Full Citi Closure
 

Citi just closed all my accounts. I only had credit cards. The email told me to contact [email protected] for a reason. I had been running 600k to $1mm a month on the AT&T Access More card at least since 2018, so it's not like this activity is uncharacteristic. Citi issued the initial mortgage on my property, so clearly they know who I am. If they had AML concerns, they should have addressed them years ago. At the end of the day, I suspect interchange didn't cover the 3% I was earning, so I get it. I don't have an asset management or banking relationship with them, so it's not like I have an internal advocate to keep the accounts open.

Now I need to decide how to make sure they post the ThankYou points they owe me. I think I might need to arbitrate. Any tips there? All in the game though!

(My bolding)
First off, let me congratulate you on an epic run. I have not seen DPs where people were doing 10-12MM/year through their credit card without being asked for financial verification of their source of income!! Probably more of an indictment of Citi's ML staff than of anything else.
I suspect something got your account looked at, and after the staff regained their breath, the first thing they wanted to do was be rid of you before the auditors came in, or maybe the auditors did come in and you know the rest of the story.:o

As far as TY points go, DPs indicate that Citi is not a pleasant player in redeeming points left on the table after closure. If they say to go pound sand, you have a choice of arbitration (which they have to pay for) or letting it go. If you have done well in the past and the remaining points left are small, probably worth asking for them, but not fighting if they say no.. Sounds like you took them for a bit already and you know the old saw about pigs and hogs :D

Yeah, it's mainly they would owe me like 2mm TY when this month's statement cuts. It's enough that it matters, but I need to figure out what to do. Given they likely don't want a relationship with me in the future, I'll have to figure out what makes sense.

Assuming most of that spend was GC’s since this is the MS forum…I think the pending points might be a goner but worth a shot to get that many I suppose.

Nah, I never really got into the GC game. I have this perception that if you want run real size on a card, cash equivalents, gift cards, etc get you shut down really fast. You need to go outside of the patterns that are MS on card. Maybe if you have a strong private wealth relationship, and strong probably starts at $25mm+ in fee paying accounts, you might have an internal advocating fighting hard enough for you. My guess in most cases the fees on AUM outrun what can be earned on MS. I ran US Bank really hard for a few years at 4.5%, yet people reported getting shutdown with well under what I spent in a month. Eventually they got me. Most of it was drop shipping sort of stuff. Also, I had a few scares with gift card brokers where I just got paid out before they disappeared or went bankrupt. You take way too much tail credit risk for the thin margin.

You were sending MOs in as payments? I would venture to say that's your flag. Most shiti shutdowns I've seen involve odd payments like this or debit over phone. I was fully maxing my entire CL across many cards before they realized their merchant offers should be capped. Always paid from one or two checking accounts. Never had problems.

every month? how many times were you cycling your CL on that?

Yeah every month for at least five years straight. I cycled the credit line 8 to 12 times per month. This is why I don't believe traditional cycling lore.

Did they give you your TY points that you left on the table after the shut-down?

I liquidated monthly, but there are a bunch I should be award with the statement cutting this week. Hopefully they just award them. Otherwise I need to consider litigation, arbitration, etc. because the value is quite large given where this happened in my cycle. Even US Bank when they shut me down for running the Altitude card out of control on Apple Pay after a few years let it all wind down nicely.

Well, I wish you luck.
Past DPs indicate that Citi is not nice to play with so you may need to go to litigation route, although I suspect that in your agreement is arbitration is the route you will be using.
The only bad thing about arbitration is that it is a two way street. Citi can always ask for compensation as well, so be certain of your position before entering it.
Please let us know how it all turns out. DPs at all levels of dispute are valuable to all.

Which merchant offer?

IKEA MS
 

Hi,

I tried to ms at IKEA. I purchased goods valued about 28k at the store. (I ordered at the store and paid at the check out, but I didn't pick up the actual items.) When I went to the return desk, they refused to refund nor let me pick up the items, stating I must call my credit card companies.

What should I do?

I suspect that you have a good reason why you are not taking delivery of your furniture, such as a fire at the house it was suppose to go into. I would also carefully examine the return policy for IKEA
I would simply start at the store manager. Show him your receipt and the fact that the product is still in IKEA's possession.
IF they prove recalcitrant, I would next go to the credit card and dispute the charge.

They should refund back to your credit card. I cannot imagine that they will give you any issue on this.

Whether you get to keep any benefit from the return in regards to points, etc. depends on the card., but most cards will claw back any benefits you obtained on that purchase.

Edit to add: Rereading this, it seems you paid for this with MOs. Clever. Lots of money too. I suspect that you will have to wait until all of your MOs clear the bank and then IKEA will have to reimburse you.
Hopefully, that will be with a check and not a $28K gift card.:D I also suspect that you will be denied purchasing from IKEA again. However, you may be in purgatory as far as reimbursement is concerned for quite a while.
Make certain that you keep all your MO receipts, cards, and anything else that establishes your buying the gift cards. You'll need it.

Finally, as a warning to others, when going a new MS route, it is always good to do a test run with SMALL amounts of money to make certain something will not bite you in the rump ;)
Good Luck and let us know how it went, please.


Let us know how it goes.