Wow Simon Mall is dead.

If you go hard

i just dont understand why people still insist on using WMBP. on top of that, people still cycle high volume. i dont get it. not to mention citi hates MS on DC.

but using normal checking vs WMBP could let you live longer, but again, high volume cycling will still get you shutdown.

all banks wage war on MS. some are more aggressive than others and some have different levels of tolerance. if you care about your accounts, you just stay DL. if you dont give a crap, like many heavy hitters, then you can go all out. YMMV.

would love to hear more detail if possible. at face value, your story is a little concerning, but i feel like theres way more to this. and this is a cobrand vs cashback or TYP.

- personal cards shutdown too?
- anything showing high balances within your CR?
- have you ever made a 12k purchase on the card?
- how much MS/mo have you done on the card? only nov last year and jan? thats it?
- you spend 20k/mo, but whats your CL?
- how often you cycled?
- how many times did you pay the account within one billing cycle?

I have not had any personal cards shut down
my credit report has about 200k in credit on cards and nothing out of the ordinary for past 6 months. My income is pretty high so it credit is much lower than annual income.
I used theirs card for my larger purchases. Routine to have 4-9k charges on it.
MS done earlier in year with a few K at grocery stores and a couple 1.5k GCM.
CL 40K
i have never cycled a CL
All my cards payed off from same checking account the day the statement arrived in the mail.

.....

That's not a usual shutdown then. If your personal cards are under same SSN and still active in another week or two, this is not a "terminated banking relationship" as they call it when they're getting you for MSing. It may have been one card closed preemptively for what they perceived as risk exposure.

If this follows the patterns seen in other cases reported upstream, I suspect that all accounts will be gone in the next week or 2.

It use to be only Chase, but then Citi started getting in on the scorched earth policy of relationship termination :(

thank you so much for the details. that was very helpful.

your situation is a little concerning. i thought there would be something obvious, but your stats are fairly mild. i would fully expect your personal cards to be shutdown soon so you should transfer points and redeem cashback ASAP. i assume you have similar activity on your personal cards as well? eg simon or GCM or grocery MS? you pretty much have eyes on your accounts now.

there are a few things which surprised me. first, this is a cobrand AA business. meaning its not the typical citi DC or ATT MS abuse which citi hates and often shuts down. you have income exceeding your total CL on your CR and you have regular 20k/mo spend on a 40k CL without cycling. there is nothing risky about your account. you also dont WMBP. i assume you dont deposit MO anywhere with citi. so this pretty much means your 12k simon triggered a review and the agent saw your low volume obvious MS activity from GCM and shut you down. i would have expected citi to let you go because that was your FIRST simon purchase. with your DP and a few others, i think its safe to say simon GC with citi is a huge risk. plenty of people still do it and have been doing it with citi, but the train can stop at any moment, just like the AA train.

would like to hear other DPs about citi simon volume from people here. im wondering if the initial 12k simon was too much and triggered an alert. maybe its wise to gradually increase simon volume, but that probably just delays the inevitable.

Correct, I never deposited a MO in a citi account as I do to have a personal account with them. I use two local credit unions for those deposits

I was taking advise and logged into my account with other cards I have had since 2016 to move the points and they are both shut down so it is a total toss out from Citi. I can not access my reward points of which were about 490k. Any tips on retrieving those.

I believe that if you check this tread, there is information on how to recover your points.

There is also information (I think) in the Chase shut down thread.

Sorry about the shut down. I have been very leery about MSing with Citi and SM ever since they started doing $1K GCs.

Thanks. I read the thread and looks like arbitration is the route most are taking. After reading the card agreements (Premier/Prestige) it appears as though there is nothing in there about buying gift cards as transactions. Since all of my purchases are "legal", as per their terms, it looks like it is completely valid to go after them for what is rightfully mine. It does not say anything about surrendering your thank you points if the account is closed either. Just sent the question over to a lawyer I know asking about arbitration vs.lawyer route.
Also, I spend over $250 since May at restaurants and have still not received my $250 credit I was entitled to.
I'm going to go all in on this one to see where it takes me. If I waste money then so be it. The point is is that it just is not right.

your situation is very concerning to me. very sorry about your total shutdown. 490k TYP is a lot. arb is definitely your next move.

here are a few people i would contact:
- reddit u/sexy_kitten7 - this person has citi shutdown experience
- https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.c...r/alexbachuwa/ - arb attorney (https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.c...ti-arbitration)
- https://travelinpoints.com/citi-shut...y-credit-cards
- http://millionmileguy.com/citibank-shutdown

im still in disbelief that a single 12k simon purchase on biz AA flagged your account and led to total shutdown. all other DPs required repeat abuse. can you think of any other "questionable" activity? how many times did you shop GCM in past 12 mo? anything with AA mailers or repeat open/close accounts? how about MS volume in prior years on personal or biz? what were your personal citi cards? Premier/Prestige? any MS on those? you also said you pay off your cards the day the statement arrives in the mail. so that means your statements actually close with high balances on biz and personal? im trying to figure this out, but its also important to know what dirt citi could have on you for arb besides the one time 12k simon. feel free to PM me.

I will dig up all those records but have used my prestige and premier sparingly since the pandemic and I was on vacation most of January and February so did not use them. Anyway, after reading all of the T/C all they note is “no illegal purchases” and doesn’t say anything about forfeiture of rewards. Hell with what they have there I should have been able to MS and use BP and have a solid case for arbitration. The $250 not credited to the account should be a no brainer also. Am I missing something here besides fighting with a powerful corporation?

well, first of all, youre not a n00b, so im surprised youre bothering with the T&Cs as if these banks care whats written in them. AA train is just a fun example. T&Cs are CYA legal docs for banks, not for you. so when they catch your "abusive" behavior, theres nothing in the T&Cs to help you besides arbitration. also, not sure which version of the T&Cs youre reading, but all banks have anti-churn and abuse language now.

see below for example:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi-...earning-points

i would contact the individuals i had mentioned earlier and get their take on your situation. especially alex. maybe he can also help with other shutdowns too.

gathering all info would definitely benefit you since the banks will come at you citing all your "abusive" or "fraudulent" activities. but since you MSed a decent amount with BofA, what about citi personal? i know for biz you said minimal MS earlier in the year, but whats the actual number? since you have done 60k/mo at GCM, i assume some citi CC were used. and based on many DPs, citi hates GCM.

example:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi-...-rent-means-us