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In Reply to: Primerica rescues America from debt? posted by steve on July 24, 2001 at 16:28:00:
Of course Citigroup owns 17% of the national credit card debt. Citigroup has, probably, 17% of the credit card consumers. That only makes sense. What are you saying, we should outlaw credit cards?
Or should we, or companies, attempt to educate people on how to use credit cards and how not to use credit cards?
I wouldn't say, in this case, the problem is Citigroup, it's the consumers that are possibly misinformed or simply out of touch with what's going to happen when they max out their credit cards and then can't pay them off.
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There was talk in Canada about PFS reps earning a commission for taking citibank Credit card applications. It never happened. Do PFAs in the States take applications for credit cards? If so, I wonder how you feel about contributing to the national problem of debt. Did you know that according to the Citigroup 2000 financials, Citibank owns 17% of America's credit card debts? That's $88 billion dollars.
: it seems to me that a BIG part of Citigroup's bottom line is profit made when people go into debt. How does it make sense for a sibling company to claim to be solving America's debt problem while its parent is responsible for 17% of it, and making huge profits from it? Do you really think Sandy Weill would cut into his own profits made on debt interest by purchasing a company which could actually lower his profits from debt?
: I don't think so. So what's really going on? It's simple. Primerica simply churns debt from one lender to another, adding additional fees and raising the interest rates, and advising the clients to give up pizza and movies in order to make extra payments on the now higher interest debt. They even go so far as to run a computerized projection showing how this strategy can save money in the long run.
: Well, it can! But not as much as if the customer kept their existing debt at a lower rate of interest, avoided additional fees charged in the transfer, and simply made more payments on their debt.
: So, the truth of the matter is, that on paper, it APPEARS that Primerica is saving you money. But in actuality, most people end up in a worse position than they started, and they end up blaming themselves, instead of the agent and company who proposed this cockamamy interest savings strategy.
: Just remember: 17% of the national credit card debt is owned by Primerica's parent company. $88 billion. That says a lot about the true motivation of the Citigroup Corporation and its sibling companies.