topic Re: Citi suspicious activity in Credit Cards

Citi suspicious activity

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 23:02:52 GMT

I have been a citi cards holder for about 8.5 years. The first is a general spend card but recently I obtained a 2nd card from them. I added both cards to apple pay to try to pay for $1 chewing gum and transactions declined on both for "suspicious activity." Their fraud team was of no use and they placed a block on my account despite my pleas. I am without access for at least the next two weeks at citi until they verify at my address. I would like to end my relationship with them but they take about 40% of my allotted credit. I'm at 30% utilization?

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 23:04:47 GMT

Get some new cards from someone else and cancel the Citi products then.

It's kind of a known issue though with some issuers that they'll put holds on your cards when adding them to mobile wallets while they verify you're the one that did it.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 23:06:19 GMT

I'm sorry....maybe I missed it, but what is your question?

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 23:09:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm sorry....maybe I missed it, but what is your question?

There's not one. Other than the UTIL portion at the end I think.... ?

Re: Citi suspicious activity

GApeachy — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 23:12:27 GMT

So they said it would be about two weeks for verification process? Did they tell you to be expecting something in the mail?

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Remedios — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 23:13:55 GMT

Hi and welcome
If you want to cancel Citi cards over this, that's fine, but based on your post, your utilization will negatively affect scoring.
Might be wiser to wait. There is no guarantee that the next lender would not do the same thing. Fraud dept. going to fraud dept.
Dont make rash decisions because you're upset today. You'll only be hurting yourself

If you decide to close, make sure your balances are paid off, and watch for trailing interest if you've carried balances.

You may want to snag an approval or two before you close those cards, if you need additional credit
If you wait till after cards are closed, you may not be in position to do so afterwards.

Probably the best thing you can do is let the process play itself. Nothing good can come out of decisions based on anger only

In any case, good luck and I hope this gets resolved for you quickly

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 23:24:39 GMT

I understand better now, but the move to apple pay is due to automated cashier less kiosks at some locations. I used another issuer that worked well with apple pay because of this. I will wait then since it is a known issue on their end.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 23:42:38 GMT

What people don't realize about these mobile wallets is that it's basically creating another card number which is why a lot of banks take extra precautions when adding them. I would just call my banks in the future when adding to Apple Pay that way they know it's you doing it and it doesn't get sent to be reviewed by the fraud team.

I wouldn't close my accounts over this. Security is a good thing at the end of the day.

Also, small transactions are a huge red flag for incoming fraud. It's not uncommon for these transactions to get cards frozen. Happened to me the other day.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 23:57:10 GMT

I had issues with Citi on how hairtrigger they were with fraud freezes. I ultimately wanted to close my AA Plat so I did. But that is the nature of their process. Each lender will have their own quirks.

But now I am back with Citi as of now due to a good DC offer. I'd say what Remi and other have said is the better advice: keep it open.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

CreditInspired — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:30:14 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
Hi and welcome
If you want to cancel Citi cards over this, that's fine, but based on your post, your utilization will negatively affect scoring.
Might be wiser to wait. There is no guarantee that the next lender would not do the same thing. Fraud dept. going to fraud dept.
Dont make rash decisions because you're upset today. You'll only be hurting yourself

If you decide to close, make sure your balances are paid off, and watch for trailing interest if you've carried balances.

You may want to snag an approval or two before you close those cards, if you need additional credit
If you wait till after cards are closed, you may not be in position to do so afterwards.

Probably the best thing you can do is let the process play itself. Nothing good can come out of decisions based on anger only

In any case, good luck and I hope this gets resolved for you quickly

OP, this response is nothing but the truth. Take a few days to cool off and rethink your next move. You wont regret it.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

VPExecutive — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 01:25:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have been a citi cards holder for about 8.5 years. The first is a general spend card but recently I obtained a 2nd card from them. I added both cards to apple pay to try to pay for $1 chewing gum and transactions declined on both for "suspicious activity." Their fraud team was of no use and they placed a block on my account despite my pleas. I am without access for at least the next two weeks at citi until they verify at my address. I would like to end my relationship with them but they take about 40% of my allotted credit. I'm at 30% utilization?

