An odd thing happened today. I just received my latest Citi AA MC today, so I decided to go to Simon to put some of the $3000 required spend on it. On the way I bought a little gas with it and then went to WM to buy a $500 GC in an attempt to season the card, but the card was rejected and I paid with another card.
I went on to Simon and checked my phone when I got there, but there were no fraud alerts and when I checked citi.com, no message there, either. So I decided to try $3000 first, then lower amounts until I found an amount that would pass, but $3000 worked fine.
My new Citi Double Cash card had gone the same route on Sunday -- successful small purchases then a rejection on a $500 GC at WM, so I decided to try it at Simon. I tried $2500 and it worked, too.
So I'm wondering why the cards didn't work for a $500+ purchase at WM, but did work for much larger amounts at Simon. Does Citi trust Simon Mall more?