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Citibank, you guys are a fucking piece of work.

Okay, that was abrupt.

Let me start from the beginning. I signed up for the Citibank Premier Miles card in January this year because it was (supposedly) the best card for travel benefits.

I am vocally impaired so I couldn’t talk on the phone (vocal chord damage since October last year). My registration was delayed for a week because the Customer Support (CS) who handled my registration couldn’t get in touch with me, and didn’t know what to do next when I divulged that I was vocally impaired and couldn’t go on the phone.

I sent two emails days apart to reiterate this but the CS never responded.

Eventually, I send an email telling the CS to call my mum’s number. My mum’s phone rang almost immediately. (I had a ?! moment at this time – if I wasn’t proactive and didn’t anticipate their needs, my application would have been in limbo forever.)

But still, the CS needed me on the line to do some identity validation.

Fair enough, maybe all other banks are like that too. Voice biometric maybe, but I practically have no voice for them to capture.

Mum came to the rescue and spoke to the CS on my behalf. The credit card registration subsequently went smoothly and I finally had my credit card for travel perks, whee.

I originally set a low credit limit of $4000 in my application. I was bitten by credit card fraud before and wanted to play it safe especially with a new bank (I am mostly on DBS, and this is my first ever experience with Citibank), so I set it low. And if all’s good, I would increase it if necessary.

I thought a $4000 credit limit would serve me just fine.

Until I decided to shift to this Citibank card as my primary card for daily expenses and my medical bills. On top of that, the boy and I were starting to consolidate our expenditure on this card because of the miles. Thankfully, all these combined expenses stayed well below the limit.

Then came April when I travelled to Osaka on a long trip.

Payments to the hotel (via Agoda), combined with a medical bill bomb led to my credit limit getting maxed out. Two hotel payments went through, but payment to the last hotel failed. I quickly topped up my card by transferring additional funds to it, but it was in vain – the funds took 3 days before it was registered by Citibank. Eventually, the booking for the final stretch of my trip got cancelled, and we were nearly left stranded. (I said “nearly” because we managed to secure another hotel at the eleventh hour using another credit card.)

That was it.

I had to increase my credit limit.

Has our society degenerated to a point where people are no longer seen as human beings, but a commodity?

The world I’m seeing right now is one of where the following has been happening.

“Can you do this by tomorrow if I pay you double?”

“If you guys don’t do ___ by this coming week, I’m not paying you.”

“All the other vendors are working through the weekend. We’re also paying your team so why can’t you do the same?”

The best part is how everyone simply tells me that “this is what it is”.

But what happened to the fact that we are all human beings; Living, breathing creatures with our own ideals, beliefs and personal lives, and varying circumstances, and not just “something that you pay for”?

We are people with our own lives to lead, beyond what we do for a living.

We have other commitments.

Some have their own families.

Some have other hidden battles (eg. health) that you don’t see.

And of course, the basic right to adequate rest because our bodies are not machinery.

Does simply waving additional money in our faces/threats of withholding payment quantify for all that?

And newsflash. Paying extra does not magically add an additional 24 hours to a day.

My heart is breaking watching my teammates getting shoved around like pawns, and not being able to help much because I myself am exhausted and already on the brink of a complete mental breakdown.