CitiBank vs. CitiFinancial???

[EDub357]

What's the difference between citibank and citifinancial? Is one more lenient than the other? 

[MattH]

CitiFinancial is the "consumer finance" division of CitiCorp -- generally easier to get, higher rates, etc. Be aware that, as with any consumer finance company, a loan from CitiFinancial can have a negative impact on your FICO score whereas a credit card from CitiBank (if paid on time and low utilization) can have a positive impact on your FICO score.

[marty56]

While I was in a DMP, they sent me a "pre-approval" offer even though I had a Citibank Visa card in the DMP.  Cant get any more subprime then that.

Never get a CFL,  unless it is your last resort over a worse credit problem.

[Anonymous]

Both have the same loans, just interest rates. Try to stay away from anything that says "Financial" and stick with "Bank". You could pay 10% more interest. But if you are desperate you need to do what your situation dictates. A consolidation loan from Financial or Bank is still consumer finance. If you are forced to go to a Financial do your best to have it titled a NON Consumer Finance loan if at all possible.

Citi runs separate corps so they can offer subprime products separately from their prime bank products. If they offered subprime and prime together they would probably be labeled overall subprime.

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 04-19-2008 09:25 AM

[haulingthescoreup]

As the others said, avoid CFL's if you can, but although there is a ding associated with them, they do help overall if you pay in a timely manner and so forth. In other words, they're not completely negative.