April 2021 by Jazz C.
I was unable to activate a new debit card via phone and had been locked out of my online account as a result. Attempted to phone customer service and the call got dropped after sitting on hold for a while. That's the reason for less than 5 stars - the weekend customer service crew at Citi's 800 number is abysmal and always has been. If you can get through at all, the front-line CSRs tend to be pretty clueless, reading from scripts rather than actually solving problems. Even the so-called managers are quite unhelpful; typically, they will wind up telling you that you need to call back during weekday business hours. Given my difficulties trying to get help from the 800 number on Saturdays in the past (as well as today) I decided not to call again, but resigned myself to having to go to the branch to resolve the issue. Since I didn't want to try to call again to ask what they needed for ID, I decided to just bring with me the not-yet-activated new debit card and every form of ID they might possibly want in order to reset my account access: bank statement, birth cert, ssn card, and photo ID. At the branch I explained my predicament to the teller, and she asked me for my driver's license. It was at that moment I realized that I had pulled the boneheaded move of leaving my wallet at home! I was able to provide my CDL number (I have it memorized) but the teller still couldn't activate the new debit card. At that point she asked another banker to assist and we went to that person's desk, where I showed my bank statement and IDs, and answered security questions correctly. Since the physical card was still in my possession, rather than being lost or stolen, she was willing to try to activate it. I entered the correct PIN and this time the computer system accepted it... but still refused to activate the card. The card wouldn't activate because it had been about six weeks since it was mailed; essentially, the activation period had expired, so even when I had provided the correct PIN on the phone and at the teller kiosk, it wouldn't activate. I had been really busy at work, and didn't even try to activate it for 2-3 weeks after I got it. Tried a week later and probably provided the wrong PIN. A couple weeks after that, tried again with no luck. Two weeks later, we are at today, sitting at the desk of the banker who was so helpful. After determining that the activation period had expired (corrborated against the March 4 postmark on the envelope) this nice, helpful banker explained that Citi would have to mail me another debit card - they never issue them on the spot but only mail them to the address of record, as a security measure. (And I knew that already, having occasionally had some cards reissued in the past.) However she could provide a temporary card in the meantime. We activated the temp card with the correct PIN successfully, and she allowed me to use her web browser to verify that I could now access my account online. Success! As part of this escapade, the banker had looked at all my accounts and wanted to pitch me on a couple of promotions related to existing accounts. One was cash back for depositing $10k or more into savings for four months or more. Another was 70k bonus miles and some other perks on Citi Aadvantage, which is the flyer-miles program that Citi has with Amercan Airlines. She made the offers but did not pressure me or threaten to assess fees on my checking and savings accounts, which had far less than $10K in them. (In the interests of full disclosure, I did have a business account at this branch for several years that always had a pretty substantial balance; IIRC, there was an agreement to keep at least $1500 in checking and I did pay fees one time when that balance dropped below the minimum, but on this date, the biz acct had been closed for at least a year and the other accounts did not have a lot of dough in them.) I told her I'd consider the offers and get back to her. As we parted company, this helpful person offered me her card... even though we had ne