Originally Posted by
MrPink
I'm not surprised citi is having trouble processing these cards. I got offered one of their 2G rewards cards (
https://creditcards.citicards.com/us...F457413BA95479) but after 3 or 4 attempts I still did not have the correct card - just the regular plastic and extra paypass tags. Only after I gave up on the last try did they send the correct one separate from one of my requests.
My take is that with many US banks being so used to just throwing out offer after another (50,000 bonus points, no annual fee, etc.) that exist solely in the software end, they seem to have completely forgotten how to handle requests that are on the hardware end; the
physical features on the cards themselves.
For the past many decades, it always has been:
- card design stock
- embossed card number, cardholder's name, expiration date, other
- VISA, MC, or AMEX logo
- VISA, MC, or AMEX hologram
- magnetic stripe
- signature area
That default list hasn't changed for the past 25 years or so for US card issuers and everything else has been back side software offers.
Now changing times (global compatibility issues, increased skimming fraud rates, future consideration of contactless payments, etc.) are going back to the features incorporated within the physical card itself which now also include options in addition to the default list as above such as:
- cardholder's photo?
- contactless chip inside the card?
- if so, add respective VISA PayWave, MC PayPass, AMEX ExpressPay logo
- EMV global chip outside the card?
- redesign card stock if needed in consideration of the EMV global chip
- switchable/re-writable magnetic stripe cards by Dynamics (what Citi refers to as 2G cards)?
- Or should they use Dynamics' new Chip and Choice cards which won the best of show at CARTES last November which includes EMV and the rewritable mag-stripe?
Such extensive list being added these days it may not be able to keep up with what CSRs has been used to for the past 25 years.
Let alone, how many CSRs at Citi have been working as a CSR for over 25 years that remembers the last time there was a big physical feature change that was added to the credit card: switching from the embossed card number to embossed card number + mag-stripe hybrid card "technology" of the late 1970s and early 1980s? Very few I presume.
Perhaps they banks could learn from how Dell and car makers does it: create a checklist of the physical options per every make and model. 8GB of RAM or 16GB or RAM? Generic DVD drive or Blu-ray drive? Basic 4 way car stereo, or premium car audio? Do you want fog lights on your car?
