Semi OT: Citibank Customers

[BenLoy]

Any Citibank customers on this board use the ATM lately?

 

Have any of you noticed that there's a home equity loan ad that pops up while you're waiting for your cash?

 

Have you noticed that the photo in the ad depicts a happy guy lying on his back in his new house, playing a Tobias 5-string, with a Kubicki 4 string lying by his feet?

 

Weird...somebody in the marketing department must've been saying "You know, we haven't targeted the bass playing demographic lately." Hmmm...

[saxofunk]

Pop-ups at the Altar of The Moneygod

 

I haven't been to one lately, I generally avoid them. The principle of paying the bank a buck and a half every time I need to grab a Jackson just befuddles me.

 

Henceforth, I will only trade in used bass strings.

 

I'll give you a .45 stainless and two .105 flats for that hamburger.

 

Oh well, at least they had some nice basses hanging around when they made the ad.

[dcr]

I'm truly touched that if you were in the business of facilitating transactions, you'd just do it all for free. Brings a tear to me eye, does this.

 

Sounds like someone at CB's ad agency has figured who's really spending all the money!!

[_Sweet Willie_]

And I'll bet that Mike and Phil didn't even have to pay for that kind of product placement!

 

Does this same pop-up come up every time you use the ATM or is it one of several?

 

Peace.

--s-dub

[zeronyne]

Heh, if it's the image I'm thinking about, it's a licensed image from Getty Images (which absorbed a lot of photobanks a few years ago). I noticed that one too when I was working on some ads for LaSalle bank. They had chosen it for one of their "Lifestyle" campaigns. I was genuinely surprised...you usually see the lowest end squiers as prop guitars in those imagediscs, except for fashion shoots, where they'll buy a Kubicki off of ebay and literally throw it in the dumpster after the shoot.

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

Bank at National City. They are too cheap to spring for the multi-color screens. Still running the green screens in Left Armpit, OH.

 

Best technology the eighties had to offer.

 

At least mine's free, even if I use it as a debit card at Kroger's or Wal-Mart.

[Whacked]

Originally posted by Matt W:

The principle of paying the bank a buck and a half every time I need to grab a Jackson just befuddles me.

Sounds like a change in banks is in order. I use my ATM card all the time, and never get charged for using it. I use it whereever I would otherwise pay cash. much easier than carrying around cash most of the time. and dont have a pocket full of change.

 

only time I ever get charges is when I use another banks ATM. sometimes that is unavoidable. but if you want that Jackson so bad, just stop in a mini-mart and buy a soda and get cash back.

 

but yea, being charged to use another banks ATM is rather lame.

[music-man]

Originally posted by BenLoy:

Any Citibank customers on this board use the ATM lately?

Hey - that's funny!

 

THIS MORNING, I just used the Chinatown Citibank ATM, and almost laughed out loud at the same photo, with the dude lying on his back and playing an unlined Tobias fretless and grinning.

 

I looked around, but no one else around me seemed particularly interested ... Ben, it warms my llittle soul to know I shared an "ATM moment" with you, somewhere across the city ...

 

[$1.50 ATM charge later, , I was on my way with cash in hand, headed for some cheap-and-tasty dumplings ... $2 for 10. Can't beat that for cost-effective.]

[_Sweet Willie_]

Originally posted by music-man:

... I was on my way with cash in hand, headed for some cheap-and-tasty dumplings ... $2 for 10. Can't beat that for cost-effective.]

I will need the name of this joint once I'm relocated. I like dumplings.

[saxofunk]

Originally posted by Whacked:

only time I ever get charges is when I use another banks ATM. sometimes that is unavoidable. but if you want that Jackson so bad, just stop in a mini-mart and buy a soda and get cash back.

That's the strategy... Instead of using the ATM I just write a check for a little extra at the grocery store.

 

... which could lead to an anecdote...

 

Running a toll gate in Oklahoma... $90.00.

 

Brokering a deal with a very nice toll agent, so I can use her exit if I swear to return with $0.50 in her special envelope... $0.50

 

Finding an open business at 6:00 on a Sunday morning, writing a check at WalMart for Chocolate milk plus $10, then buying a croisanwich at Burger King because WalMart was out of quarters... priceless (plus about $3).

 

Visa, It's not accepted on Oklahoma Turnpikes.

[wraub]

Matt W-

 

Ken- I, also, require the name of the aforementioned purveyor of dumpling comestibles.

Toot suite.

