Today I got a call from a Citibank guy hawking Citibank investment products. Being the seventh call about this in as many weeks, I was pretty pissed off, but was trying to be polite. He asked me "CitiBank would like to help you plan your investments", and I told him "No thanks, I have already planned my investments". Most citibank guys usually leave me alone at this point (which was why I was generally polite to them.) But this guy was persistent."But Sir we will give you free counseling on how to make investments...". Trying to end this pointless conversation I replied - "OK, I dont have any money left with me after my previous investment". That I figured would effectively end the conversation, since you cannot sell to a guy who is broke.
"Sir, Do you have a CitiBank credit card sir?" he asked. what the ...? Now he is selling me credit cards? "No" - I snapped. He then explained to me that if I got a CitiBank Credit card, I can take out a loan on it (@24% interest rate) and then use the money to make Investments. I ended the conversation with a "no thanks".
This is the EXACT thing that burned CitiBank (and Wall Street) - Taking Loans to make investments - Leverage. If these big shots could not handle leverage and went to the Fed for handouts, how come common people are supposed to handle it? How can they even make these kind of stupid suggestions? No wonder so many subprime mortgages got sold! Something ought to done about these bloodsuckers, before they precipitate another meltdown.
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