2021 Shutdown Thread
 

Here ya go! Sorry for the delay there.

2020 history is here:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manu...wn-thread.html

Let the games begin!

Two of my Citi credit cards were shut down. The Citi premier card and the American airlines business platinum card. I'm very disappointed.

I used mostly the citi premier card about 900k spend over the course of 2 years, and only about 30k spend on the American airlines card over 1 year. I got a call from citi 1 year ago that my card was flagged for review and answered their questions very honestly, I really did not think I was in violation of any of their terms or conditions. Then recently received another call about 3 months ago. This time around got some weird questions which I also answered honestly. They asked me where my credit card payments were coming from, and I told them they were coming from my personal bank account (which they were). Then they asked me why I was making my payment in pieces and not just paying the whole balance at the end of the statement. I told them and this is true that I don't want a large debt to build up so usually make payments as I use it (ie 2-3 payments a week). Apparently they don't like that and prefer you just make one payment at the end of your cycle. In any case on 1/7/2021 both cards were shut down and I received 60 days to use or lose my Citi premier points.

Please also note that I couldn't ransfer the points to any partners after credit card shutdown. Hope this helps someone in the future. Also i wanted to mention that I manufactured spend through gambling websites and I don't actually think its even MS because I really did use the websites as gambling websites require 1x rollover (meaning you have to bet your funds that you deposit).

Not really a gambler, but if you place both sides of a bet on two different gambling websites/ or two different accounts, you come out pretty close to break-even risk-free, after the house fees? Is that a feasible strategy excluding the shutdown issues?

I guess this depends on the house percentage for the bet being made.

For sports betting, I found this site that describes the house edge.

If 7% is really the edge, I think that you can do better elsewhere for MSing activities. For example, just using the IRS payment site with a credit card costs between 1.5-2.5% and doesn't require gambling anything :D

I believe betting sites are one of the areas that is excluded from earning TYPs.

The fact that you got away with it for 2 years and that Citi allowed you to keep your points without a fight is a big plus (although I know that Citi has lost the confiscation fight before). Furthermore, it wasn't as if Citi didn't fire a shot across your bow (twice !!) with phone calls about the account. :o

However, this is just another DP which shows that cycling your CL is one way to perk up the rats ears. This also shows you that when you get a personal phone call from a bank or CC company about your activities, there is something they don't like and you need to desist if you want to keep the account open.

Much luckier than me. They took all my TY points and double cash back. Several $K worth.
Was your gambeling site a domestic site? I like your method. I don't know what the vig is but you can always bet both ways and just pay the vig. It's like playing the Pass and don't pass at the same time. You will loose but only if a twelve is rolled (I think) and make points along the way.

Thanks for the DP. Sucks that you can no longer cycle Citi cards safely. and can only get a CLI once every 6 months.

Save your Citi cards though, after they're closed, they can still be a convenient BP dumpster and you'll just call them to get a refund once or twice a month. This way you'll have BP bandwidth without actually having to spend money to generate the charges.

That works for a while, but then Citi stops accepting payments to a closed card and reverses the attempts. I don't know how long before that happens--it could be years--but be careful using this method.

I'm aware it's a possibility. Cap1 did this within 2 months of shutdown. All that happened was CFP said I had to go back to WM and pick up a refund. At that point it's just a minor hassle and you can stop doing it.

I have a method (which I won’t disclose publicly), it’s incredibly simple and far better than gift cards at least for me. The cost to manufacture through gambling sites is about 1 percent. My return is probably Around 2.1 percent depending on the card I use. There’s a lot of nuances but once you get the hang of it it’s simple you just can’t get too greedy as there will be issues if you do.

I’m not too sure I understand this. When you say BP, do you mean the gas station?

Billpay

can you suggest a gambling site you reccomend?

Which CC issuers don't frown massively on gambling? From an issuers perspective, large amount of gambling transactions on a credit card is going to draw attention. I would image even more so than grocery store transactions. Grocery transactions just imply gaming. Gambling implies something else entirely in this economic climate.