 

Peace,

 

wraub

[Adamixoye]

Stock photos are amusing. You'll see propaganda, er, brochures for things like medical supplies or financial services with cliches like, "Fits your lifestyle". Then they show photos of people frollicking in a meadow or something like that. If you wait long enough, you'll see the photos elsewhere. Suddenly it hits you, "Whoa, they're diabetic and have unsightly varicose veins and bank with Wells Fargo?"

[wraub]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I use the PhotoAlto pics sometimes, and the ways I have seen some of them used in ads makes me smile. Or wince. Whatever.

 

Peace,

 

wraub

[Adamixoye]

Also, I'll echo the sentiment that if you're still paying ATM fees on a regular basis, you need to find a bank that doesn't charge you and has more ATMs.

[Tom Capasso]

I'm out of town now and need cash. I'll see if I can find a Citi - this may be worth the buck 50.

 

Tom

[music-man]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sweet Willie:

I will need the name of this joint once I'm relocated. I like dumplings. And Fried ONLY serve fried dumplings (oh, and fried pork buns), so you know you're being served by specialists.

 

Let me know if you need other Chinatown recs - I've worked down here for a couple years, and my lunch limit is $5 (which, incidentally, makes a $1.50 fee seem absolutely outrageous).

[getz out]

Originally posted by music-man:

They're both in the neighborhood of Wo-Hop, which is something of a shrine for those afflicted with the post-4AM munchies.

How beautiful is it eating Wo-Hop, walking out of the joint at 7 AM, and realizing you just ate garlic chicken with eggplant for breakfast?

 

I haven't done that in a couple of years. I'm going to bring an 8x10 glossy next time to put up on the wall...

[coyote]

The whole principle of banking is that you store your $$$ with them. They invest it and earn a return, and give you a cut of that return as interest on your deposit.

 

ATMs were supposed to reduce the cost of banking. Instead, in this deregulated world they've become profit centers.

 

Originally posted by dcr:

I'm truly touched that if you were in the business of facilitating transactions, you'd just do it all for free. Brings a tear to me eye, does this.

 

Sounds like someone at CB's ad agency has figured who's really spending all the money!!

[getz out]

Originally posted by coyote:

The whole principle of banking is that you store your $$$ with them. They invest it and earn a return, and give you a cut of that return as interest on your deposit.

Banks are evil. And that's coming from someone who works in the INSURANCE industry.

 

The ATM scam is ridiculous. But, such is life. We've been de-sensitized when it comes to anything costing less than $2-3 as a society.

[BenLoy]

Okay, I don't know when this Citibank pile-on started...but let me set the record straight.

 

I'm a Citibank customer. Because I'm a customer, they don't charge me for using their ATMs. One of the reasons I use them is that their ATMs are everywhere.

 

I agree the ATM scam is rediculous, but if you don't want to pay the fees, find your own bank's ATM.

 

I'm a little shocked how many people don't get this.

 

If you want a return on your investment, you open up a savings account or money market account and keep most of your savings there. If you wanna put some money away for the long term, open an IRA and buy municpal bonds, stocks, or mutual funds. If you've got enough money, buy a house...which is probably offers the best investment return out there.

 

Okay, back to the bass. I'm working on Paul Chamber's "Tale of the Fingers" with the bow right now. Damn it's hard...anyone out there heard this head for double bass?

[music-man]

Originally posted by BenLoy:

I agree the ATM scam is rediculous, but if you don't want to pay the fees, find your own bank's ATM.

 

I'm a little shocked how many people don't get this.

 

If you want a return on your investment, you open up a savings account or money market account and keep most of your savings there. If you wanna put some money away for the long term, open an IRA and buy municpal bonds, stocks, or mutual funds. If you've got enough money, buy a house...which is probably offers the best investment return out there.

The entire field of private investment and financial planning reduced to the simple truth, free of charge, by bassplayer BenLoy.

 

FWIW - the issue with ATM charges isn't whether there's a way around it - of course you can give in and bank with MegaBank. But the issue is that banks incur almost no additional costs in providing ATM services to non-customers, but nonetheless impose a huge (relative to their costs) fee. So essentially you pay for nothing. That's not a fee - that's a penalty. The other issue is that inflated ATM charges for non-customers are an anti-competitive tool by which mega-banks like Citi and Chase are able to squeeze out smaller banks with fewer branches/ATMs. And if you value choice and consumer power, that stinks.

 

Anyway, back to charts for the theatre gig ...