Citi\u2019s Special Behavior<\/h4>\n
Citi is its own kind of special when it comes to shutdown triggers, and we should chat about Citi shutdowns because it seems to be on our collective conscience right now:<\/p>\n
Unlike most other banks, Citi hasn\u2019t automated its rules for shutdowns and you can\u2019t get around most of its automation with slow ramp-up and similar gaming. Instead, Citi\u2019s algorithms for everything except spend patterns are largely rigid and exclusively for flagging accounts for human analysis. It\u2019s always up to a human to determine whether or not your account stays alive once you\u2019ve been flagged.<\/p>\n
The Impact<\/h4>\n
Citi\u2019s human analysis means that when you look surface deep you\u2019ll find certain conundrums. My favorite is that some churners report cycling Citi credit lines without any issues, and you\u2019ll find other reports of shutdowns after accidentally cycling credit lines by a few hundred dollars. A similar story comes up with bill pay services like CheckFreePay, and the list goes on.<\/p>\n
When you dig a bit deeper with the knowledge that Citi shutdowns are human based, you\u2019ll find that all of these reports are probably true. The real shutdown trigger at Citi is if your transactions look suspicious at a glance when an analyst examines your account. Repeated $200 payments don\u2019t look normal and will probably lead to a shutdown, but four invoice payments to a legitimate business with one-to-two sizable payments in the middle is probably fine even if credit lines are cycled.<\/p>\n
Avoiding Shutdowns<\/h4>\n
Thus, to avoid shutdowns with Citi, you\u2019ve got two options, but only one of them is needed to keep you alive:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Don\u2019t get an analyst looking at your account<\/li>\n
- Don\u2019t have a strange looking transaction history<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Personally, I shoot for the former always, and the latter to the extent possible. Either way you\u2019ve got options.<\/p>\n
Good luck!<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/citi-hamster-1024x705.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nInside view of the server responsible for Citi\u2019s suspicious credit card behavior algorithms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction Most credit card shutdowns from any bank can be attributed to one of the following: Credit line cycling Anonymous payments Phone payments from different<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":1,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-credit-cards","category-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5147"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6960,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147\/revisions\/6960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}