"Compromised credit card" Citibank ... anyone?

[jandk]

Hopefully i'm ok to ask about this in here, i'm a very new member

I've had my citibank platinum card since 2000 and for the most part have been a very happy card holder. I had a call a moment ago to tell me my card has been compromised and needs to be cancelled immediatly and a new one will arrive within 3 days. There has been no irregular spending on my card, nor has it been used anywhere questionable. This is the SECOND time they've done this in 2 years. As you can imagine it's hugely inconvenient as i'm without my main credit card now for a few days, but worse i now need to re-do all of my direct debits etc which is hugely time consuming.

I wouldn't have a problem with this if i thought it was genuine, but this is the second time they've done it and both times they won't give me a reason "we can't disclose, when where or how this happened to protect you and our merchants" To me it just sounds like they've screwed up and i'll suffer for it.

Has this happened to anyone else with citibank, do you know what the real deal is?

 

[oz_mark]

I have had it happen once when I was using a Citibank credit card, and it was after they had declined some suspicious transactions (and to their credit, they were correct about this - the transactions weren't made by me). Although, in my case, they were quite open about what they had detected.

In your case, maybe something else has transpired.

 

[Febs]

I've only ever had a call from AMEX asking if certain transactions were mine, and if I would like to cancel the card.

Actually it was a bit strange - I received a call from one of their drones "Hello sir it appears you have strange activity on your card, could you please confirm your name and address etc..."

Hahahahaha...yeah right.

I called back when it was convenient and to my surprise it was actually legitimate. Turns out a particular petrol transaction on a recent road trip I'd taken (Syd-Broken Hill-Adelaide-Melb-Syd in under 4 days) was deemed "suspicious". It was a transaction I'd made and was completely legitimate, so I told them so and that was that.

Haven't had a similar experience with my Citibank card yet.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[jandk]

appreciate the replys guys, i've just found out i'm eligible for a westpac gold altitude card for free because of my home loan with westpac so i'm trying to squeeze them change that to a platinum and then i'll prob close my citibank card.

 

[Reggie]

Jandk, I have had the citibank platinum card now for about 5 years, and a gold card prior to that with no problems, and I use it all over the world for varying things.

On the otherhand, my wife has one of those no annual fee ever gold cards, and I am the secondary card holder. I went to the local general store and tried to pay our account that has heaps of fencing stuff on it, it was about $3600.00, this was denied, so I had the guy put it through in to amounts of $1800.00 no problems. A few days later I tried to use the card and they had put a stop on it. So I got my wife to ring, and sure enough it was due to the strange activity at the general store. They said they tried to ring before stopping the card but we never received the call or any messages from them.

 

[d15.in.oz]

My best CC experience… within seconds of using my “Wizard Mastercard” online, a phone call from GE security asking about the transaction (I was convinced as to the authenticity of the call, by the fact that I had entered my home number as a contact for the transaction, and the GE guy had called on my mobile.)

 

[mabunji]

Has this happened to anyone else with citibank....

I had a call last year, same deal (I'm Citibank Gold). I have minimal spend on the card - mostly use Amex, this is a backup.

Bit suprised. Never happened with any other provider.

One thing I do notice is that each month I get slugged $40 for a late payment fee , and a couple of days later I get a balancing credit for an 'Automatic Late Fee Reversal'. ( I am enrolled for Easipay - automatic deduction from nominated bank account). Should'nt ever happen

Citibank's systems are a little fragile - My money would be on a Citibank stuffup rather than a security breach.

 

[JohnK]

Not with Citibank but I had an Amex credit card cancelled once because the card was compromised. I was not even told that it was cancelled, found out the hard way, and Amex would not provide any details. I think it was one of the petrol stations in Sydney as some are owned under "dodgy business" names.

 

[oz_mark]

Not with Citibank but I had an Amex credit card cancelled once because the card was compromised. I was not even told that it was cancelled, found out the hard way, and Amex would not provide any details. I think it was one of the petrol stations in Sydney as some are owned under "dodgy business" names.

Dont know about petrol stations, but at one point Sydney taxi drivers were certainly a known problem in making fraudulent transactions on Amex cards.

 

[Evan]

Had one dodgy transaction on an ANZ card and they wanted to cancel it, i said not to and sure enough in the following few years never another problem.

And i must admit ANZ have called me a few times to check transactions were mine, sometimes i had not even got as far as the car park of the shop i was at before they had called, other times it was overseas. ANZ 'seem' to be awake to fraud and how to prevent atleast some of it.

E

 

[JohnK]

Dont know about petrol stations, but at one point Sydney taxi drivers were certainly a known problem in making fraudulent transactions on Amex cards.

Well that was another story and I got all my money back plus got to keep the same card number.

 

[drron]

My experience was a little different in that I reported fraudulent use-I was using the card in Florida and someone was using it for gas in New york.They then cancelled the card and reissued.Forunately this happened just as i was to fly home.
Worst experience was with diners when i rang to say I was going to the USA and I expected to make a large purchase of about $US20000.Idiot on the other end entered $A20000 so when I made my purchase it was not authorised,fortunately at a time when everyone awake in Aust so was fixed up(a very early morning purchase in NY).

 

[serfty]

Was in HKG last year an used an ANZ visa to purchase Airport Express tickets on arrival. The "Falcon" woke up and blocked the card. The card was useless after that until we arrived home to find 4 messages left on our home voice mail from the bank.

 

[auriga]

what if you were relying on a couple of cards for cash withdrawals and purchases and they both got blocked early on in a trip? wouldnt be fun!

 

[kyle]

Was in HKG last year an used an ANZ visa to purchase Airport Express tickets on arrival. The "Falcon" woke up and blocked the card. The card was useless after that until we arrived home to find 4 messages left on our home voice mail from the bank.

But that's only like $100 or $200 HKD.

I think normally the bank would block large transactions from electrical/jewellery stores.

 

[serfty]

But that's only like $100 or $200 HKD.

HKD250 actually -'twas a 4-person Group Ticket, that initial purchase went through and that was it!

 

[serfty]

what if you were relying on a couple of cards for cash withdrawals and purchases and they both got blocked early on in a trip? wouldnt be fun!

We had a 'plan b' card to which our expenses went anyway. You can be rest assured this if it had been our only option we would not have waited to chase it up. FWIW, I now have a 24/7 O/S emergency contact number for similar occurrences.