Citi has dealt with some more public embarrassment this week that stretched beyond coverage from miles and points blogs to the Wall Street Journal over the fiasco surrounding early applicants for the Citi Strata Elite having their accounts locked and being required to provide Citi access to tax transcripts. As Doctor of Credit has reported, some cardholders are now reporting having received an email confirming that their accounts have been unlocked — and Citi is now also offering to take things a couple steps further toward making it right by cardholders.
Citi sends email apologizing, taking strides to make things right
Doctor of Credit has reported on an email (see that post for a screenshot) being sent to at least some affected cardholders letting them know that their accounts have been verified. Furthermore, Citi is offering at least some of those affected the following olive branch offers:
- A statement credit in the amount of $595 (effectively refunding the annual fee) and $75 if any authorized users were charged to the account prior to receiving the email about the account being unlocked
- Crediting the 100,000-point welcome offer without the need to meet the spending requirement.
Obviously, if you met the spending requirement before card access was shut off, the second part will not be pertinent for you. However, both steps were the right way to handle this situation.
Those affected by the Strata Elite lockout have been unable to use benefits that they expected to receive in 2025, and while accounts are being unlocked with time left to use those benefits yet this year, opportunity may not align for all cardholders. I thought it was crazy for Citi to lock up accounts due to no fault of the cardholder and still keep the nearly six hundred dollars that those cardholders had paid while not allowing them to use their new card as they had intended. Refunding that fee is both reasonable and reasonably generous since cardholders may still be able to use at least some of the calendar year benefits this year (and next year).
Furthermore, the bonus points were a concern for many whose 90-day spending window was severely hampered by the long delay in getting their account unlocked. Again, crediting the bonus points here was the right thing to do since the account freezes were not due to customer error but due to Citi’s error.
The shame here is that this action seems directly tied to the public embarrassment Citi faced this week when the Wall Street Journal published the report. Clearly, this was a widespread issue and Citi was not fleet on its feet in getting it fixed. I’m glad to see the resolution, but it’s a shame that it took mass media coverage for Citi to do the right thing.
Unfortunately, not all cardholders who submitted the requested tax documents have yet had their accounts unlocked, and some cardholders probably opted to let Citi close their accounts instead of providing that documentation. I expect that those whose accounts are unlocked over the coming weeks will likely get this same waived-fee and no-spending-requirement bonus offers honored (the email indicates that both will apply automatically within 5 business days of receipt of the email), those who already closed their accounts are likely out of luck. Those whose accounts were never locked / were not required to submit 4506-C forms shouldn’t expect the same terms to apply since they weren’t locked out by Citi’s error.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
If you are chasing HNWIs it’s nearly impossible to overstate the PR damage that the WSJ article caused. What a complete mess. This comes too little too late. The only salve is that the folks at Chase who screwed up the CSR can at least point to what happened over at Citi when they are fighting to keep their jobs this Christmas.
Hi Peter, good to see you here. Agreed. The only winners lately have been Amex.
Indeed, amigo. I suppose one might also say that notwithstanding C1 altering its guest policies, C1 didn’t lose in 2025. That’s an accomplishment in and of itself given what Citi and Chase managed to “accomplish” so far. And 10/26 hasn’t even arrived yet… more fireworks in a few days perhaps. Maybe another weird $250 IHG credit that’s good for 11 months so that one can feel premium while saying “I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night, and the night before, because I needed to stay two nights to use this credit.”
On C1, yeah, those guest access policy changes set for 2026 really blow. Before learning of that, my strategy was to get P2 down to 1/24 and hope that she could finally get a Venture X (I’m hopelessly LOL/24, because I can’t resist the occasional app-a-rama), then she’d be my way to check out the new lounges at JFK/LGA at least. Welp, if she eventually gets the card, maybe we’ll pay the $45 so I can ‘experience’ the Landing/Bodega, etc. *sigh*
On 10/26, it feels like CSR’s ‘D-Day’… it’s coming, we didn’t want it to get to this point, but we gotta try, not sure who or what we’re gonna lose, the weather may or may not be in our favor… hoping for the best. And, got some OpenTable, StubHub, and ‘The Edit’ hotels in-mind, just in case we really ‘have to’ use them. On the new $75K spend for extra benefits, will they include what we’ve spent already this year, or reset on 10/26 (ugh)?
Well if you’ll access more than 3x a year can always be an authorized user for $125.
