DINYC

Citi bank called me about one of my credit card. I had purchased several tickets for a fairly substantial amount and then paid off my balance with BUXX debit cards (manufactured spending). Unfortunately because my plans changed I had to cancel my tickets which resulted in a positive balance on my card. I called Citi to have send me a check for overpayment a week ago. One of their representatives called me today to inquire of the nature of these payments, why did i prepay, who the debit cards belong to, where do i work, how much do i make, etc. It was weird. Do you know what is the purpose of this call? I don't think i did anything wrong so curious why would they be calling me?

BTW - I closed the card last week. Trying to manage # of cards I have in my wallet.

Songer5

They're concerned about money laundering. Your activity (while legal as described) is suspicious.

DINYC

What's the worst that could happen? Obviously this was no money laundering but I guess manufactured spending always carries a risk of being viewed as such.

Jesperss

You're on their radar. Not good.

odin99

Their onto you!
what you did probably triggered a bunch of different red flags.


Why did you cancel after all those large charges?
how long have you had the card?
What is your income? (jk)

mhdena

Very Suspicious, Very Suspect activity.

Djlawman

Lots of scammers these days (as just one example, the hijacking malware folks) are using the scam that you have to load money onto their reloadable card in order to have the malware deactivated on your computer and regain control of your files).

Those persons would then have lots of money on reloadable cards which they would presumably then use to buy things (just like you did).

My guess is that this is the type of thing they are suspicious of (among many other possibles as well).

Car Jack

Shouldn't have asked for a check back. Heck....I recently wanted to check if I could pay off one of my cc's with Redcard but absolutely could not get an online account set up. Sent over $100 to test but was concerned that it didn't reach, so paid off the entire balance. Just got the paper statement.....shows a $100 credit. I'll use that card for $100 in spending. Next time, you should do the same.

cyclotron

So you bought refundable tickets to meet minimum spend and get the category and sign-up bonus. Then you cancelled the tickets. Moreover you prepaid part of it using multiple payments and now want it back. Suspicious enough plus not a profitable customer from Citi's viewpoint.

I would avoid getting more cards from Citi for some time.

You may also want to encash any reward points/dollars you may have with Citi, just in case they decide that they do not want your business anymore.

MSerforfun

I once overpaid a credit card resulting in a significant debit balance. Got called by the bank, had to haggle for about three months. They first asked for Driver's License, Bank Statements, etc. Then the last question was, what's the source of those payments. They actually wanted me to fax them a bank statement showing them amounts being withdrawn from my bank and transferred to the credit account. Obviously I didn't have bank statements since the source of the funds was Vanilla's. Then I filed a CFPB complaint and just remained quite for a while and voila, the check came refunding the overpayment. While your situation is understandable as to why it resulted in a debit balance but for others, a word of advice, do not let others hold on to your money (i.e. don't over pay)