Consumer complaint received 2024-05-24
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Can't use card to make purchases
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (CA)

XXXX, 2024 I applied for the Citibank XXXX XXXX XXXX, advertised as being accepted for payment wherever XXXX is accepted, with a XXXX  % cash back reward customized each month to purchases made that month in the merchant category of highest balance, of which gas stations was included. Of note, at the time and currently that makes this product the only credit card on the market that advertises more than XXXX  % cash back for gasoline purchases. The card was also advertised as having a {$200.00} welcome bonus for new accounts that spent more than {$1500.00} on the card in the first XXXX  months. 

However, after applying, the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX that I received would be regularly declined for gasoline purchases- five times, in less than XXXX  months - both at the pump and by the cashier, at various gas stations including XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX - even though the account was in good standing with well over {$100.00} in available credit being reported on XXXX website. In each instance that the purchase was declined, it was reattempted to no avail, using both the physical card and the digital card as properly activated in XXXX XXXX. Several times these transaction declines happened very late at night, more than XXXX miles away from my home and in less than safe and friendly downtown areas of XXXX XXXX where I would otherwise have found myself stranded without gas, if not for successfully using an alternate XXXX  at that same gas station. 

After each incident where the gasoline purchase was declined, calling the phone number on the back of the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX connected me with a XXXX customer service clown, who could neither fix the situation nor justify it having had happened - in most cases either because the customer service XXXX had no record on their system of the transaction being declined or because the customer service XXXX  didn't speak English. 

This behavior by the card presents substantial and previously undisclosed barriers to its advertised claim of being accepted anywhere XXXX is accepted, which then, is itself another previously undisclosed and substantial barrier for customers availing themselves of other advertised claims, specifically those of being able to get XXXX  % cash back on gasoline purchases and receiving a {$200.00} welcome award if {$1500.00} or more is spent on the card in the first XXXX  months. 

Of additional note and complaint : my application stated a nearly six-figure annual income, with housing expenses of less than {$1000.00} a month ; the name, address, social security number and birth date on my application matches those on each of my three major credit bureaus, each of those bureaus reporting, both currently and at the time of application : absolutely no past or current derogatory information, reporting me as the individual owner of all accounts, several of which being established XXXX  and XXXX  accounts XXXX all of which being issued by banks which are among the 5 largest in the United States and with credit lines of {$10000.00} or more, reporting a total credit utilization ratio of under XXXX  %, reporting less than three recent inquiries, less than three recently opened accounts, and reporting XXXX  XXXX bank card scores above XXXX. Yet, with that information in hand, on all three bureaus, the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX issued me came with a credit line barely large enough to cover the cost of circus peanuts : {$500.00}. And that of course is assuming the transaction doesn't get mysteriously declined.