Hi,

I have a Citi Business card that I want to make a large ($50,000) purchase on in, but the limit on the card is only $16,000. It's a new card and I am carrying some disturbing (to Citi) 0% balances, so they refuse to raise the limit any higher. I offered to prepay the purchase, however they said that even if I do this, I will be unable to make the $50,000 purchase at once, it will need to be made in $16,000 "chunks," which is impossible for me to do.

Does anyone know a way to get around this rule? I specifically wanted to use this Citi card for the AA miles and don't have too much available non-AMEX credit at other companies. I should also note that the vendor will not accept AMEX, otherwise I'd just use them.

Might help if you told us what you were buying for $50K and from where.

So the card issuer won't allow the transaction in one lump and the merchant won't allow it any other way? Find another issuer and/or merchant.

kevinkevinkevin said:I do it all the time cause my card has $250 limit.

What company/card type? Do they allow the transaction to go through in one lump sum (i.e., charging $500 with a $250 prepayment)?

maddybeagle said:If that is what Citibank said, then why are you asking people on the internets...Read the Citi Cash Returns thread to find out what can happen if you prepay your card excessively to get more purchases in for the month...closure..

If you read my post, you would see that I am looking to see if anyone has been able to do this with Citi. I have a strong feeling that the agent may not have been totally sure when we were speaking about it. To me, if one is willing to prepay, I cannot understand why they would not allow it. If anything, it would be additional fees for them.

Also, I don't want to prepay my card excessively, just once, and most preferably with the "approval" of a Citi rep via phone. It's just one transaction, I can't understand why they are so averse to such a situation.

I will read the thread you mentioned.

^^This is BS, you will get miles on negative CC balance too^^

OP, continue calling Citi and try to find English-speaking supervisor. Outsource staff will never understand what are you trying to do and regular CSR will probably not want to take on responsibility for all this.

I didn't mean you CAN do it, I have no idea if it;s possible. But if it is possible, you'll need US-based supervisor

troyb said:CrazierRus said:^^This is BS, you will get miles on negative CC balance too^^

OP, continue calling Citi and try to find English-speaking supervisor. Outsource staff will never understand what are you trying to do and regular CSR will probably not want to take on responsibility for all this.

Thanks for the post, I've tried calling 3x now, always get the same answer. I've spoken to some sort of supervisor and was told the same thing. I tried each time to speak directly to the business credit department, but they would not let me speak to them - I was always told they do not speak to customers directly.

I'll tell you what though, after this experience I think I am done with Citi. To not allow a pre-payment or temporary credit line increase is just completed retarded in my opinion. I understand not wanting to just triple my credit limit haphazardly (even though I have cards elsewhere with $80,000 limits), but if one is willing to prepay, where's the risk?

Yup, you show them. When you become CEO of Citicorp you can make the decisions.

fotomaniak said:usually you can't charge more than CL, even if you prepay.
possible solutions:
1) ask merchant to break it up in several transactions.
2) charge it to several cards
3) don't buy it

BTW, be ready verify the transaction with citi's fraud dept, they often freeze the account if they see irregular activity. The dept that can unfreeze the card is only reachable during the day time (9-5 i think) so try to make your transaction during this time...

Thanks for the response, your suggestions make sense but the only option possible is #3, unless I just use cash. However, the whole point of this was to at least get the miles for the transaction.

As far as Citi's fraud department, thats another beast altogether. I had a $16,000 transaction declined TWICE last week and that was after notifying prior to initiating it. Overall AMEX is so much better, wish the vendor accepted it. Oh well.

fotomaniak said:usually you can't charge more than CL, even if you prepay.
possible solutions:
1) ask merchant to break it up in several transactions.
2) charge it to several cards
3) don't buy it

BTW, be ready verify the transaction with citi's fraud dept, they often freeze the account if they see irregular activity. The dept that can unfreeze the card is only reachable during the day time (9-5 i think) so try to make your transaction during this time...

Please say what you know. I was travelling once and my card was blocked after i used it in 4 states in 5 day time frame.
One night 10.30pm i was denied on a Gas station, i used Chase as backup. Then called them up and they asked my last 5 transactions and cleared the block.
They thought it was stolen and someone was buying stuff. I told them if it was stolen, why were only small charges made, why no big Internet charges, etc. They said its better to err on safer side than assume stuff, etc.
But bottomline is i was able to get the block removed at 10.30pm