Citibank Credit Card Dirty Marketing Strategy
Posted on January 14, 2008
I can't remember how many time Citibank did the same 'dirty' marketing strategy to me and probably you. As usual, Citibank will send you a new promotion credit card such as Citibank AirAsia or Citibank Shell credit card without your noticed and confirmation. Again, this time is the worst! Why? I I'm received a new credit card monthly statement first and yet to receive a new Citibank Shell credit card. What the hell Citibank doing such 'dirty' marketing.
I believed I'm not the only victims that being 'cons' by Citibank. Please do share with me if you have the same experience.
I did received the same email about the Shell Citibank [tag]credit card[/tag] from my friends or colleagues but I'm not sure it's true or not as below?
Shell Citibank Credit Card - A Cash Draining Card
Are you fancy of getting a credit card that offers 5% rebate on shell petrol and 1.5% rebate on other purchases?
If your answer is yes, then you are draining your money away! The newly launched Shell Citibank credit card is not as good as its sounds - to enjoy the rebate, you must have a carry forward balance. Yes, a carry forward balance that you have to pay Citibank 18% interest per annum. But that's is not all, your so called 'rebate' is based on your current month spending. That means if you have a carry forward of RM10,000 but did not use the card at all for the current month, you get 'zero' rebate. To be precise, this 'rebate' card is an old card - it has been around for about 2 years. But now taking advantage of the fuel cost concern, Citibank co-branded it with Shell.
This is how the rebate scheme works:
- First, you need to have a carry forward balance. The amount
of that carry forward determines the rebate rate (%) that the card holder is
getting.
- Then based on your current month spend, you will get the
rebate (as shown by the rebate table above) - your rebate is not based on your total carry forward balance. Repeat: your rebate is not based on
your total carry forward balance, but current month spending
In short, to get your 'rebate' you must have at least of RM2,000 outstanding balance in you card AND continue use
the card. The outstanding balance is the net of previous month balance minus current month payment. If you do that, every month you will be paying RM30.00, or RM360 a year for the minimum RM2,000 outstanding balance.
Let's do a simple math here:
If you spend RM500/mth on shell petrol and your classic card has a RM2,000 outstanding balance, at 1.5%, you are getting RM7.50 as 'rebate', while at the same time, paying RM30.00 for the interest. The 'nett' profit for Citibank is RMRM22.50. Your are essentially "over paying" 4 times the price (30/7.5) To 'break even' (so that your RM30.00 interest payment = rebate value), you need to pump RM2,000 shell petrol a month, or charge RM6,000 a month for non-shell related purchases. The USD100.00 per barrel of crude oil won't kills you, but the Citi-Shell card will.
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Comments
7 Responses to “Citibank Credit Card Dirty Marketing Strategy”
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We hope that it is clear that regardless of whether the customer has a carry forward balance or not, if a customer uses the Shell Citibank Credit Card, they will be rewarded with more savings on Shell fuels compared to their existing card.
http://www.shell.com/home/content/my-en/news_and_library/hse/hse_citibank_cc_rebate_20071224.html
Just wondering, how did you get the information that the person must carry forward a balance to entitle to the rebate? From the tiny print of Terms and Conditions, even the online one here doesn’t cover it. And using the online calculator, I put zero in the carry forward balance, the amount came out to be correct.
The important thing is, if you really want to maximize the rebate, then you better have carry forward balance to enjoy the 5% (for gold card). If not, you will only enjoy 2.5% (also, for gold card). Then, it doesn’t make a bit of sense to have carry forward balance as the interest will be much greater than those rebates (Using RM1,000 per month petrol, without carry forward is RM25 rebate. With carry forward balance of RM4000 or more, you get RM50. That’s only RM25 more)
That’s why they are giving them away like no body business.
azrin @ http://www.kedai.tv
I will stay with my JCB Charge card.
You are not alone, I had bad experience with Maybank Credit Card too. They sent the card, although you didn’t activate it, they will still send you the monthly statement and it was damn hard to close the account with them, almost Ding Dong for 2 weeks before they could finally close the account. And one more thing, their rep service are really bad. :
dont trust citibank introduce a friend program. they are not genuine with their rewards. i introduce 18 friends. and only 8 got approved. even the one with platinum card got rejected. must be if 10 approved they have to give me notebook. look at the damn reply as below. they dont even review the situation.
Dear Mr Shiro,
Thank you for your e-mail dated 3/16/08 regarding card application.
We are sorry for the rejection of the application. However, as part of
our confidentiality policy that we are unable to reveal the reasons for
rejection. The approval is determined by our credit committee.
In general, the criterias are based on the documents that you submitted
to us such as your EA form or EPF statement, your previous statements
of
accounts and proof of employment, etc. There are specific guidelines
that governs the approval but we are unable to disclose them.
We hope the above clarifies.
Thank you for using Citibank Online and have a nice day.
Regards,
Gopinath Goval (Mr)
Internet Service Support
Citibank Berhad
Important:
Please do not send any account instructions and confidential details
such as credit card numbers, changes of address, PIN numbers,
passwords,
or other important information through regular emails.
For Citibank customers, please send your account instructions and
confidential details by logging in to Citibank Online
(http://www.citibank.com.my) with your Credit Card or ATM Card Number
and I-PIN and use your Mail Box to compose a message.
Original Message Follows:
————————
Form Message
subject:Contact Us (Pre-Login)
Handphone:0124098163
Email:shirockw@yahoo.com
Address:Puchong Selangor
Your message for Citibank:To the complain department.
I am very upset with Citibank as promised in the last year promotion on
the “introduce a friend rewards”. Me and my friend Lim Kim XXX work
hard
and supposed to get a notebook after introducing 18 person to this
program but only 8 person are approved. The rest are rejected for no
reason? Even the one with Platinum card? Is this just to attract people
to introduce friends but limit the rewards.
We even deliver all the forms ourselves to the Citibank HQ and
requested
for chop sign receive.
Hope there is an explaination on why we are not getting the notebook
and
why the other 10 person was rejected. Maybe Citibank isn’t genuine with
their rewards though.
ReferenceNum:00396346
Assuming you are a good consumer, a good manager your personal expenses, prompt cr card payment (meaning no carry forward), it is only worth it to use this shell citibank cr card if your monthly Shell fuel consumption is more or equal to RM500 a month for classics cr card and RM650 a month for gold cr card (assuming you only spend on fuel using this cr card). Remember guys..we are still paying for annual fee RM90 p.a for classics and RM195 p.a for gold cr card
Using the calculator in citibank’s website on how to calculate how much rebate you get..you can plug in the Monthly Fuel Spending with 500 for classics and 650 for gold cr card type and with no carry forward balance and no other non fuel consumption…then you will save RM90 annually for classics and RM195 annually for gold… which is equal to the annual fee you will pay end of the year for each card…this a break even…nothing to lose and nothing to gain.
so guys…it is better not to have any carry forward balance because with the new Bank Negara regulation where you will not enjoy 20 days free period if you dont pay full for you outstanding balance for current month…i remember this card was introduce before the new regulation came out
so if you did want to have carry forward balance…the interest charged will be more with this new regulation and if you want to cover up the interest charged with the rebate….this means you will have to spend more….more spending means higher chance you wont be able to pay full.
enough said…this card is good if your fuel consumption more than 500. other than that…it is better just pay cash and collect the bonus link point rather than paying the interest charges
other wise, u can use petronas cimb or maybank cr card….free for life…just a suggestion
consider the number of places you can pay the card bill. If you live away from their branches, and do not want to post a cheque 2 weeks ahead, consider how much petrol & parking will cost you to pay the bill.