Weird Citi Problem

[Anonymous]

I am having a strange problem with my Citi card and was hoping someone could give me some advice.

I had just gotten my Pay Pass tag from citi a few days ago and decided to try it out at McDonalds when I was there for lunch with my son. The total was $12.60 and it went right through, worked perfectly. The next day I received an email about suspicious activity on my Citi card asking me to call them. As I was about to call them, they called me. It was an automated thing asking me to verify my last transaction which was the 'suspicious' McDonalds charge. I pushed the button to verify the charge and thought that was the end of it. I figured it must have been since it was the first time I had used Pay Pass they wanted to make sure it was me.

A few days later I logged into the Citi website and I didn't have any charges showing, nothing pending, and my full credit limit available. 

So I call the customer service number from the back of my card to ask them about it. I explained the entire situation to the woman on the phone. And she says I don't have to worry about the charge because it wasn't on my account. I told her it WAS my charge. And she said 'It was declined'. I tried to explain to her that it did go though at the McDonalds, I received my food without a problem, and it was a valid charge I made. And she just kept saying it was declined. I asked her why was it declined and she didn't know. Then I asked her if my Pay Pass was activated and working and  she said it was.

Any advice? Is there another number I should call? I just want to pay my $12.60 but they don't want to take it from me. Help

[Skinnyminnie]

Hmmm, that's an interesting case!  

[Anonymous]

A credit card company NOT wanting to make you pay? That really is a weird problem, I can't say I've ever run into that.

[IOBA]

If it's definitely not going to show up on your CITI account, you could go back to the McDonalds, talk to the manager.   Explain that the card was approved, then it was later declined by CITI and  nothing you did would get CITI to honor the charge.

[Carlile92]

Well if they won't charge you for it I don't see why you should push it

[Anonymous]

Well, I tried calling another customer service number I found and told my whole story to them. When I finished he said he thinks I need to take this up with PayPal.

"PayPal? What? No I said the Citi Mastercard Pay Pass." I told him.  

He had no Idea what I was talking about. I explained to him what the Pay Pass was. He said it sounds like a gift card. Grrrrrrrr I try explaining it to him 3 more times, he never gets it. For some reason I really expected more from Citi Customer Service. He didn't even know his own product. He ends up telling  me that I am not being charged for anything from Citi so not to worry about it. I think  I give up.

Maybe I'll try stopping back at  McDonalds.

[RyVision]

Um.....   

Welcome To Citi!   

[Anonymous]

I think McDonalds can live without your $12. I completely agree with wanting to pay it, but after a certain point it just becomes too much of a hassle - trying to solve it has probbaly cost you more than $12 worth of your time already, so you should consider it settled.

Also, the french fries I've gotten from there the last 3 times have sucked, so you could just consider it a refund-by-proxy. I feel like they should have reimbursed me for soggy, stale, unsalted fries.

Most likely you're just confusing the reps, I bet they have no clue why someone would want to pay a charge if they don't have to.

[RyVision]

I need to add. Don't be surprised if that charge shows up within a couple of statement cuts.

You now have what could be called  "a ghost in the system"...  It can pop up at any time and haunt you.  Keep an eye out for it for a few months, mark this thread, and come back and inform\update us if you notice something later.  It's not the amount I'm curious about, that's not going to cause you a problem, what I'm curious about is to see how it plays out in the system. I'd bet it's not over yet and I think you may get a laugh over it down the road. 

I wouldn't even be surprised if it eventually got billed more than once by McD's later. Watch your statement details.

[haulingthescoreup]

+1

OP, you might want to overpay your Citi balance by $12.91. It will be a pain to try to maintain a $12.91 credit, because they don't want you to overpay, but you can make a payment from your online bank account and "push" the payment into them, overriding their max payment blocking.

I can see this thing finally popping up 3 months down the road, and you're not aware of it, and you wind up with (at best) a late within their system and (at worst) a 30 day late hitting your reports.