I'll give you the best part about this... Citi won't let you close your account until you unfreeze them.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Physh1 — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 14:52:36 GMT

I had multiple issues with Citi, (3 if I recall right), 1 issue with Amex, & 1 issue with PenFed when I was using Samsung Pay...Citi was by far the most time consuming to correct the issue with. I simply stopped using Samsung Pay...not worth the hassle. I appreciate the fraud alerts...just not worth using a digital wallet for me right now.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

SFLSpotter9210 — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 14:56:35 GMT

Edit time sorry everyone. I’ve never had any fraud alerts on any of my 3 core Citi cards with Apple Pay. Sorry your having issues. Again I wouldn’t make any decisions based on anger like others have stated. Good luck nonetheless. Sorry I’m half asleep while posting this lol.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Andypanda — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 16:21:15 GMT

Does Citi have the cell number to which you added the cards to on apple pay? If they do not have the number on record it could look suspicious.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 21:25:29 GMT

I wouldn't recommend closing your cards just yet, and over this action of buying gum. Chances are, your purchases didn't match the usual model of your purchases. That, and a small purchase is usually an initial ping to see if a fraudster can get away with more.

I've got all of my cards but one in Android Pay, and use them for category spending and general purposes if the mentioned one (oldest GM (was HSBC, now CapitalOne) 5% - $500/yr Mastercard) has met it's annual spending goal.

AndroidPay may be more integrated with banks than ApplePay. I think it was Citi that actually sent me an email after adding a card to the app/wallet as a notification.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 21:43:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I wouldn't recommend closing your cards just yet, and over this action of buying gum. Chances are, your purchases didn't match the usual model of your purchases. That, and a small purchase is usually an initial ping to see if a fraudster can get away with more.

I've got all of my cards but one in Android Pay, and use them for category spending and general purposes if the mentioned one (oldest GM (was HSBC, now CapitalOne) 5% - $500/yr Mastercard) has met it's annual spending goal.

AndroidPay may be more integrated with banks than ApplePay. I think it was Citi that actually sent me an email after adding a card to the app/wallet as a notification.

No, that's not it. Both of them are tightly integrated with their participating banks.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

ChargedUp — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 01:52:52 GMT

I never knew adding cards to virtual wallets created such an issue. I've added most all my cards to my Samsung Pay at one time or another (It maxes out at 10, so I have to rotate out a couple cards now and then) and the most I got was a notification that the card was added.

Is this a Citi thing or and Apple Pay thing?

Re: Citi suspicious activity

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 02:26:58 GMT

@ChargedUp wrote:
I never knew adding cards to virtual wallets created such an issue. I've added most all my cards to my Samsung Pay at one time or another (It maxes out at 10, so I have to rotate out a couple cards now and then) and the most I got was a notification that the card was added.

Is this a Citi thing or and Apple Pay thing?

When you add a card to a mobile wallet, it creates a separate account token for all charges and uses that instead of your actual credit card number. This requires support by the issuing financial institution. It's not an Apple Pay vs Android problem, it's all about account security and risk. OP was able to add the card and then did a small charge which triggered fraud algorithms.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

MrDisco99 — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 17:44:40 GMT

Yep... still glad I don't use any digital wallets.

Re: Citi suspicious activity

HeavenOhio — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 18:23:32 GMT

I've made it a requirement to have a rep on the phone when setting up Apple Pay.

When I tried setting up my cards for the first time, Chase and AMEX were smooth as silk. Capital One was a little wonky and I ended up calling CS to see that I did it right. The confusion revolved around setting up three Capital One cards and the procedure varying a bit from card to card.

Barclays sent out letters threatening to close my account if I didn't call in. The first rep said that their computers had minds of their own and that I should disregard the letters. But with language like that, it's better to be safe than sorry.

The Barclays card is now a Citi card. I set up Apple Pay with a rep on the line to confirm that it worked. There was no issue.