topic Disappointed in Citi in Credit Cards

Disappointed in Citi

EAJuggalo — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 21:14:28 GMT

Had my DC declined today for a haircut. Get on the app and it tells me I have a $21 balance and $1.99 in available credit. Call in and get transferred from frontline somewhere else. They tell me they decided to put a 10 day hold on the payment I made yesterday morning even though at the time it listed the funds as available credit. I was told this is policy anytime someone makes multiple payments in a billing cycle. They had nothing to say to me when I told them I made multiple payments every billing cycle and have since they turned my card back on in March. (I have a whole other thread on the 6 week ordeal with Citi to get them to turn it back on.) Anybody have any similar issues either with Citi or another bank? One of the things they told me was that lots of banks are doing something similar. Here is the really interesting part, they told me they would free up the credit if they could talk to my bank and verify that the funds were taken out of my account.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 21:18:29 GMT

That sucks and sound totally unreasonable. I hope it gets resolved.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

AverageJoesCredit — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 22:20:10 GMT

Citi is definetly not in your game

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 22:27:25 GMT

If you don't mind me asking, what is your CL and how much was the payment?

I usually pay my DC every week, because I only have a $4000 CL and put a ton of money on it and I don't want the statement to cut with over 20% UTI.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 22:49:22 GMT

Weird. As much as I dislike Citibank, they are the best of all my cards in posting payments immediately. I have made multiple payments in the past and did not experience any issues other than they limited me after 3 or 4 (can't remember) in a single billing cycle.

How large was your balance compared to your credit line? Was the payment very large and close to the credit line? I do not think I worded that correctly....let me try this...lets say you have a $10,000 limit and you had a $9,975 balance and you made $9,900 worth of payments during the billing cycle. I could see why a creditor would do this; especially if you live in SoCal. I worked for a Visa bank many years ago and we had unscrupulous "customers" that liked to check kite; they would charge up their card and then sent a check payment in full or make a phone payment in full. The bank being foolishly trusting, would free up their available credit line. Those "customers" would then charge up their card again to the full credit line. A few days later the payment would be returned NSF and the "customer" would bail. This was really prevalent in Southern California (surprise, surprise).

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 22:51:58 GMT

I put a ton of spend through that card and they just keep showing me love.

I also make many many payments. I just about pay each charge as it posts.

Never had an issue and they offer me lower interest rates and gave me a 150% cli on my first request.

Im sorry you are having an issue with them and are missing out on potential rewards from that card.

Maybe the bank you are using isn't credible in their eyes. (small or has fraud issues)

I use Bank of America.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 22:58:52 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Weird. As much as I dislike Citibank, they are the best of all my cards in posting payments immediately. I have made multiple payments in the past and did not experience any issues other than they limited me after 3 or 4 (can't remember) in a single billing cycle.

How large was your balance compared to your credit line? Was the payment very large and close to the credit line? I do not think I worded that correctly....let me try this...lets say you have a $10,000 limit and you had a $9,975 balance and you made $9,900 worth of payments during the billing cycle. I could see why a creditor would do this; especially if you live in SoCal. I worked for a Visa bank many years ago and we had unscrupulous "customers" that liked to check kite; they would charge up their card and then sent a check payment in full or make a phone payment in full. The bank being foolishly trusting, would free up their available credit line. Those "customers" would then charge up their card again to the full credit line. A few days later the payment would be returned NSF and the "customer" would bail. This was really prevalent in Southern California (surprise, surprise).

I did a bit of looking closer at the original post, and I see in the OPs signature that the CL is $800. The OP said their app showed $21 of available credit, so it must have been a payment that was almost the total amount of their CL.

I think you are totally on point, they are probably just instituting measures to protect themselves, and I think that would be totally reasonable. My guess is that once the OP builds up some reasonable payment history with Citi, or at least a record of making sizable valid payments, they would put that practice to bed.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

IncrsCreditScore1 — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 23:16:53 GMT

Well, it didn't work for me. My Citi DC is over a year old. The limit is way below my other cards, but I use it because of the 2% for every purchase. Many times have to pay off more than once during the month, but my usage percentage is always way up there. I asked for a CI after 7 months of having the card which was denied. When I asked them to reconsider and explained I had a perfect payment record with them as well as my other credit cards and that I utilized the card a lot. They gave me a $400 increase - as if that is going to help utilization. I am going to wait until until June or July of 2018 ask for a CLI again. The card will be close to 2 years old then. If I knew of another 2% card I could qualify for, I would apply for it. The funny thing is I have another credit card with Citi that is much higher and I have never been late with a payment. It is a Costco, so I understand they are not allowed to transfer any of those funds to the Double Cash.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 23:25:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Weird. As much as I dislike Citibank, they are the best of all my cards in posting payments immediately. I have made multiple payments in the past and did not experience any issues other than they limited me after 3 or 4 (can't remember) in a single billing cycle.

How large was your balance compared to your credit line? Was the payment very large and close to the credit line? I do not think I worded that correctly....let me try this...lets say you have a $10,000 limit and you had a $9,975 balance and you made $9,900 worth of payments during the billing cycle. I could see why a creditor would do this; especially if you live in SoCal. I worked for a Visa bank many years ago and we had unscrupulous "customers" that liked to check kite; they would charge up their card and then sent a check payment in full or make a phone payment in full. The bank being foolishly trusting, would free up their available credit line. Those "customers" would then charge up their card again to the full credit line. A few days later the payment would be returned NSF and the "customer" would bail. This was really prevalent in Southern California (surprise, surprise).
I did a bit of looking closer at the original post, and I see in the OPs signature that the CL is $800. The OP said their app showed $21 of available credit, so it must have been a payment that was almost the total amount of their CL.

