(My bolding)

What did they think that you were buying from GCM.....toilet paper :rolleyes: :D

I'll give the benefit of doubt and assume they wanted to know if those were fraudulent and OP has autopay or some other blind payment system setup. Many auto pay people are like this.

Although, I once read a CSR at walmart asked why the customer used billpay....So there's that...

1. c1t1
2. Had 5 cards for 4 months (newest) to 2 years (oldest)
3. ~15k in savings
4. Was up to 40k/mo of MS a little over a year ago before our favorite BIN got restricted; resumed after the new 3x on grocery-store spend on the Prem, but at lower volumes (~10k/mo, maybe)
5. Used to cycle, no longer cycled
6. Nope, just paid w MGC over the phone

This all started when they started issuing fraud protection alerts for my purchase of 4 MGC at Kroger for ~1980. This progressed from texting to resolve the purchase to having to call and, even though I asked the fraud CSRs to relax the protections a little (after all, I'd done ~2500 every day on these cards about a year ago), it eventually got to the point where purchases >1k would be denied on the Prem, then on all my Citi cards. Calling the number on the back of the card led me to the credit-risk department, which was unavailable on the weekend; when the week started and I logged on to check my accounts, they were all closed and my pending and accumulated cashback and TYP confiscated.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Well, I was certain they'd just flagged the anomalous spend on groceries (lol 10k/mo) or otherwise somehow gotten eyes on the account which had seen my ungodly cycling from a little over a year ago. Just to be sure, though, I called in and was told by the credit-risk CSR that my accounts had gotten shut down due to ... too many recent TransUnion inquiries.

What the actual ....?

I only have 18 hard pulls on my report (<1/month, in other words), and I've gotten exactly one new card in the last few months. I did a little more research and saw this post on TPG, which gives me hope it's just a weird anomaly (cuz of COVID?) and C1t1 is not only as clueless as ever I've been abusing their rewards system for points and profit, but also willing to reinstate me. Or are they just using this as an excuse? Either way, I'll be threatening arbitration and expecting to get a couple grand, which is almost enough to make it not worth the trouble to MS with C1t1 anymore. The stores run out of cards rather faster than I'd like and asking essential workers to please search for more makes me feel a little dirty.

Anyone else had this experience? What to expect?

Are you expecting the bank to treat you like a major affiliate who brings in tons of business?
....
While at the same time claiming the following?

Quote:

---

... I've been abusing their rewards system for points and profit, but <?> also willing to reinstate me.

---

Btw the bank's explanation for the shutdown was not unreasonable -- they suspected breakout fraud at the time of crisis, and not so much the MS from years ago.

Yes it is. Did you read my post? I've had six total inquiries in the calendar year and two in the last four months. I have 15k parked rather uselessly in their savings account. And I've always paid quickly—to the point of a negative balance with the Prem quite recently!—which is another thing I guess they could have cited but did not.

At any rate, when Citi gets to be one of the planet's most profitable companies doing very little but financially assraping people, I guess it rubbed me the wrong way to have some rustic twat in Sioux Falls stonewall me with platitudes about credit risk—but you're right that it's the tip of the iceberg in this country and I should expect nothing less. And any bank who handpicked Obama's cabinet to give itself a bailout should know a thing or two about "breakout fraud"

OK, I wrote a letter. Will report back with the results as soon as I have them ...

