Consumer complaint received 2021-08-10
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem making or receiving payments

Complaint:
I have a balance exceeding {$400000.00} in my Citibank account. However, for 5 days I have not been able to make purchases as small as a bagel for unexplained reasons. My daily transaction limit is {$10000.00} yet I have not once been able to exceed that limit since Citi freezes my account without notice based on falsely triggered fraud alerts. While I understand the need to monitor for fraud, they use inaccurate algorithms that are so sensitive that they regularly prevent me from making transactions and cause a cascade of issues that result in either not being able to use my debit/credit for several days or having to get it replaced. During this time, for example, Citibank has been holding over XXXX while issuing fruad alerts when I purchase my son a bagel at XXXX - in my home city. I am routinely prevented from making purchases at point of sale without suffering 30 minutes or more of customer service calls to verify that this transactions was made by me. Furthermore, even after getting off the phone and being told that my card will be working - 75 % of the time I am still not able to make a purchase as small as food items or purchase necessities like gas on my debit. Citi has never once detected a legitimate fruad attempt on my account in 25 years using these practices - they have however, put me in dangerous and unexcusably long, and inconvenient delays in restoring service to my account -despite often telling them in advance I am making a purchase / and calling from the point of sale. Citi customer support claims they do not have authority to undo these freezes " real time '' and for days at a time I have been told that my account is working only to have hald of my transactions continue to be declined. When one calls the main number for citigold about this issue they are transfered outside to fraud units who will say that the card is clear to use and that Citibank customer service is the one putting the limits on my account. This issue has persisted for 5 days for me despite visiting the XXXX XXXX branch in person 5 times and making over 17 hours of calls regarding not being able to make purchases despite being under my limit. This is because even after they clear the hold in their system -- it still takes several days for all of the necessary systems they interact with like Mastercard -- to update and synch this information. In the meantime even routine automatic payments - like my car insurance - are rejected and a backlog of pending transactions starts accumulation. This sets off a chain reaction in which many payments - for example, my car insurance and utilities which are withdrawn from the same account and/or are all put through at once -- - thus exceeding the limit and preventing me from using my card or accessing my account again. The only resolution Citi offers is to cancel your card and send another one - which means that you must go without a fully functioning card for a day and be present and available to wait for a fedex at your home. The only reason this is a suggested resolution is that during this timer you can not use your original card and during this wait period some of the systems finally sync. However, in reality there is zero difference between the new and old card and as a customer you are being prevented from making online transactions, subjected to 1-3 days of waiting, and have to update your card information across every app and account that you use it for -- and there is no guarantee that this prevents a fraud alert from recurring on the new card since it is forseeable that customers will go back out and repurchase the same items that were flagged as potential fraud. Although this is a problem that is well known to Citibank, and has plagued me for most of the past 25 years and left me stranded and unable to make important payments everywhere from XXXX to XXXX XXXX, Citi has not implemented any measures to prevent this issue or solve it in a real time manner that does not limit Customers access to funds or ability to make transactions. They place an unfair and unreasonable burden on the customer to be available at all times of day and night to respond to text alerts and phone calls to verify purchases -- and even when this is done it is not sufficient to prevent recurring issues that hold up transactions in full. Citi profits from these delays by holding up customer funds while creating major delays in payments and account access that put customer credit scores and business and personal reputations at risk. They do not have any real time solutions to correct for or prevent falsely triggered fraud alerts, even when it is a chronic issue on the same account. Despite claiming that Citigold customers have a 24/7 premier customer service line to address these issues, in reality the agents that can actually resolve major account issues and/or investigate why holds are put on an accounts only work XXXX to XXXX monday through friday and do not make outbound calls. This delay in service can allow the account to be repeatedly flagged across various vendors before there is a solution. Despite ample funds and having verified one 's identity, they will continue to decline the same point of sale and online purchases at major vendors such as Best Buy. I have been complaining for 5 days that I can not make purchases with my card at certain vendors and they have no one available to contact the vendor and push through these transactions. These holds have occured even when I have notified the bank in advance of my intention to spend money at a specific vendor - and taken the trouble to go to the branch in person to notify them of upcoming expenditures. Over 5 days I have had to spend 1 to 17 hours on customer service calls with the fraud unit and citigold customer service teams to get routine transactions approved. I have been told that my card is working - despite the fact that it is being declined while i am on the phone with them. I had multiple vendors calling me saying they could not complete a transaction for days. This issue represents an absurd abuse of customer time and exploitation of fraud alerts to hold funds back. As such it is a self-serving customer service failure that generates incremental income for citi - while restriciting customer access to their money and failing at the most basic functions of a bank - aka the definition of fraud. The XXXX XXXX Citi branch at XXXX XXXX has known of issues with my account and that it was causing serious problems for me that prevented me from being able to pay for medical care, medication, contacts or complete a move, have furniture delivered or purchase items needed for scheduled work. I have been given 4 numbers to reach this branch where I have a " relationship manager '' who is inexcusablly rude and failed to offer any solution other than having my card replaced which in the past has not resolved this same recurring issue. It involves me being further delayed and inconvenienced and having to call 20 vendors who have pending transactions. The card is not the problem -- it is the transaction flags that are causing the account to go haywire - therefore when I go to make the same transactions it will happen again. Furthermore, I have not been able to get a single person to call me back and have been given 4 dead end phone numbers for supervisors and managers.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief