It wasn’t long ago when I was tirelessly collecting shareable Citi shutdown stories due to recent number of inquires and accounts and it was a difficult thing to bring those DPs on public display but in all likelihood now I have become that data point. I’ve been shutdown by Citi. The official reasons will be known later and I will discuss that later but for now, here is a post on the weird shutdown where I was shutdown at one moment, I wasn’t the other moment and then I was shutdown again.
What Triggered It?
It began with a fraud alert. It seems to always begin with a fraud alert. Few hours later everything was shutdown. I haven’t had new Citi cards in few months.
Why Shutdown?
We’ll have to wait for the letter but I can say that there was no funny business going on whatsoever. The most plausible explanation is likely that fraud alert triggered a manual review and someone didn’t like my credit report. I will wait for an official report before making an elaborate post on this matter.
How Do You Know You’re Shutdown?
Typically you’ll know your card is shutdown because your card stopped working and you logged into Desktop and see whole bunch of “This card is closed. For inquires, call 1-800-950-5114”. Alternatively, if you login into mobile device, you’ll notice an alert when you click on an individual card and when you click on the alert, it will read “This account is closed. Please visit Citi.com from your computer to unlink it from your profile.” I believe these are the same message that you get when you yourself close the account.
However, even after shutdown your account might all the sudden “work normally” i.e. no card closed notification and no declined charge but it will revert back to its old way few hours later. That is exactly what happened with me. One moment it showed all my cards were closed but within a few hours everything showed fine (on desktop and mobile) and my card even worked, then few hours later notice about cards being closed showed up again.
How Long Do You Have to Transfer Out Points?
MilesPerDay recalls hearing Citi zeroing points upon shutdown, and alike him, I wasn’t going to wait out to find out. But unlike him, I actually cashed out my points (or at least it’s processing…risky move I know).
I cashed out thank you points on same day of shutdown. The next day 1,000 points transferred instantly to Jetblue. I’m holding on to 1,000 TY points to see if they expire or not…you know for science.
How Do You Burn Points After Shutdown?
If you paid attention to details of above shutdown screen (desktop version), you’ll notice that there is no information on thank you points or other rewards on the right sidebar. Rewards information are instantly removed from sidebar after shutdown. You’ll see them again on sidebar if your account glitches and reverts back to non-shutdown phase for a few hours.
So, you’ll have to access your points by going to thank you portal through the tabs (Rewards and Benefits – ThankYou Rewards).
Closing Remarks
Sigh.
3 comments
Join the club. I got shut down after inquiring about a bank bonus not posting. Then eyeballs…then shutdown. But that was 4 years ago and haven’t missed them much – 2.5M AA miles plus $1600 net cash back for all those Executive AA cards. Plus unlimited 5x on a TYP card for a year = $$$$$.$$ cashed out for my mortgage. Plus a bunch of other cards. Good times!
Rofl, what was the official reason they officially gave for shutdown?
Not a big deal! As Jon mentioned above, 4 x executive cards aa miles bonanza, countless aa mailers app, 5 % typ for an year, citi prestige /citi premier, I don’t miss a bit. Was shut down down back in Sept 18 due to some stupid made up reasons. Now imagine doing all of the above with 4 times over (with household accounts). All were shut down down in a single swipe but I still have boatload of aa miles in my bank. While taking flight QR and Cathay in j for the party of four for the past few years. STILL have a soft spot for citi in my heart!