I dealt with CitiFinancial when I was actively re-establishing my credit. A two year $2000 loan paid off in 12 months cost me a total of $2600.

Now, I bear them no ill-will, I went in with my eyes open and read the material carefully, I knew how much it was going to cost me and I was prepared to pay that expense as a part of generating a nice clean I1 on my credit report.

I get monthly mailings and phone calls from Citi offering to loan me money, each phone call I ask the same question "Are you offering a competitive interest rate?" (one of them once tried to argue that 29% was competitive - with what? The Mafia?). The answer is "no".

An interesting side effect is that I see from my credit reports that they happily do a soft credit pull approximately once a month, and then send me a mailing. Seems when my score dips below 700 (with equifax) they offer to loan me $3500, when it climbs above 700 they offer to loan me $15,000.

I've no complaints with their service, they were upfront (as required by law) with the costs of borrowing, and their customer service (when I decided to pay the note off a year early) was excellent.

I can see where people get into trouble however, for that year I had the loan I received several calls from the local CitiFinancial office offering to loan me more money, simply rolling my existing loan into a new one.

Would I borrow from them again? Are you crazy? I'd be better off taking cash advances from my credit cards. They were a big help in re-establishing my credit however (I am quite certain I paid a hefty premium for that service).

I have never had dealing with Wells Fargo. I had dealings with CitiFinancial and I must admit their interest rates are high, but when it came to settling my two debts they were great.

Yup, these guys are collection agencies! I wish the goverment would interveen on these LOAN SHARKS.

They will always be there as your LAST LAST LAST choice and screw you everytime.

Well these companies who feed on the greed and desperation of other people it is about time karma gives them a taste of their own medication.

I heard on tv that these companies in canada, are going to have a hard road ahead of them.The high interest rates are finally catching up with them.How do the expect their clients to pay 28.8% on their loans?