How long has this been working for you?

Obviously long enough to have the rats at Citi examine and shut down the accounts. :o

I believe he said over a period of 2 years.

Since he wasn't buying up giftcards, Citi still seemed to not be happy with gambling transactions. I thought that was frowned upon in the cardholder agreements.

I'd love to see such agreement. Was the frown represented by a smiley face, or spelled out e.g. "we frown upon XXX"?

that was obviously a figure of speech...but your take is more interesting ;)

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that a credit card issuer would rather not like to see large gambling transactions on their card...Regardless of whether it's clearly stated in the agreement or not. CC issuers have a checkered past with this. From outright bans, to letting it slide, to cutting customers loose.

3 years total and 2 years with citi cards, but I’ve noticed lately that it’s necessary to scale back.

Just woke up to my [FIDELITY] account being closed. Anyone else? Reading this post and it's telling me to call. But I already verified my account with them.

The standard advice is that when asked to call, you should call. Anything else is speculation and any other person's experience may be wholly unrelated.

No reason to get upset or worry until you have spoken w. them.

I posted this on the Citi forum - reposting here hoping to get some insights.

A few days ago I was trying to reload my Suica card (a Japanese transit card) with my Rewards+ card using Apple Pay and it didn't work. Logged into Citi.com and saw the Rewards+ is closed (it was working just the day prior). My Prestige and Premier cards are open and still work.

Called customer service and was told that the bank closed the Rewards+ account, and I would receive an explanation in the mail. Was also told that the Thankyou Points I earned through that account would expire in 60 days so I should redeem them. Tried to redeem points online but got an error, so I called 800-THANKYOU and was told that there is a block on my Thankyou Points so I can't redeem them now. The agent sent an email to the escalation team to see why and to get the block removed. Called again two days later during business hours, and another agent said back in February they sent me a letter about the situation on my Thankyou account and what I need to do. I said that I never received the letter, and the agent said the previous agent sent a request regarding the block, and I should have a response within two weeks. She also deposited 1500 points for my inconvenience.

I use my Prestige card quite heavily (around $3K/month and about 2/3 in dining) but not so much spending on the other cards. I don't MS but I use the Rewards+ card solely for small transactions (transit card reloads and convenient store purchases) and sometimes a couple dozen times every month. It is the only reason I can think of that might triggered the account closure.

I guess there is not much to do until I heard back from Citi regarding my TYP and hoping for the best. But certainly would appreciate if anyone has advise to offer. Would it make sense to ask my Citigold relationship manager for help (in term of unblocking the points and perhaps reinstating the closed Rewards+)?

Ok, I have a question for everyone out there. I was shut down by Chase in 2020, the cancelled my Hyatt and CSR cards, but left my business account open. The business account is under the name of the business but has my personal information as owner of the company. I have not had any problems with my Ink card to date. Yesterday, I received an invitation to get the Business Preferred card with a 100k bonus. I would really like to have this card for the bonus but will it raise a flag and cause my existing Ink card to be shut down. Has anyone had any experience in this area, if so, I would sure like to hear about it.

First and most importantly, why were you shut down. If Chase just got nervous about your credit lines and shut you down because of Covid related credit issues, then I suspect that by now, that concern has resolved and you should be good to go.

OTOH, if you were shut for MSing activities, then I would be very concerned about shining a light on any of your accounts, or as we say in this business, spreading cheese around the room to attract the rodents. Human eyes looking at any of your accounts could lead to a bad event.

Yes, I did do a little MS on my Hyatt card. In the letter I received from Chase, they were concerned enough to shut my accounts down because I was paying them monthly from multiple bank accounts. I paid for my personal items out of personal accounts and business items out of a business account. I had been a Chase Private Client for probably 20 years. I was pretty nervous about opening a can of worms with them but wondered if somehow business and personal had some sort of separation with the bank. My daughter had a personal card shutdown but not her business card. Never got an explanation as to why but for sure no MS and bills paid monthly and never carried over a balance.

