topic Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today. in Credit Cards

Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

firefox100 — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 19:32:13 GMT

As you know I posted couple of weeks ago I got approved for the Custom cash card from Citi bank. I got card in the mail last Tuesday and activated card and added card to my Citi on line profile. and this past weekend put 400 dollars on the card and did phone charge for 270 dollars with no problem. To day I was shoping at Walmart and was at check out with a check out of 645 dollars put the Custom cash card chip into the machine and it was denied got tax to call Citi bank calledciti and was puton hold for 20 minutes while the line was held up at check out line. finally some one from over seas came on line had hard time understanding what they said ask bunch of questions and said your card is unblock go head and try to put charge through again by that time clerk's screen went blank she had to san all the products again. The card was denied again after another 15 minutes getting no ware with Citi bank I had to use another card, which was my Discover it went through with no problems. I also miss my ride home. When I got home I called Citi bank and was connected to the fraud department after a half hour they said your card is no unblock you can go head and put charge through, I said what good is this I am back home and had to use another card. I ask if they could do any thing for me to make for trouble, they said only thing we can do is give you 1K in thank you points which is 10 dollars. NOt good way to start new relationship with a new credit card. With all technology that citi has could't they see that I have Double cash card for last 8 years and that I have high credit limit never had problem , by the way I was able to put 14 dollar charge through at Subway in the walmart foodcourt.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

RSX — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 19:40:20 GMT

that sucks!

did you do the Subway charge Before the checkout?

because sometimes if they get a hit of 2 charges at the same place, that can trigger a fraud alert

(only for a newer card usually)

that may have been the issue - still really frustrating though

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

coldfusion — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 20:02:57 GMT

Yet another example of a headache due to Citi's sometimes overly-aggressive anti-fraud unit. FWIW I had a very similar experience when I first got my DoubleCash, well before Citi nerfed the price rewind and return protection benefits, with similar outcome.

Sorry it happened to you.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

Credit12Fico — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 20:34:22 GMT

Do you have the location tracking enabled in the Citi app?

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

AverageJoesCredit — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 20:39:42 GMT

Ime, I usually have that kind of issue at the beginning of the new card. It can be embarrassing for sure but don't give up on the card yet, it's pretty nice.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

firefox100 — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 20:53:38 GMT

No I do not have tracking activated, but when talking to Citi bank on the phone they said the card was not activated I said how can that be I have been charging things on the card and I did go through the activation process on the phone. What bugs me is that Citi could see that I tryed to charge about 650 dollars that would put me over what I need for the 200 bonus and could give me more then 10 dollars in cash back for my troubles they are short minded this card is only going to get 5% use only and may be put into sock draw. You can't keep customers on phone wating for rep for 20 minutes to have charge approved ther customer service is not great. I will say you don't hang on phone that long with Discover and ther reps do much better job then most other banks do.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

xenon3030 — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 21:06:02 GMT

Decling CC in the first months is not abnormal, and it is good to have a back-up card to cover it immediately (especially for in-store or in-person purchases). It happend several times here (US Bank, BOA, ...).

Reaching a human rep can be frustrating, answering too many questions and choosing options from end-less menus

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

collics — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 21:55:40 GMT

That sucks! Such an embarassing feeling also. You can feel the impatient stares of the other ppl in line. I try twice at most then switch to another card. Handle the bank once I'm back in the car or home.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

xenon3030 — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 22:07:11 GMT

It reminds me the first time that I wanted to use the old Walmart/Synchrony card at a Walmart store and it requested PIN!!!!. After several tries, talking to store managers/representatives on phone, finally I frustrated and switched to another card to go home.

It was the first/last CC that I heard to have PIN. I could not get SUB, because it was covering in-store purchase.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

firefox100 — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 22:50:00 GMT

Another thing I already paid small balance on the card,the closing date was May 25 and at that it had balance of .43 dollars and paid the same day on line and also checking account is connected to this account for payment source, one of questions I was ask how did apply for this account. I said I am on check out line I told on phone.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

firefox100 — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 22:52:41 GMT

correction the Balance was 8.47.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

kilroy8 — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 23:00:50 GMT

Women of Walmart were not happy with you.

Not your fault, I know. Still, glad I wasn't behind you in line, we might have had words.

That's just too long, shove your stuff to the side and move on to next customer.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

crystal626 — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 15:34:56 GMT

@collics wrote:
That sucks! Such an embarassing feeling also. You can feel the impatient stares of the other ppl in line. I try twice at most then switch to another card. Handle the bank once I'm back in the car or home.

This is the way to do it. I would never take up the time while I was in the checkout line!

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

redpat — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 09:12:42 GMT

You should have shopped at Target......

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

firefox100 — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 10:55:53 GMT

The only reason why I did not move on to useing another card is the charge was about 650 dollars which would have put me over the 750 dollars of spend required to meet the 20 dollar bonus and the 15 months intrest free. Citi just did not handle this right from taking about 20 minutes to pick up not able to get the charge authorized after 30 minutes I just gave up and use my Discover card which went through the first time with no problems.

I also got an email from Citi bank the next morning asking me to call the fraud department, had to hang on the phone for about 45 minutes for some to answer line. Citi customer service just not acceptable, Citi is just to large to handle things righ and quickly. If it was for the bonus I would moved on to another card right way.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

GatorGuy — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 11:19:45 GMT

I definitely have the most difficulty with newly opened cards being flagged for no reason.

Walmart also seems to be a popular reason to flag new cards too. I guess people steal them and run to Walmart.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

unsungivy — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 13:57:52 GMT

Ugh, sorry for your troubles. I had a similar experience with my Chase Ink Cash card, only their fraud dept literally never picked up and I was on hold for 4 hours before it disconnected... obviously I couldn't wait at the store the whole time. Like you however, it was to meet a SUB but I was not going to

switch to another card since that invalidated the entire point of the purchase at that location. I had to come back another day to make the purchase.

Given that it was Walmart, I'm surprised you didn't try self-checkout instead in which case the pushy people behind you could have been directed to a different checkout.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

NoMoreE46 — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 20:46:59 GMT

My CCC got denied at Burger King the other day for what seemed to be to Citi a Duplicate transaction. My first transaction of $2.76 went as normal. Five minutes later, I tried to buy a different kid's meal. It was the same $2.76 cost.

Card machine indicated an error. Tried again and, again, declined.

Cashier ask the manager, and the manager tried a third time. No go.

So I used a different card- ooh well. No text or notification from Citi that my second $2.76 was declined.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

HowDoesThisAllWork — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 03:03:28 GMT

@GatorGuy wrote:
I definitely have the most difficulty with newly opened cards being flagged for no reason.

Walmart also seems to be a popular reason to flag new cards too. I guess people steal them and run to Walmart.

EXACTLY!

One of the many many many many reasons that you will not catch me anywhere near a Wal-Mart! Nope! Not this guy. Can not stand Wal-mart.........

But, that is not the point of OP's post.

As others have said, it is a very good idea to have "a backup card" readily available when using a newly issues/activated credit card up to and through the first statement. Maybe even longer.

Re: Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 16:25:54 GMT

@HowDoesThisAllWork wrote:

But, that is not the point of OP's post.

As others have said, it is a very good idea to have "a backup card" readily available when using a newly issues/activated credit card up to and through the first statement. Maybe even longer.

True, but OP DID have other cards, there was just a reason to use this one. The people in the line might not have thought it was a terribly important reason, but....