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CitiBank Strikes Again

by Flexo on September 21, 2005

in Credit

About a week ago, I linked my CitiBank Platinum Dividend Rewards credit card to my ING Direct account with the intent of keeping more of my cash in an interest-bearing account. I knew from the last time I made a change to my CitiBank card, I had to wait some time before paying my bill — obviously a “scheme” to try to get people to pay (more) interest charges and perhaps miss their payment deadline.

I planned for this and made the addition of the ING Direct link with enough time to spare. Today is the first day I’d be able to pay my balance of a little under $1,700 (mostly expenses from the vacation), due September 27, using my savings account rather than my checking account.

Alas, there is another limitation. The payment limit for a new linked account is $1,000. Also, after I make that first payment of no more than $1,000, I can’t make another payment for 15 days. Obvisouly, waiting is not an option because my payment is due within a week and I refuse to pay interest charges. These unnecessary restrictions cut into the usability of the online payment systems, at least for an initial period. Next month should be smoother, but it is a pain. Now I will have to transfer more money to my checking account to pay CitiBank via snail-mail.

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About the Author

Flexo, the owner and creator of Consumerism Commentary, has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow him on Twitter.

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  • Anonymous
    I ran into the exact same problem as you with my first payment, but found out about it the day before my payment was do. Yikes! I called up citibank and told them about my situation (not unique by any means). After some arguing, they allowed me to do a one time pay-by-phone for free and I avoided the service charge. You might give this a try to see if they'll take it from ING.
  • I feel your pain. I've run into the same limitations. See here and here.

    Go ahead and make a payment of whatever amount just to unlock the click-to-pay. You may also want to the same thing on any other Citi cards that you may have as a pre-emptive strike on this problem.
  • Anonymous
    I ran into the exact same problem as you with my first payment, but found out about
    it the day before my payment was do. Yikes! I called up citibank and told them
    about my situation (not unique by any means). After some arguing, they allowed me
    to do a one time pay-by-phone for free and I avoided the service charge. You might
    give this a try to see if they'll take it from ING.
  • This time, I solved the issue by transferring the $1,000 from ING to CitiBank -- the max allowed this time -- and the remainder of the bill from ING to my Wachovia checking account.

    Then, I initiated an additional card payment from my Wachovia account, which CitiBank allowed.
  • oy...they do this for EVERY account you link to click to pay? I thought it was just for the first one.

    how'd they get this annoying?

    I really do wonder whether this is just a very poorly designed anti-fraud measure. It doesnt seem that they'd invent this as a way of "tricking" people into paying more interest and fees (but I can be naive about the lengths some will go to to profit)
  • Well Caitlin, they did it to me when I added the link to ING and when I switched from Citibank uPromise to Citibank PDR (even though my linked account never changed).
  • that totally stinks. but your post DID remind me that today was day 15 after my first CTP payment...so I went and made my latest payment :D

    so...er thanks? ;)
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