You Did What?

I have had a Citi card since 1990, which I use extensively for business and personal expenses.  A $10 purchase was recently declined, even though I had significant available credit on the card.  Because I've been a customer for so long, my immediate assumption was that the card had been compromised, causing a fraud alert on the account.  I assumed that they were trying to protect Citi and me.

However, when I reached Citi customer service, I was notified that my entire account was frozen because of a large payment that I had made.  The payment was early, was for the entire statement balance (which is my standard way to manage the account), and had already cleared my bank.  They assumed that because of the size of the payment there might be a problem. Though I've been a customer for over 20 years, they made no attempt to contact me to inquire about the payment or to notify me that I had no access to my credit.  The customer service representative understood why I was upset, but indicated that this sometimes happens with large payments. When I asked to speak to a Citi manager, she agreed to free the available credit in excess of the recent payment, and indicated that it could be 14 days before the hold was released.  Only when I called Citi back, with my bank's customer service number and insisted that I be added into the conversation to verify that the payment had cleared my bank, was my access restored. 

I realize that mistakes can happen, but the series of mistakes is mind-boggling.  Had they immediately indicated that they had made a mistake, I wouldn't be writing about this.  Like many, I'm quick to forgive when a sincere apology is made.