I think you are totally on point, they are probably just instituting measures to protect themselves, and I think that would be totally reasonable. My guess is that once the OP builds up some reasonable payment history with Citi, or at least a record of making sizable valid payments, they would put that practice to bed.

Ohhhhh good catch! I didn't even see that

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 00:13:08 GMT

@IncrsCreditScore wrote:
If I knew of another 2% card I could qualify for, I would apply for it.

Blispay offers 2% cash back on their card.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 00:32:20 GMT

Any data points here? Ever have a payment bounce that you made on that card?

Re: Disappointed in Citi

EAJuggalo — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 00:41:08 GMT

CL is $800, payment was for $560. Never a payment issue with this card. This would be the third payment this cycle, one on the first day of the cycle, one two weeks ago and the one yesterday. I usually pay every paycheck week at least some of it. And paid it off completely with this payment. Thinking about it now they told me it was policy due to money laundering, if that were the case why would they allow me use of the credit again if they verify through my bank that payment cleared? Maybe the extra .5% isn't worth it and I should give my swipes to my Chase FU and QS.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 00:49:55 GMT

I give $500 a month to Chase at 1.5% versus all to Discover at 2% because I value URs at 2.25c a piece assuming that some day I'll get the CSR. I just bank my URs, I don't cash them in. Would rather get a 50% increase in value even if it takes 2 years!

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 00:52:21 GMT

I'm having the same issue with Barclaycard. They just released a payment that had been deducted from my back account a week ago - same date as online payment. I am vigilant with all my accounts and when I noticed that my third payment in 15 days was still being held, I opted to not use the card. From my perspective, Barclaycard lost my trust, but I can understand where they're coming from - new account, trying to figure my spend and payment pattern.

As for Citi, I'm sorry to hear about what you're going through. I haven't had any issues with Citi in the 5 years I've been with them. They're the only credit card issuer I have that immediately releases the credit line back to you upon payment, however I usually PIF one week before the due date with them (even though I know the closing date still gives 2-7 more days on my account for charges/payments to post).

I think Citi, as any lender (in my example, Barclaycard) might be apprehensive with multiple payments in one credit cycle. Chase and C1 would likely have similar handling.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 00:56:55 GMT

I say this with annoying repetition: I don't "pull" payments via the credit card website from my bank, I "push" payments from my bank to the credit card. Takes only 1 business day to clear (so far, with all my creditors) and the creditor gets the money up front.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

LuvsRetro — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 01:07:14 GMT

Fwiw......Cap1 is doing this as well. Been on the phone twice this month conference call after 8 days posted but balance not adjusted and they put Bank America security dept on to verify payment has cleared. NEVER ever had a problem, went thru chat and they said that they do not want to see multiple payments. 11 year account. Must be the time of year. I asked if this was to be the norm and she assured me it was not. Yeah right. Actually quite embarrasing.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Adkins — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 05:03:04 GMT

@EAJuggalo wrote:
Had my DC declined today for a haircut. Get on the app and it tells me I have a $21 balance and $1.99 in available credit. Call in and get transferred from frontline somewhere else. They tell me they decided to put a 10 day hold on the payment I made yesterday morning even though at the time it listed the funds as available credit. I was told this is policy anytime someone makes multiple payments in a billing cycle. They had nothing to say to me when I told them I made multiple payments every billing cycle and have since they turned my card back on in March. (I have a whole other thread on the 6 week ordeal with Citi to get them to turn it back on.) Anybody have any similar issues either with Citi or another bank? One of the things they told me was that lots of banks are doing something similar. Here is the really interesting part, they told me they would free up the credit if they could talk to my bank and verify that the funds were taken out of my account.

I actually did this with Discover, and I've never had an issue with a payment posting immediately since then. (I have a tiny $200 secured limit I max out and pay down at least twice a month,.)

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Adkins — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 05:03:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@IncrsCreditScore wrote:
If I knew of another 2% card I could qualify for, I would apply for it.
Blispay offers 2% cash back on their card.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 06:33:21 GMT

I've never had any issues with Citi always a pleasure doing business with them.

Re: Disappointed in Citi

Gmood1 — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 07:37:44 GMT

Sorry for your troubles OP. Why don't you do the obvious and use your other CC's? Spread that spend across other accounts.
If you have other usable CC's, there's no reason to pay banks like Citi so often. They give you a built in float. Use it to your advantage.

I auto pay them all once a month. I have some that get paid several times a month, but it's not from my bank account. My AUs pay them from theirs.
IME the banks aren't going to look at you any differently from a person that pays once a month, when considering CLIs. As long as they get their money at least once a month, they don't give a crap.

Unless you have only one CC available to use and the limit forces you. There's really no other good reason to do this. Apparently the banks don't like it.

I've seen this topic come up here before. For the life of me, I don't understand why folks believe these banks want to process all those micro-payments so frequently in a one month period.
It could be time to grab another card from a different lender if possible, in order not to pay one of them so often.
Sooner or later Citi's going to open up and give you what that card needs. Try to use it like the average consumer, so not to throw up any red flags.