Consumer complaint received 2025-04-07 00:00:00
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.
State: AZ

Complaint narrative:
To whom it may concern ; OnXX/XX/XXXX, I attempted to use my Citi bank premier strata card to book a vacation stay through Citi travel. The charge was roughly {$550.00}. My charge was declined due to a fraud alert. Both myself and my wife contacted Citi and Citi travel directly to determine why the alert had occurred. After multiple conversations, the fraud alert was removed, but we were unable to book the vacation using Citi travel. The customer service representatives were not entirely sure why the alert occurred and said it may be an issue with the merchant. They advised us that it may take 24 to 48 hours to reset through the vendor and at that point, to retry and the alert would be cleared. 

I attempted to book again on Monday XXXX and received the same fraud alert. I contacted Citi to have the alert removed, requested additional information on why this continued to occur, and made them aware I was not happy with the inability to use Citi travel to book a vacation. The only reason I have used this card is to accrue points for travel and receive travel discounts. However, the block and fraud alert only occurs when I attempt to use Citi travel. The representative said that my phone number did not match the number on file ( due to an error on the representative reading back the number ). The representative stated they would call the other number on my account to verify my identity. They placed me on hold and never called my second number. When the representative returned, they stated there was not an answer at the second number ( however no call was made to the correct number ). The representative then proceeded to keep my account locked and said I was required to wait 7-10 business days for a mail correspondence to provide account verification. 

I relayed my frustration with the process and made them aware I wished to cancel my card and account with them due to their poor service and false advertisement of services. My wife and I use this card solely for the travel benefits, and they have prohibited me from using the pricing discounts or utilization of points as advertised. 


I escalated the issue to a supervisor who proceeded to provide me the same reasoning. She stated the letter had already been mailed while we were on the phone. I asked if she printed the correspondence and placed it in the mailbox while we were talking and she stated she had. I replied that I believed this to be a false statement, and it was highly unlikely she did so. She continued to state she was telling the truth. 

At this point, I would like to make my complaint and voice heard. It appears Citi is providing false advertisements and misleading claims for services provided by their cards. I do not want to use their strata card any longer and also feel it is not right that they can also refuse to allow me to cancel their card. 

Thank you for your time

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