Upon looking at this month's Citibank Mastercard bill, I noticed that the address of the payment collection center changed again. This doesn't affect me, because I've paid all my bills online for the last several years, but I still find it interesting.

In the mid 1990s, the center was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Then later on, my bills showed an address is South Hackensack, New Jersey. Now it's moved back west, to Columbus, Ohio.

Without having any information whatsoever as to how Citibank decides to position its payment collection centers, here is my guess as to what happened. As the time value of money went up, the cost/benefit analysis to opening a new center changed: collecting payments a day or two earlier from the major East Coast metro areas offset the cost of opening and operating the center. A day or two may not seem like much, but multiply this by the millions of dollars Citibank is collecting regularly, and float counts.

But also, my guess is that the percentage of people paying their bills by mail has gone down significantly in the last few years. People are now timing the payment using online banking systems. So the bank won't collect payments faster by having a center in New Jersey versus Ohio. And the time value of money has dwindled from what it was in 2000 (although it has been going up again). So they probably decided to move again.

In the specific case of Citibank, this may not be 100% accurate; however, I'd be stunned if these kinds of calculations generally didn't go into determining where to position payment collection centers.

As for my payment, it will continue to be transmitted to Citibank at the latest possible moment without being late. Whatever float is available, I'll take it; thanks.