This has been frequently reported since January. We cannot know why Citi is doing this, but it seems sensible to assume they have recently experienced a high rate of fraudulent applications.
Citi has just gone nuts with their fraud paranoia. I have had Citi cards (many) for over 19 years. I currently have 9 Citi cards open. Got a new AA on 4/9, and went to do my first charge on it yesterday. Called the number on the card to report an upcoming "Large purchase". Unlike before the CSR could not do that himself, but instead had to send me to the Fraud Dept to set that up. Despite calling on my cell, which number is lied to all of my cards as a work number, they had to send me a special code to my phone, yes the same one I was talking to them on. Sigh...
Having done that, they assured me that my up to $1100 purchase would go thru without a problem. Nope, it was denied Called Citi, automatically send to Fraud, but had a 7 minute wait for a rep. Explained to CSR what had happened. She was very apologetic, BUT despite calling on the same cell that is tied to all of my accounts, and that had been verified by the FD an hour earlier, she insisted on my giving her the number of a different Citi card. I gave her my Premier number, and she stayed on the line while my $1,012 charge went thru this time.
It's just ridiculous that I had to go thru all of this. A verified call to the FD giving advance notice of the purchase should be more than enough. No reason to have to go thru it again in the store.
