Consumer complaint received 2018-08-31
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
I have been traveling outside of the US on my sailboat since XXXX. I was last in the US in XXXX. My boat is currently in XXXX. 

My wife and I are currently travelling in XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX I was booking airfare and lodging to continue our trip using the Citi MasterCard I have had for the past 40 years. The card has a XXXX limit. I use the card regularly and pay the full balance at the end of each month. 

I had made about 8 transactions when I received an email from the Citi fraud department telling me to contact their fraud department as they suspected there was fraudulent activity on my account. This has happened in the past when I make an unusual transaction such as making a large purchase with a company I have not previously dealt with. 

I called the number provided and assured them I had made the charges. I expected the usual questions I had come to expect from past experiences. i.e mother 's maiden name, last 4 numbers of social security number, answers to pre-established security questions. I was asked for my " security code word ''. I had never heard of such a thing. He then said " the place you'd most like to travel ''. I immediately recalled that I had selected that question in the past and responded with the answer. He said " excellent ''. He then asked me for my us phone number saying he would send me a text message to that number and to tell him the information that was in the text message. I explained that i was traveling in XXXX, had no way to access that number as I no longer have that phone number. I offered to give him the number of the Sim card I was currently using. He said he could only send the text message to a US number. 

The interesting thing about the transactions in question is that they were made to companies I use regularly and often. The payments for lodging were to XXXX, the only company I use for hotel bookings and XXXX who I primarily use for air travel. I have made multiple payments to both of those companies in the past 60 days. There was nothing unusual about these transactions. As I am currently traveling in XXXX, I also booked airfare for 2 short trips with XXXX XXXX. I used my card with this airline 3 years ago. The total of these charges was less than {$600.00}. There is no outstanding balance on my card and the last 2 monthly payments on my account were for approximately {$2600.00} and {$2300.00}. 

I asked to speak with a supervisor who essentially told me there was " nothing they could do ''. He told me he was sending a letter to my US address of record and that I would have 7 days to respond. I explained that it was impossible for me to respond in that time frame as my mailing address in the US is a mail forwarding address and the mail will then need to be forwarded to me in XXXX. He said there was nothing else he could do. 

I then asked to speak to his supervisor, he said he was the supervisor. I demanded to speak to his boss, after a considerable amount of hesitation, he said someone would call me. I gave him the XXXX number for the SIM card and asked when I should expect the call. He said " I have no idea ''. At this point I was doing everything possible to keep from exploding and demanded he give me an idea when I would receive the call. Again, after such hesitation, he said " an hour or two ''. It's been more than two hours and I have still not received a return call. 

I am now concerned that I may be stranded in XXXX Wonder if I will be able to get back to XXXX where I can better deal with this situation. I can not believe that a company would deal with a 40 year customer, with an impeccable credit history in this fashion. There is something terribly wrong at Citi bank.

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 explanation