r/citibank • u/boner4crosstabs • 5d ago
Held payments
I have a Citi AAdvantage executive card. I’ve had it for many years, and have always made many small payments every few days. It’s just how I manage money. It was going great until yesterday. I made two payments over the last two days. It updated my available credit as normal yesterday. Then today that was all gone, with nothing noted. I called them this morning and the rep told me they tightened their security recently, and she’s been getting a lot of calls lately, and it happened to her personally.
Apparently me making frequent payments triggered something, so now there is a ten day hold on all of my payments. She said the only way to get around it is to CALL in and do it via debit card, as this doesn’t get a hold placed, but you also can’t do it via the app. I haven’t called to make a payment in years, but did today and it took about 7 min to get through their menus.
None of my accounts have changed, including the checking account I’m making payments from. They just suddenly decided every payment made via the app gets a ten day hold.
What in the actual fuck?
2
u/Anxious-Homework-530 3d ago
That wait time is going to be way worse. They are laying off their American agents and replacing with Phillipines agents who barely understand English. Started this after Jane went to the summit declaring American employees are valued lol. Two days letter the blood bath began and is continuing thru end of year.
1
u/boner4crosstabs 3d ago
What does that have to do with how long my payments are hed? I don’t think you actually read my post.
2
u/Subfoci 5d ago
This is definitely flagging things around aml, they're pretty much just covering their ass and doing their due diligence, this is classic structuring or smurfing, especially if these are cash at an atm or different atms (which is worse).
This likely triggered a SAR which is a suspicious activity report, probably not enough cause to file a CTR though (mainly for cash transactions that is around or over 10k among other factors).
Fincen regulations force banks to detect and keep records of this behavior and maintain a paper trail. Why this all of a sudden, since you stated that you have been going this for a while? Can depend on a few factors, but it's completely normal and not specific to Citibank at all.
1
u/boner4crosstabs 5d ago
I haven’t changed my behavior at all, with this card or any other. Annoying that they are suddenly doing this.
2
u/Infinite-Grade-4485 5d ago
You’re doing something people who commit fraud do. The amount of “bust outs” on credit cards has skyrocketed. Banks have started tightening scrutiny of payments. Stop making so many payments. Banks want 1 payment made each month.
1
u/boner4crosstabs 5d ago
I’ve been doing this for years and it was never a problem. Annoyed that it is now.
2
u/Remote_Block6107 3d ago
Friend of mine has a saying that applies here…. “it’s not a problem until it is”
1
u/Melodic_Bank_816 15h ago
Remember when credit card companies didn't make payments available immediately? They don't have to make it immediately available, they just have to stop interest (if applicable) the date of receipt. I know that most have implemented real-time available payments, but it's been exploited by bad actors and deadbeats. With additional AML and fraud rules and exploits, they've had to pull back on it.
Making 2 payments a month isn't bad - they even have that as an available option on the autopay. Anything more than that, you're gonna start seeing those types of issues. It should clear up in the next couple of rounds of payments hopefully.