Citi suspicious activity

[VPExecutive]

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@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?

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

[Physh1]

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.

[SFLSpotter9210]

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.

[Andypanda]

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.

[Anonymous]

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. 

[Anonymous]

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@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. 

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

[ChargedUp]

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?

[Anonymous]

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@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?

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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. 

[MrDisco99]

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

[HeavenOhio]

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.