Another Citi Strata Elite shocker: Accounts shut down, points wiped out

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A few weeks back, I wrote about Citi’s debacle after they launched the Citi Strata Elite card. After the launch of the card, several customers reported issues while using their cards while traveling abroad. Many of them got their accounts locked and could only use their card again after sending tax documents across to Citi.

Citi Strata Elite Issues Prop Up Again

After this piece by the Wall Street Journal, it seemed like Citi was actively working to fix the issue. In this post, I wrote about how Citi was making amends by reaching out to affected customers and offering a couple of things:

• Refunding the entire annual fee of $595
• Waiving the spend requirement for the 100,000 Citi ThankYou points welcome bonus

However, it seems like the issues haven’t been fixed. As per this Reddit thread and multiple other sources , it seems like things are only going downhill, with multiple data points indicating the following:

• Customers who sent their tax documents still had their accounts closed
• For some customers, Citi closed all their accounts and also wiped out their points balance to zero
• When customers reached out to Citi, there was no clarity offered about why these things happened and what can be done to fix it

The Pundit’s Mantra

Overall, this seems to be a real mess. Citi launched their Citi Strata Elite card to compete with the likes of Chase’s Sapphire Reserve and the Platinum Card by American Express. However, thanks to glitchy IT and shoddy customer services, Citi has completely dropped the ball here, leaving a lot of customers disgruntled. When you are dealing with card issuers that serve millions of customers, you expect things to go wrong every now and then. However, you also expect that an issuer deals with its most loyal and high fee paying customers in the best way possible.

Have you been one of the customers affected by the current events pertaining to the Citi Strata Elite card? Tell us in the comments section.

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