On Chase I have a bunch of stuff I may prepay before 10/26 as one final 3x travel hurrah. Hard to imagine earning many UR points after 10/26.
Really dislike Edit so much worse than FHR. I’ll buy some Mets tickets on StubHub or something I suppose. OpenTable – it is saying something when as a NYer barely any of the tens of restaurants appeal at all. But I guess I’ll keep an open mind.
I presume all of 2025 counts for $75k?
Fascinating to see what retention offers will be. I renew in Feb so will be calling in December.
I have experienced the Citi teams rudeness and incompetence for the past 6 weeks. I was happy to see the conciliatory email yesterday, but I have little faith that my third time submitting the document will be the charm. I failed to check box 6a the first time, and they lost the second one.
If Citi had upload able forms they would be able to locate all the documents. It was ridiculous that they couldn’t find documents when there was a signature accepting them.
Been a Citi customer for 20 + years. Long time Citi Premier and Double Cash cardholder. Paid off a Citi mortgage years ago. Was denied Strata Elite.
I got my Experian Report. 860 FICO, 4 new card accounts in the past two years, 3% credit utilization rate, zero late payments. Called reconsideration line – flat out denied for “ too many new accounts” and “too short a credit history”
That feels like ‘check the box’ nonsense (as in, the automated system had to give a reason, or the agent had to pick one, and no body really cares anymore.)
Some have suggested that Citi wants to see under 1/6, 3/12, 6/24 for Strata Elite. I donno about that anymore, because I was 2/6 and still got approved. Oh, and don’t forget Citi’s 8-day and 65-day rules, but that doesn’t seem like your issue.
Generally, these silly, pointless rules suck and they change often, usually on a whim, as I am sure you (and most of us who frequent these sites) are already well-aware.
Well bless their hearts, I suppose they are trying. Although you would think (being Citi) that they would have plenty of experience by now apologizing for screw ups.
I’m grateful The Wall Street Journal covered Citi’s Strata Elite card shutdown, where I am quoted and helped draw attention to what thousands of consumers were facing. Public accountability matters.
But this change didn’t start there. It began with over a month of documentation including a detailed phone log, requests for an extension since I was traveling until the end of October, ADA accommodation requests, multiple CFPB filings, and direct outreach to key officials — including the CEOs of Citi and Equifax, the IRS Commissioner, the CFPB Director, and the ABA General Counsel.
While abroad, I DHLed documents from Bangladesh, even offered to hand-deliver them in Paro, Bhutan and Bali, Indonesia, which Citi declined — forcing me to fly home at my own expense. Along the way, I received inconsistent responses and learned Citi couldn’t determine if they had received my documents despite having a DHL and USPS signature. .
Persistence paid off. Citi ultimately reimbursed the $595 Strata Elite annual fee, awarded 100,000 ThankYou Points without the spending requirement, and now provides a fully completed IRS verification form with the correct IVES address — downloadable anywhere in the world.
As a global changemaker for hearing access, I’ve spent my career proving that one person, armed with persistence, documentation, and strategy, can fix broken systems — whether in accessibility or consumer protection.
Systemic change rarely happens overnight or from one article. It happens when people refuse to accept that “this is just how it’s done.”
I applied within the first week or so and didn’t have these particular issues, but still haven’t received the bonus after meeting the minimum spend. We shall see…
Usually comes when your statement closes
Yep– and I’m on statement #2 closing after meeting the minimum spend. A chat representative confirmed that I had met the minimum spend and told me to give it 90 days.
Citi really botched this in spectacular fashion. I (for one) have been a customer for over 10 years and they’re treating me like some fly by night person who is openly trying to defraud them. Then when you call the credit team, you get attitude and no direction on how to fill out this form (my first guess was incorrect). This is a start, but why would I want to do business with them going forward? The card benefits (for the first year) are fantastic, but this wasn’t worth the hassle.
Did you use an application link from a particular website? Some reports suggest that the links from certain websites triggered the issue. It doesn’t forgive Citi’s poor handling of the matter. But, would explain how it started.
Wow, if links from particular partners got flagged, that really incriminates Citibank’s IT.
I had a Citibank card, not a Strata, blocked this summer due to legit transactions even though I had two factor authentication on. Getting the card unblocked took weeks. I am in no hurry to try Citibank again and it seems I am not alone in that feeling.
> But, would explain how it started.
Like the Wuhan virus?
Hopefully another $100M OCC fine to help stop the spread (of misleading trade practices)
Was that sketchy Chinese blog link, for sure.