estnet

Tried to book a room on asiarooms - got cc denied. Called citibank

1) don't know why but it's blocked (agent 1) I'll connect you to customer service
2) (answered "fraud dept.") yes my card was blocked BECAUSE THEY HAD "UPGRADED MY CARD" and I wasn't using the new card (which they acknowledged I couldn't have received yet! )
Then they told me there was some other "attempt to take the acct. over - maybe fraud" after 10 minutes on hold - no that was something WE did last month (????), there was no fraud. "NO there is no supervisor you can talk to - "

UGH how do they expect to stay in business - all this for a $60 charge on a card that has XXXX in CREDIT at the moment.

Lesson : never travel with one cc and don't expect b/c you've been an excellent customer for years that the bank won't find so new (and unexpected) way to mess things up. I DIDN'T ASK FOR A NEW CARD AND I DON'T WANT ONE - I travel a lot and would not ever want something so valuable delivered without my requesting it

BE CAREFUL YOUR CC COULD BE BLOCKED by citibank for no reason at any time!

ESpen36

Citi is really awful about the stupid fraud protection. It has happened to me before. The most frustrating thing is that they won't even explain what specific activity triggered the block--they say it's "confidential for security reasons." When it happened to me, I could have explained exactly which activity likely triggered the block, and that it was legitimate activity. But the representative would not listen.


It is vitally important that you CALL CITI every single time you might be using your card outside the USA, and ask them to notate it on the account. Even just one little unannounced charge at a foreign station could be considered "unusual activity" and could result in the card being blocked "for security reasons." Unlike AMEX which calls you and asks for authorization to keep the card active, Citi simply blocks the card and sends you a new one to your billing address. Of course, that doesn't help much if you're traveling overseas and are dependent on having your card (and won't be at your home to receive a new card).


It's really frustrating!

It goes without saying: also be sure to have more than one of each type (AMEX, MC/VISA, etc.) so that if you have this happen to you, you will still have an active card that you can use. Not everybody takes AMEX!

estnet

Update....
well the card was still blocked...so I called again..the reason

tada............

the card was blocked between last night (when I used it at the grocery) and today b/c the new card they sent me WHICH I HAVE NOT RECEIVED AND DID NOT REQUEST has a different exp date and code! Of course the old card should not be blocked before the new one is activated BUT NO - something tells me there are going to be a lot of angry people who were involuntarily ug'd (with no notice) to find their current cards unuseable!

major PR DISASTER CITIc

slawecki

Do you want to hear my lecture on the STUPIDITY OF TRUSTING BIG BANKS when you are a tiny fish. do not use BA, CITI, WB, JSM(chase), and on and on. if they are on the nyse, they cannot afford to be nice to you unless you got a couple mil in an account.

what do you have against small banks that do personal customer service?

estnet

Ummm.... I like small banks e.g. the one I used to use where I knew the manager and tellers - but now they change so often I'm not sure they know where they are. My latest local small bank just got taken over by US Bank

The only reason for the citi card is the AA miles of course (which is also why I posted in the AA forum - or thought I did was I moved?).

shawbridge

The smaller bank from which I have one credit card is the worst at blocking the card if they think something odd has happened, like a charge in a foreign country -- I spend 50% of my time outside the US, my wife is a Canadian citizen and we have a vacation house in Canada, which the bank treats as a foreign country. I use this card for personal rather than business expenses, so it tends to get used most on family trips. The bank leaves a message on my home phone but frequently when this happens, no one is home because we're traveling. So, unless I remember to check on the home phone, I've got a problem. I now have my assistant call every bank and Amex before any trip, including trips to Canada.

chix

Wow,

This is scary. Citi did this exact same thing to me also.

Ocn Vw 1K

Please follow the discussion in our Other Credit Card forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Marathon Man

yes the fraud protections of these cards are often as bad for us as they are good. So whenever I am about to travel I tell them to note my account and as much as it is a pain, I call TWICE to tell 2 dif CSRs to note it! I also try a really easy charge in my trip to make sure it went thru and yes, I carry more than one card, as well as cash for the country I travel in (if there long enough)

Citi may be a large dinosaur in the area of notifying us on such things, but it is the fact that they are huge that allows you to get those AA miles. Milk them when you can and at least it will be less of a hard hit when something like this goes wrong. Plus, if you use your citicard to buy the plane tickets or pay taxes and fees when using an award, they may just see that you actually ARE traveling now anyway.

good luck next time MM

rrgg

Citi is upgrading some aadvantage mastercards from Signature to World Elite. They're doing this without informing customers and just sending out new cards with the same account number but different expiration and CSV.

This normally is not a problem since the old card is not blocked until the new one is activated. I don't understand why that's not the case for estnet.

Even if you're not carrying a Citi card, you should still notify your bank when traveling abroad and carry a second credit card. You could get into this same mess even without the upgrade. If you search, you'll find even more complaints about Chase denying charges abroad.

FrAAmer

Or, you could look at it another way-

I used my Citibank MC ONCE, at the ticket booth at the Louvre in Paris (and no other place).

When I returned from my trip there were $17,500 in charges, mostly from Italy, where Citibank said my card was present at the transaction (yet I had my original card in my possession and I was only in Paris, never Italy).

They removed ALL of the charges quickly and without any hassle (had to sign an affidavit).

In my thinking, it sure would have been better if there was "suspicious" activity and they shut down my card then to go through the hassle of having to contest charges (or getting the reserve credit line used up).

Ditto on the do not travel with only one card - If Citi (or another bank) does lock your card, and you don't have another...........

estnet

"Citi is upgrading some aadvantage mastercards from Signature to World Elite. They're doing this without informing customers and just sending out new cards with the same account number but different expiration and CSV."

That is exactly the point - THEY BLOCKED MY CARD BECAUSE THEY SENT OUT A NEW CARD THAT I DID NOT REQUEST AND HAD NOT RECEIVED (never mind not activated). Yes, of course they should not have blocked the old one before the new one was received - and everyone admitted this, yet it took 3 calls, an hour on the phone to correct it and no one could explain how or why this happened. Besides the rant I'm really trying to alert others that this may happen to them - don't think the computer hiccuped just for me

rrgg

Yes, well I posted in response to the comments about, "Citi is really awful about the stupid fraud protection" and so on. Your problem most likely has nothing to do with fraud protection.

There are other threads about the world elite upgrades. So far you seem to be the first to report this kind of problem.

ncdecolover

The only reason IMO folks on this forum use the Citi CCs ... it's certainly not because of any wonderful customer service!

rrgg

I may be an outlier, but Citi is very good to me.