I have no direct experience with Chase shut downs. However, I do read and there are plenty of DPs out there that indicate that when Chase goes after someone's account, they seem to do it in a scorched earth fashion

What that means is that they close anyone's account if there is some sort of relationship with the offender. So, if your daughter lived at your address or had your last name and was associated with you, I would not be surprised that Chase would can her account as well.

There were even DPs out there of roommates who had no familial relationship being shut down because they resided at the same address :o

To say the least, Chase can be quite prickly when dealing with MSing activity.

Edit to add: Actually I did have one Chase shut-down. It was my original Chase Sapphire card, which was shut by Chase for inactivity (which was true). I tried to get the decision reversed (I have a substantial relationship with Chase), but they didn't care, no matter who tried to intervene in my behalf.

I had a similar experience recently. I used my Rewards+ card for small transactions a couple dozen times per month and these "repeated nominal transactions to generate Thank You points" were referenced in the letter they sent to me. The letter said that both the credit card and TYP account would be closed. For a couple days, I couldn't get thankyou.com to load, but since have been able to login and make a redemption. My Premier is linked to the same TYP account. In a chat on thankyou.com, the rep was able to tell me that I had a bunch of points earned with my Premier and 250 with my Rewards+ and the rep confirmed that those points would be redeemed first and expire in 60 days. Will all of my points, including the ones earned on my Premier, expire 60 days from the Rewards+ closing? Should I redeem all I have even without a specific redemption strategy? I guess we'll see unless anyone has DP to indicate one way or another.

Citi is throwing you a bone.

They have told you that your account(s) are void but that you have 60 days to redeem any reward points you have with them.

Take them at their word that they will close and confiscate your points if you do not move them. I would personally clean out everything ASAP.

When credit card companies bail out on you, they tend to make it a complete severing of all relationships, both personal and business.

My TYP account was unlocked a few days after the Rewards+ was closed, but the points earned through Rewards+ were forfeited (contrary to what I was told). I contacted Citi again and was confirmed by a supervisor that when the bank closes an account the points earned by the card was also forfeited. I did end up using most of my remaining TYP since I needed two BR tickets (at 4.8c/points!)

If my DP is meaningful to you, then points earned by your Premier account should be fine. But I'd recommend redeeming them if you have a fair value use of them. Good luck!

Are your Premier and Prestige still open and earning points as normal? I'm not going to take any chances and will redeem my points just to be safe. I keep logging in twice a day just to catch and get a little nervous with the red box below the account, only to sign when I read it's for my Annual Account Summary.

Yes and yes (the Prestige at least - I rarely use the Premier). I would have transferred my points out even if I didn't have an immediate use of them.

Is this an Amex shutdown?
 

Update to below: This happened to another poster and for both of us it reverted back to normal, for now at least. So hopefully just a glitch.


Today, when I log into my amex account it still shows my membership rewards points on the main page but when I click on those points to see the details and recent postings it says I have 0 points and am not registered for membership rewards. But when I go back to the main page that has a transfer points option, it lets me transfer points to an airline.

I am worried about this because I have recently been modestly jamming on the 10x supermarket bonus (500 gift cards about once a week).

Thanks.

A couple of questions to ask yourself.

Have you been doing something that would attract the attention of furry critters?

Have you been contacted in the past by these fauna? Perhaps in regards to the above?

If the answer to either is yes, why play with fire? Move your points and sleep better at night. ;)

arbitration with citi cards
 

citi closed all my cards and my wife's. just opened an arbitration via AAA(American Arbitration Association) with $200 fee...will update here with any news.

Sorry to hear. Did Citi site any specific offense, or can you guess the reason?

P2 - complete shutdown by Chase. Personal and biz. No deposit accounts.

"because our affiliate is ending their banking relationship with you"

Yes - there were deposit accounts. They got shut years ago during shutdown #1. None since.

All was going fine. No new apps. Not sure what the trigger was/is.

All UR points redeemed successfully.

I did Simon VGC and WM BP for several months