Ok fine, you file a complaint. Citi can say OK prove these were not "cash equivalent" purchases by showing us your receipt. All our receipts will show VR and MPs on them ... we lose :(

THEY have to prove it was a cash equivalent, not you

Yeah THEY can prove it by requesting receipts for your transactions. You dont want to provide? Fine, they close your accounts. If you do provide, they will see and prove that it was a cash equivalent.

I see like this a FR. If you get one they request documentation. It is up to you to provide or not. If you provide documentation and it checks out you are good to go. You provide documentation and it is against their T&C or doesnt match up to what they say they close your accounts. If you do not provide the documentation they close your accounts.

How can you tell if your ThankYou account is locked?

Is it only when you call to redeem? Or can you tell online?

Lots of scary stories here! Waiting for "They closed all my cards, and since I had a CitiMortgage, foreclosed on my home"

lol. I went home and my garage door opener didnt work. I then tried the house key and the key didnt work. I saw a note on the door and it said I was locked out of my house and to try back in 4-5 days. I tried back a few days later and my house was gone.... Vanished. Just an empty lot now ...

If you get to the point of having this discussion with Citi, your account is already gone.

The burden of proof is upon them. Where that need for proof comes up is dependent upon how far you wish to pursue the issue

No, not like an FR - you can come out an FR with your accounts intact.

I know folks have done things with mortgage payment checks and such, but why not just "properly" grab some gift cards? I'm sure there are folks running up insane Citi balances but, for most folks, I would think it wouldn't be too difficult to grab several hundred dollars of worthwhile gift cards from the Thank You network. Too bad their gas selection is limited to Sunoco.

Following the post about the mortgage check being stopped, I was wondering about this. Could Citi also stop gift cards? Not sure why that wouldn't be possible.

Correct. By proving with provided documentation. I complied with Amex during my FR and came out unscathed.

The point I was trying to make was if you kept fighting with Citi and they were feeling generous enough to give you the time of day they could request documentation (receipts) to prove your purchases were not cash equivalent.

While I've not read this entire thread, I don't know of any instance where Citi gave any room for reconsideration. Every report I've heard has been account shutdown and in almost every case, TYP's were confiscated.

They seem to send out gift cards pretty quickly. I guess it might be possible that they could somehow cancel the funds on the gift cards once they were mailed to you, but that would seem improbable. Kind of like how I don't think they could cancel a flight reservation you have made with Thank You points (I hope -- that would be truly awful for folks).

I think they'd be looking as a slew of small claims suits if they start to cancel everything, not to mention it involves a 3rd party. I doubt their TYP partners would be too happy if a bunch of upset customers are calling in because Citi canceled their family vacation

Can they force you to pay the credit card balance if your card & TY account were shutdown?

I guess company has more power than consumer to force payment issues.

I'll ask once again...

1) Does shut down come shortly after a statement is generated?

2) How do you know your ThankYou account is suspended?



Another interesting point is what was your total credit limit with Citi compared to your spend and relative to your preferred credit limit?

Also, how many months have you been at that level?