silver6054

As far as we know, everyone who had their TY account frozen, eventually had their cards closed and their TY balance removed. But there have been variations:

In the first post in the thread, thehawk's cards were closed, but he still had access to the TY account and was able to redeem most. Soon after, they seemed to adopt the strategy of freezing the TY account first ("for review", but with only one outcome). Most recently, people have reported more like the initial behavior, their card is declined, the website tells them that the cards are closed, and they may have a short time to try to redeem.

But yes, you are in shutdown mode. Your petition is very timely....

Bender464

FWIW, I just cashed a bunch of SL checks. Accounts are still open...

PointsforHolidayBoy

Should I be shutting down my Thank You account? Would that save my other accounts?

thehawk75

If only last week, better check and make sure that the check hasn't bounced.

silver6054

You mean cancel the TY cards? No-one knows. Someone did that last week, but their account wasn't under review, so it will be hard to tell if that did anything. My guess (and just a guess) is that if your Citi relationship is being looked at, all the cards will be closed (because you are a security risk remember). But only Citi knows....

thehawk75

I know of one guy who, when is TY Account went under review and was locked, went and pre-emptively shut down every single Citi credit card he had -- in hopes that this would avoid the blacklist that was sure to follow, and thus be able to sign up for new accounts in the near future.

Too early to know if that strategy worked, but, it is a thought.

Probably won't help much with your petition however if you've closed your accounts yourself.

PointsforHolidayBoy

Can you just shutdown my thank you accounts?

I want to keep my Mastercard. I have a 12 year account with Citi. I can't believe they'll be shutting all my cards down for this.

silver6054

If you get shutdown, you will be told it was for security reasons. So there would be no sense in allowing you to keep any cards.

But as I said, no-one here knows, and it might be worth a try to close your TY cards. Since you are at least very likely to lose those, you have little to lose.

jmw

One of your helpers in your petition might be from Citi. That's the way I would bust you if I were working for them.

iahphx

That would be too diabolical. From my years of experience with Citi, they just aren't that clever.

PointsforHolidayBoy

I thought about that. A mole?

Well, the petition is still going public.

It's hard to say what triggered the review. My account was initiated for review yesterday. But last week, I also redeemed a check.

In any event, I accepted the risk there might be some retaliation for my petition.

Happy

What about the retention offer on the category bonus albeit for a short 3 months duration?

Several of us got such retention offers and suffer the same fates as those who took the new cards.

lkar

This is the question I'm struggling with too. I appear to be in phase 2 -- thank you account under review and frozen but cards still working. On the one hand, I want to fight if they close me down. But, at the end of the day, I'm only looking at losing about 80k to 100k in points if I shut down voluntarily. I don't want to give up the right to fight if it's not going to get me anything.

But a "closed at customer's request" and a hope of staying on citi's good side seems like it might be worth letting those points go -- since they are likely as good as gone anyway.

Happy

Around 2:45 EST, got a call from TY Dept in SD, informing me the closure of TY account and TY cards (and other Citi cards closed) cannot be reversed because the purchase of GCs at CVS are considered is an "abuse" to the program, even though I only bought 2 GCs at less than 10% of the card's credit line. That the security dept said I have committed "Fraud" therefore the cards were closed regardless GC has NEVER been listed as a forbidden item to buy in any T&Cs one can find, nor "Fraud" is ever defined in writing in any of the T&Cs.

She claimed that because "fraud" and "abuse" were committed, Citi has the right to close accounts and confiscate all points earned pass and present.

I pointed out that Citi made a retention offer, but never told customer that GC purchase was forbidden. When customer bought GCs, (and in this case, so
little of them), Citi took away the bait, and used the excuse to confiscate customer's prior years' earning, thus get away with its liability to pay out the rewards. A bait and switch in its worst form.

I told her that since I did not have phone recording facility, I was in a distinct disadvantage position, when it comes to the need to retrieve the phone records so we could verify exactly what she said as representing Citi's position on this, I wanted her to send me a letter in writing with the definitions she told me how the "fraud" and "abuse" are defined by Citi so I can have it in writing to take it to arbitration or other channels. She said a customer cannot dictate how Citi words its letter but she would send a letter on the account closure which is final.

She did not know my AA and HHonor cards were also closed. Then she said it was because i committed "fraud" to purchase GCs at merchant's where it earned category bonus. I asked her to clarify whether GC purchase itself is considered "fraud" and "abuse" on any card, or it is ONLY when purchased with cards with category bonuses? She said she did not know that she had to check with Citi's legal dept.

Again she reiterated the decision to closed my accounts and confiscated all my points earned from prior years was final. She would send me a letter.

I would let the community know what exact wordings are on the letter.

So Citi did tell me, verbally, what the reasons were, "fraud" and "abuse" on 2 GCs purchases on each of the Preferred cards that had retention bonus offers, and this allows them to take away 188K TYPs earned 4 years ago.

@ma91pmh, I would appreciate your assessment here on this latest admission by Citi.

Happy

Yes they will because they use the excuse that one has committed "fraud" therefore they can shut down your accounts.

I got a verbal definition from SD office that the security dept considers buying GCs are committed Fraud and Abuse of the program, regardless the amount involved.

Dont know how in depth the hunt is penetrating, however people who never redeemed any checks got shut down last weekend as well.

Essentially anyone ever bought any GC on a card with the GGD category bonus is at risk.