Citi Closed My account with no reason listed in the Letter they sent.

[FinStar]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@northface28 wrote:

Yet another reason why I cannot fathom letting cash/points sit unused with these credit card issuers. I don't care if it's $0.07, I'm redeeming/withdrawing/getting a check. $4000? The balance would've never swelled that high on my watch.

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Yes, I lost a lot from Amex when they closed my account, but that was all rewards earned that month so felt a little less mine (especially as it was all MS!)   But on double cash, $4000 is the rewards on $200,000, more than the OP spent so far in 2021, so certainly cash out more than that, especially with such large spend.

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@longtimelurkerwas this the OBC?  I can't recall.  If OBC, I miss that card.

[babygirl1256]

Greetings darren309 ~ Welcome to the forum . . . Wow, so sorry to hear that your account was closed -and- I'm going to use your experience as a best practice to never leave any Cash Back in any of my accounts and to cash it in monthly! 

Closing your account could possibly be a Risk Management decision -and- considering your Double Cash Card spend > $1.2MM is significant enough to raise a flag and have a team closer review the items purchased.

• $103,000 in 2021
• $473,000 in 2020
• $490,000 in 2019
• $170,000 in 2018

I am hoping that you will be able to at least get your $4k Cash Back -but- read the fine print of your terms & conditions. That's horrible . . . applying all my Cash Back today!!!

[Anonymous]

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@Cory wrote:

It appears that Citi has been taking pages out of Chase's playbook recently. Maybe due to the pandemic, who knows. I remember years back Chase was synonymous with these kind of policies, topics closing accounts with little to no explanation and/or rhyme or reason(s). Chase was closing accounts left and right. There were a few Citi closures, but nothing compared to Chase, not even a fraction. It is also ironic how Citi has been notorously hiring Chase's executives through out the last couple of years and all of a sudden more people, more threads popping up for account closures. The executives who left Chase for Citi is implementing those sames policies. I don't remember Citi ever being this intolerant.

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Banks are heavily regulated businesses; they just can't close accounts for "no reason" even though some people might claim that's the case.  Also, new customer acquisition costs are so high that banks are usually reluctant to close an account and lose a customer and its usually a last resort.  Much more likely is that if an account comes under attention from FinCEN, or a SAR had to be filed they may decide to terminate the relationship.  And in such instances the bank may not, or simply cannot for legal reasons, state why the account was closed.

Its unlikely that this or other similar actions have anything to do with the hiring of former Chase executives.  I can easily locate many reports going back at least 20 years - some even right in these forums - of Citi accounts being closed without explanation.

[kshurika]

After I'd improved my credit and began apping for good cards, everyone accepted me except Citi. When my credit rating returns into the low 800s, I'm planning on applying for a couple more cards. After reading your dilemma, Citi is permanently off my list. It doesn't matter, because I've never read of one of their cards that appealed to me, but I'm sorry you had to go through this.

If they stiff you for the 4K, definitely go to Small Claims Court in your state.

[AverageJoesCredit]

I get , oh if Citi does this im never getting anything with Citi!. But this happens with all lenders everyday and we probably never hear about it since  not everybody posts. Unfortunately sometimes we get the occassional post that screams bloidy murder but there are basically no details given all there is or can be is speculation.  Many times as an op gives more detail , a reason can be gleaned but until we see what op was using their card for i guess we will only contiue to bash Citi. Synchrony closes whole accounts but if they offer a card i can use ill still app, writing off a lender because of fear of what they may do may hold one back from a completely different experience imo. 

[NoMoreE46]

This is an interesting thread. 

To aid some of the other readers not familiar with some acronyms used:

LOB= Lines of business, SAR= Suspicous activity report 

[longtimelurker]

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@FinStar wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@northface28 wrote:

Yet another reason why I cannot fathom letting cash/points sit unused with these credit card issuers. I don't care if it's $0.07, I'm redeeming/withdrawing/getting a check. $4000? The balance would've never swelled that high on my watch.

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Yes, I lost a lot from Amex when they closed my account, but that was all rewards earned that month so felt a little less mine (especially as it was all MS!)   But on double cash, $4000 is the rewards on $200,000, more than the OP spent so far in 2021, so certainly cash out more than that, especially with such large spend.

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@longtimelurkerwas this the OBC?  I can't recall.  If OBC, I miss that card.

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Yes, OBC

[Horseshoez]

When I read the kind of spend @Anonymous was putting on his card my mind immediately though, "Yikes, for a 2 year stretch, he was charging $40,000(ish) per month."  I am a reasonably high income earner and have, upon occasion, charged that much in a month, but when I did, virtually all of it was reimbursable business expenses.  In addition, I circulate in an environment where I interact daily with folks with LOTS of money, and once again, other than business expenses, I don't know a single individual who charges that kind of money on their personal credit cards.

The above thinking then led me to recall several articles I've read in the last six months, I believe at least one of them was here, regarding folks harvesting rewards fees for income by buying gift cards and circulating money through various cards and other accounts.  Please understand, @Anonymous, I am not accusing you of anything untoward, but the kind of spend you're putting through your cards could easily be confused as someone working reward harvesting scam others have engaged in, and for which they've had their accounts summarily closed.  Once again, I'm not saying this is the case, but that may be the "Red-Flag" scenario Citi is trying to avoid by closing your account.

[Anonymous]

I would write them for an explanation and send it certified mail.

[Anonymous]

Also, I think they just didn't want to pay you the $4,000 and thus closed the account as a pretext.