Custom citi cash horror story at Walmart today.

[firefox100]

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.

[RSX]

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

[coldfusion]

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. 

[Credit12Fico]

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

[AverageJoesCredit]

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. 

[firefox100]

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.

[xenon3030]

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 

[collics]

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.

[xenon3030]

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.

[firefox100]

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.