Citifinancial I got a $54,000 loan from them in 2007, as of March 2014 I still owe them $51,400 and pay them $479.80 per month. How can this be legal? This loan will never be paid off and I cannot believe they can do this to people. I want help on this matter. Nationwide

I will stay that I am facing the same thing.  I spoke to a rep today and she explained they have been applying my payments to interest and not the principal so from a 2007 car loan that i refinanced in  2008 I still owe $7800.  With a maturity date of  12/2014, but will still have a balance of at least  4500.00 that they will so gladly allow me to continue paying until it is paid off.  Aren't they sweet. I need help to file a class action lawsuit.

Its called "amoritization".  You borrowed the money and you will pay interest on your use of that money.  When you pay it back via monthly payments, a certain portion of that payment is applied FIRST to interest then the rest to principle.  In the start of the loan, most of your payment goes toward interest...yes...even after seven years.  As you move further into the payback schedule, more and more money is applied to principle.  If you make all payments on time, at the end of the repayment period you would have paid all the principle and all the interest.  Nothing illiegal, immoral or unethical here.  That's the way finance works.  Don't forget, under certain circumstances that interest MIGHT be deductable if you itemize deductions on your tax return.

 While your report is lacking an amazing amount of detail, with what little you did put it is actually fairly simple to see what is going on and how a lot of your issues are that you have no idea how loans work and while this is NOT a RipOff.

First of all you did not post the Interest Rate or the Length of the loan.  However, with what you did post it appears you probably have a 25-30 year loan and an Interest Rate of around 10%.  So now the way these type of loans work is that you ALWAYS pay more interest toward the begining of the loan than you do near the end.  That is because you are paying a SET amount that does not change.  So with a higher balance you pay higher interest, then as the balance gets paid down more of it goes toward your principal.

Contrary to what you are posting your balance has gone down. 

If you were to put your loan values into any Amortization Calculator you would see how your interest is applied every month, and I would bet that it would match very closely with what you are seeing.   

Now, of course this is all with the "assumption" that you have made every payment on-time and for the full amount.  Even a couple of days late could incurr additional interest.   If you were ever more than 5-15 days late they may have also assessed late fees which would increase your balance. 

So if you want to know what to do about this loan...continue to make your payment each and every month.  If you want it to be paid down faster..pay more each month.  If your credit has improved see if you can refiance the loan with another lender for a lower Interest rate.  Just be careful with this, because if they refiance you for another 30 year loan you are right it may never get paid off because you now have 7 years of payments almost wipped out.  So look for about a 20 year loan(or less).

Here's a link to a loan calculator on citifinancials site..

http://www.citifinancial.ca/USCFA/CFA/portal/Home.do

It's just an example for you.

The early years are overwhelmingly interest.  Check your amortizian schedule or go to many financial calculators available online and enter your loan amount, the interest rate and the term of the loan.  It sounds like it's going as expected.

You were given the amortization schedule when you took out the loan. If you don't know how or don't want to look it up yourself ask them for a new copy and don't lose this one.

If you've really been ripped off, meaning they are charging you more interest than they should, report them to banking authorities.  It's VERY unlikely they are and it's very likely you're clueless about how loans work.

BTW, do you even know what your interest rate is?  Clue, it's on the loan agreement you signed.

"..loan from Citifinancial in State College, Pa. for $54,000.00"  "..my balance is $51,419.00."   "Nothing goes on the principal obviously"

Let's see, $54,000 MINUS $51,419 = $2581.  How is that "Nothing goes on the principle?"