Why did you get shut down?

They never gave a reason, of course.

I had a personal checking account with Citi, as well as some personal and business credit cards.
In the fall of 2024, I was MSing on my Citi AA card. It was not a known method. This apparently triggered an AML review (international charges) and they called me. I gave an explanation and that was the end of it, all accounts remained active.

In the spring of 2025, they closed my checking account without giving a reason. I suspected that this was because I hardly used it (only transferred money in once a month to avoid the monthly fee and then used the money to pay off my Citi credit cards).
Then suddenly in June or so, they also closed all my credit cards. This was after I had created virtual credit cards with low limits to be used for testing payment integrations by my Eastern European developers (testing that we can handle failing payments etc.).
It would make the most sense that I got shut down because using the cards in that way is against the terms and conditions (I was really stupid), but I have also heard that Citi often shuts down cards months after the "offense" because the unusual behavior triggers a manual review process and they may have a long backlog to review? So maybe it was related to the MS activity after all?

Citi just closed my new AA card (migrated from Barclays). Barely had time to use it. RIP.

Just FYI - even if they accept you as a former Barclays customer, that doesn't mean they want to keep you.

Citi is a huge organization.

It takes time for decisions to travel from one department to another. I suspect that the decision to shutter your accounts was made months ago but took this much time to work through the system.

Agreed, The 'No Reason' closure of the checking account was a red flag. Just took time for it to play itself out. Banks generally do not close checking accounts for lack of use even if you avoid fees. I think they see them as a way to engage with you rather than as a pure revenue stream. There was something else about your accounts that spooked them, likely having a lot of (questionable?) international transactions
Failed payments from Eastern Europe would have sealed the deal in the event of any doubt

Yes, it just seems weird. I think I might have funded the checking account from a European account, maybe that was what they didn't like. Still seems strange. Anyway, water under the bridge. I just wish they let me transfer out my Citi points. Really unfair that they didn't give me the 90 days I should have been entitled to under New York law.

Yes, and that was really stupid.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you're not safe even if they transfer your Barclays card.

My wife worked in upper middle management for a very large regional bank. She worked on the credit side, which had no contact with the bank's operational side of company's business. So credit decisions and approvals she (and ultimately the bank's credit board) made in regards to a large company's credit needs were independent of a companies ordinary banking functions (such as lock boxes, payrolls, etc).

So, Citi's operational side of your account decided that they did not want to do business with you and closed your checking account (and any other operational account they might have had with you.)

But the credit side of Citi didn't immediately know this, until that information finally reached that side of the bank. Once the credit side saw that the operational side wanted nothing to do with you, it didn't take long for them to follow.

If the bank had been smaller, the shut down would have been faster.

Yes, that makes sense. When I asked about the reason for the credit card shutdown, they also only referenced the earlire shutdown of the checking account (roughly "We told you months ago we want nothing to do with you, how does this come as a surprise").

Commiserations, but thanks for the DP