I hate Citigroup

I dabble in the stock market and one of the stocks I owned until recently was 5 shares of Citigroup stock.   I picked it up in late 2008 at $6 a share hoping to vulture-like profit share.   In the interests of full disclosure, I bought it before they got any TARP money.   It has since declined even further and sat in my stock portfolio like unwanted cheesecake consistently valued at less than I paid for it.   I decided about a year ago that as soon as it broke even I would sell it and wash my hands of the company I dislike anyway.

Image from www.SangLucci.com

I dislike Citigroup because of the way they treat customers and the way they manage the Government travel card.   I have a government travel card for the not so frequent TDY trips I have to take for work.   Their customer service sucks to say the least when you are trying to check out of a hotel in a foreign country and you Travel Card does not work.   I have gotten to the point where I just use my personal credit card when that happens.   I think the best answer I got from a Citibank rep was when one asked me why I had to be in Europe, then I would not have to use my card there in the first place.

Now I really hate them. I checked my stock portfolio today.   On May 6, Citi did a reverse 10-1 stock split, which means that if you had 10 shares before, you now have one, it also coincidentally magically raises their stock price by a factor of ten.   I only had 5 shares so that left me with 0.5 shares and apparently you are only allowed to have full shares so I was forced to sell my half share back to Citi at the days market price.   I lost $10 on the deal, that is $10 of the original $30 I had invested in them.   So because they engaged in a cynical play to artificially raise their stock price I had to suck up a %30 loss in my, admittedly, small investment.

And that is why I hate Citigroup and hope the bank fails, they are certainly never getting any of my business.   If they were the last bank in the world I would use a shoebox in my backyard before depositing anything with them.

1 thought on “I hate Citigroup”

  1. I must agree with you , they are horrible and tuff to deal with. 15 yrs military and i still dont understand why they cant get the travel card system worked out

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