Citibank Plus Mastercard Transactions Rejected

Kikkoman56 on 29/09/2017 - 15:54
Last edited 29/09/2017 - 16:19 by 1 other user

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same difficulties I am with the new Mastercard debit card.
From multiple merchants from BCC carparking to Australian online retailers to using the card through paypal, it gets rejected every time I try to use it.
It works fine if I'm physically using the card for purchases in store or at atms but anything else seems to be consistently rejected.

I've tried to call up citibank but they seem incompetent in solving the issue since all they tell me is "the card is activated" and "there's no problems on our end."
Even though they can clearly see the rejections in their system they more or less don't accept responsibility and just tell me there's nothing they can do, shop somewhere else.

I'm kind of stumped now as to what to do to fix this and would appreciate any input…

Related Stores

Citibank Australia

• 

  Baysew on 29/09/2017 - 16:17

  they more or less don't accept responsibility and just tell me there's nothing they can do

  Get Banking Ombudsman to make them sort it out.

  • 

    Kikkoman56 on 29/09/2017 - 16:28

    +1

    Thanks, good idea I'm lodging a complaint now.

• 

  garetz on 29/09/2017 - 16:21

  Go get your credit report, sounds like maybe someone else with the same name might have a bad credit score, and is being confused for you. Or you may be the target of identity theft.

  From the little info you provided this is the only thing i could surmise. Assuming you arent entering the info incorrectly that is.

  • 

    Kikkoman56 on 29/09/2017 - 16:31

    I'm 100% certain I'm entering the info correctly since I just tried to use it on paypal just now three times and even using variations of the billing address from home address to the PO Box address. Not so sure about the other part though since it's a debit card…

    • 

      garetz on 29/09/2017 - 16:33

      Its a "mastercard" debit card. Which means you are using it as a credit function, even though you are required to have money in the account to use it. So it goes through all the checks and balances a regular credit card would go through each transaction. Obviously it is failing one of those checks on use.\

      btw, the address is very important, that is one of the checks, you need to use the address you registered the card under, if that doesnt match, it will not work on use.

      • 

        Kikkoman56 on 29/09/2017 - 16:54

        True, well all my other debit and credit cards are Visa and they all work fine on online purchases and such but obviously don't have the competitive rate that this account has for foreign currencies. So is that possible to be a mastercard problem? This is the only mastercard product I have so there's no other way for me to check.

        Yeah I figured as much, but I'm also sure I've tried all addresses they have on file that are linked to my account in the correct format along with using what is listed on the eStatement as my address so I'm confident I've input that correctly too. Besides that shouldn't block me physically trying to use the card on the Carparking Ticket Machines either since there is no opportunity to provide that information there.

      • 

        John Kimble on 29/09/2017 - 16:59

        btw, the address is very important, that is one of the checks, you need to use the address you registered the card under, if that doesnt match, it will not work on use.

        Incorrect. AVS is not used in Australia. USA and UK yes (and maybe other countries).

• 

  retiredfeline on 29/09/2017 - 16:22

  +1

  Could be something as silly as Citi being assigned a new range of MC numbers not recognised by backward software. What Baysew suggested.

  • 

    Kikkoman56 on 29/09/2017 - 16:59

    Dunno why they even had to change from Visa, card worked perfectly for me all these years while it was on it and now that they changed to mastercard all this happens…

    • 

      retiredfeline on 29/09/2017 - 17:22

      They got a better deal from Visa's rival I guess.

• 

  Ocker on 29/09/2017 - 16:30

  +1

  As it is only happening when the card is not present it is quite possibly their automated anti-fraud software is over-zealous.

  • 

    Kikkoman56 on 29/09/2017 - 16:56

    +1

    Could be, except for in the case of the carparking machine… still got rejected while physically having the card present so I'm not 100% sure…

    • 

      John Kimble on 29/09/2017 - 17:01

      Some car park machines treat the transaction as CNP, even though it's CP. Stupid I know.

• 

  pantsparty on 29/09/2017 - 16:54

  +1

  Report your card as lost and get a new one issued?

  • 

    Kikkoman56 on 29/09/2017 - 16:58

    +1

    Haha, actually a good idea if the ombudsman takes too long or nothing eventuates from it. Could see that actually fixing it, thanks.

  • 

    John Kimble on 29/09/2017 - 17:08

    +1

    I would do this before going to FOS…

• 

  John Kimble on 29/09/2017 - 17:02

  +2

  Sounds like CNP has been disabled on your card. Can you change it on your app/internet banking?

  Or small possibility the CVV is incorrect maybe? But Citibank should have been able to identify this and tell you…

  • 

    Kikkoman56 on 29/09/2017 - 17:09

    Didn't even know that term, interesting…
    It definitely sounds like that's whats getting blocked. I was just recently overseas with it and even there with CP purchases the card worked fine.
    I just looked through all the settings though and sadly there's no option regarding it. I might give the call centre another try though I have my doubts about whether or not this will be in their scripted responses & have the capability to change.

    • 

      John Kimble on 29/09/2017 - 17:20

      Ask to speak to a TL or Manager maybe? When you call them, you need to ask them if they can see all the declined transactions. If they can't, then merchants are not able to route the transactions back to them for some reason. That is a big issue and everyone with the same type of card as you would theoretically have the same issue.

      If they can see the declined transactions, it means they declined it and they should be able to tell you for what reason they declined them and potentially fix it.