*

Citibank

Executive Response Unit

PO Box 6000

Sioux Falls, SD 57117
*
“Good evening,”
My name is [lol redacted]. I was—until a couple of days ago—a cheerful and heavy user of Citibank credit products. This all changed when I logged in to make a payment and saw my accounts had been closed. Surely there must be some mistake? After all, I’ve had these cards for years and heard nary a peep from the call-center trolls. Then I called the number provided and was told that, owing to the number of recent inquiries on my TransUnion report, I was a credit risk and my relationship had accordingly been terminated.
What the ....ing ....?
I have never heard of an account being terminated for this reason and it strikes me as absurd, arbitrary and embarrassing for a number of reasons. Firstly, my number of TransUnion inquiries, 18 in the last two years, is anything but aberrant; I’ve gotten a grand total of one new credit card in the last several months, and am nowhere near as leveraged as, I dunno, your average big bank. Secondly, Citi does a brisk business peddling consumer credit, and an issuer would presumably not be upset if one of their customers liked using credit cards (unless they were the jealous type). Thirdly, as perhaps the credit-risk “experts” could have seen, I’ve always paid my Citi cards on time, even when running up large balances, and my credit score hardly hints at any potential for welching; if I’ve had 15 grand sitting uselessly in one of your dumb savings accounts for the last several months, why the hell would they fear I lack liquidity? You’d think a filthy racket that hand-picked Obama’s cabinet and sponged billions off taxpayers would know more about identifying bustout frauds. But even if I were to stoop to your level, none of this would justify the confiscation of sizable balances of both accumulated and pending cashback and ThankYou Points.
What this amounts to is: in order to avoid some phantom risk, as determined by some bumpkin in Bumble...., S.D., of me stealing from Citi, Citi has stolen from me.
Fortunately for you, I am a generous man. I’m simply requesting that Citi reply with a letter of apology, reinstate my accounts and all pending and accumulated cashback and ThankYou Points immediately, and then never bother me with this <<redacted>> ever again. Otherwise, I am afraid arbitration is inevitable, in which case the credit-risk team truly will be liable for wasting Citi’s money and time.
Love,
[me]

George, I'm afraid you are not going to be sucessfull....the tone of the latter half of your letter is going to give any CSR pause. You really should have had an adult read your letter before you mailed it. While it may have felt good for you to vent your frustration in the letter, no business like Citi is going to respond to that letter apologetically. You were smart enough to play the MS game with Citi without getting caught, so it's surprising that you were not smart enough to craft a letter feigning ignorance and naivety which would have served you far better in having accounts reinstated.

The best way to ensure someone do the opposite of what you would like is to insult them or their institution's practices.

However, in defense of George, there is really nothing that he could say or do that will change the outcome of his shutdown. However, a conciliatory letter may have made his recovery of confiscated TYPs easier than it is going to be.:o

George, please let us know if your letter is successful or not and how you did in recovering your confiscated points.

The ending takes the cake lol.. so this was a MS love letter. Once ur love leaves you should walk around and don’t turn back

18 hard inquiries in two years is excessive. Typically a hard inquiry will decrease a credit score by 5 to 10 points, although credit scoring systems aren't that simple and many other factors influence the effect inquiries have on scoring.
And I don't believe for a second that letter was really sent.

So my wife sent a letter to Citi pleading her case and requesting reinstatement. Got the reply finally (same reply for all 3 cards that were closed).
1) spending not typical consumer purchases
2) payment from anonymous sources
part 2) stopped a while ago in beginning March 2020 but when you get eyeball on your account then they can go back and see it. So feels like somehow 1) triggered a manual review and 2) sealed the deal.

Anyways, thanks for previous advice and suggestions. I am swearing off WM billpay completely. Its going to be slow and steady MO deposit and paying bill from bank account from now on. Very expensive lesson to learn.

I guess that this shows all of us that once the Rat's eyeballs are on an account, anything that may be suspicious becomes magnified in their eyes. They then go back and start to see that indeed some nefarious deeds (GC purchases and billpays) are within and poof, away goes the account(s).

Sorry for your loss but you should still fight for those points.

As I wrote above... FILE AN ARBITRATION CASE. It's FREE to do and THEY WILL SETTLE.
It's how I won $10,000 in cashback when they closed my cards.

Any tips on how to file? Thanks!

Read your cardholder agreement. Surprised there isn’t a Bowtie and Emily article with arrows and circles on this...