgage for 30years at an interest rate of 12%.

Each and every day we had to make solicitation calls to customers that already had outstanding loans with us to get them to refinance (add more money) or start their contract over in order to skip a payment or bring the account up to date.

CitiFinancial does not want the consumer to ever pay them out. They want to keep refinancing and adding to the balance in an effort to keep you (the consumer) in debt to them. I would never recommend CitiFinancial to anyone needing a loan. Go to your local bank or credit union and try first. If you ever get involved with Citi, it is not likely you will ever get away!

3 years ago, I got a loan for $3000.00 from CitiFinancial. This is by far the worst mistake of my life. They applied their interest to my initial balance, yes it was expensive, the total came out to over double what I borrowed, over $6000.00 and some change. When I initially got the loan, they were very polite about it and I bought "unemployment" insurance, well, what they fail to tell you that, the insurance does not cover you if you get fired. I've been paying on this loan and I STILL owe them more than what I borrowed!! I looked at my statements and to my disgust, I find that more than 75% of my payments are going to FEES AND INTREST! This is highway robbery!!

This is exactly what is wrong with this economy, greedy idiotic loan sharks like this robbing innocent people who just wanted a little help with life. So what if I'm late on some payments, that obviously means that I'm having financial troubles, but these idiots see that as an opportunity to make more money!! How is that fair!? This should be illegal and these people need to be SHUT DOWN!!

NEVER EVER get a loan from CitiFinancial! You will regret it for the rest of your life.

Citifinancial is not recommended and should be avoided. I have had a loan with them for sometime and the interest rate is a killer. They also have no interest in reducing the rate and to add to the negativity of this company, they ca not reproduce my loan documents. I have several asked several times if they could reduce my payment or interest rate and never get a call back. Now that I asked for copies of my loan documents, they can not. The hard documents with full details can not be located and so they can only provide me with some of the information in regards to the loan.

I took out a Citifinancial loan a few years back, with fixed payment amounts coming out monthly automatically from my bank account. They told me when I took out the loan that I could make lump sum payments towards my loan whenever I wanted to, which I twice did. This month should have been my last repayment, only $185 instead of the usual $191. But, lo and behold, they took the usual $191. And they'll probably keep on taking payments, even though I have now paid off my loan!!! Con artists!!!