Reuters' Felix Salmon wrote a harrowing story about a $200 debt he owes Citibank, and how the bank is forcing him into debt slavery for every nickel and dime of interest on that loan.

It isn't that Salmon one day really needed $200 from Citibank. What happened was that on March 11th, 2013, he made a flurry of transactions (paying off credit cards etc.), and briefly overdrew his account by $112.56.

Instead of taking that money from his savings account,  Citi rounded up to the nearest hundred and force fed Salmon a loan.

The bank never told him about this loan, instead burying it in his statement. Then, when Salmon tried to pay off the loan in full, Citi insisted that he could only make minimum payments at an interest rate of 13.25%.

From Reuters:


This, Salmon points out, is how banks are able to offer us all "free checking." Nice right?

Business Insider reached out to Citigroup for comment, but have yet to hear anything. We'll keep you posted.

For the full post head to Reuters »