Citi Bank Debit card

[kbgateson]

Has anyone been having issues when customers are paying with Citi Bank Debit cards, all day yesterday Sat 1/14 and now again today Sun 1/15 anyone trying to pay with a citi bank debit card is being declined. its only happening with this card. 

[Candlestore]

Being in a tourist area I see that a lot with certain bank cards getting declined.  Usually the bank sees the person paying in an area that is out of the normal so they decline the card as a safety measure.  Sometimes I save their cart, they call their bank then we try again with no issue.

[_Violet · Accepted solution]

Hi @kbgateson - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community. I'm sorry to hear that you had some trouble with these payments 😞

You can find some common reasons for payment declines here in our Support Center. As @Candlestore mentioned, because all of these payments were done with the same type of card, this is likely a security measure that has been put in place by the customer's bank.

If you'd like us to take a look into these payments for you from our end, you'll need to contact our Support Team - as we are unable to view this via the Seller Community. If you haven't already, please reach out directly by logging into your Square account and heading here.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

[Tonydjs]

Just started with me. Won't accept citi card. Did you find a solution. 

[rguzman]

I started experiencing this issue with citi mastercards this week as well. Called Square customer support and they said it may be the bank's issue because they get a generic decline code on Square's side 

[Tonydjs]

If citi Mastercard works everywhere else except with square. It can't be bank issue. Square need to look into this. 

[_Violet]

Hi @rguzman and @Tonydjs - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community👋

I went ahead and merged your post to an existing thread where other Square Sellers have discussed this topic as well. We merge duplicate conversations together to keep like comments in one place, and to make it easier for others to find the thread in the future. 

Please see my reply at the top of this thread which has been marked as the Best Answer to this question ✅

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.

[kbgateson]

AGREED. I have customers that are really infuriated because they "just used the card" elsewhere and they had no issue. 

[kbgateson]

im not the only one with the issue, if cards are working at other stores that don't use square. this isn't an issue on the customers end this is an issue on squares end.

[Candlestore]

Since everyone is Complaining Citi Bank cards are not working I googled Citi Bank Card not working.

Top 8 Reasons a CC gets Declined : https://www.creditcards.com/education/7-reasons-credit-card-blocked-tips-for-handling 

Number 4- "Additionally, your card issuer may decline your purchase if it doesn’t recognize your purchase pattern. For example, you may receive a temporary decline if you’ve never made a purchase of that amount before or if you’re attempting to make a purchase in a country where you don’t usually shop."  You can substitute State, County Geographical Location etc. for Country. 

In 2011 Citi Bank had one of the Largest Hacks and might be super tight on transactions to mitigate fraud.   Has anyone called Citi Bank to find out why credit cards are being stopped?  Here is their contact information site: https://online.citi.com/US/ag/contactus 

In Jan of 2022 Citi Bank customers fell for a phishing Scam, just another reason why Citi Bank might be stopping cards.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/citibank-phishing-baits-customers-with-fake-suspensio... 

Everyone is blaming Square, but it is not in Squares best interest to block the Credit Card transactions from processing.  They get their % off the Top of the transaction once its processed.  Now Citi Bank does not want to loose $$$ from Fraudulent charges and may let a person use it once or twice for small amounts out of an area, say $50 but over that they end up blocking the charges.   Which could explain how the card just worked but now is declined.   I have seen on some Credit card agreements that the Credit Card Company is only responsible for $x.xx dollars of fraudulent charges and the consumer is responsible for the rest.  This could also explain how someone just used it but now its blocked by Citi Bank.  

Other things that it could be, I have the ability to turn on/off my card.... Sometimes I forget to turn it on.  I also have some cards that have Low daily Limits since I only use them for small purchases or will call the bank before making a large purchase.  I had to do that before having a well pump put in.  

So since we all just get the Generic Card Declined message I think the banking companies should give us business users better data on why the card was declined or who the decline was made by, bank holder or processor etc.  Maybe if the Banking industry sent us messages like Temporary Hold By (Bank Name) at least we would know why.  Or maybe a message comes up asking for ID if the person is too far away or if card has been reported stolen that the police are on the way or say the card has been suspended.

My previous post on this topic was what I have seen in my store why, a credit card has been declined not specific to just Citi Bank.  Since the 2011 Data Breech and the 2022 Phishing scam maybe Citi Bank could be blocking cards more to protect its customers and themselves from financial loses.  So at least now if a customer gets declined You can inform them of these POSIBLE added security measures by Citi Bank which could be why their card was declined.  This keeps the customer cool by them not feeling like it was declined because of lack of $$, especially the way inflation has risen the last few years. 

These are just my opinions on what might be going on since it is specific to Citi Bank and does not make sense Square would stop transactions from processing effecting Squares profits.  

This does need to get resolved but who needs to Resolve it is the Question.  Does Square need to call Citi Bank to see why these cards are being blocked.  Then notify all business owners that if a Citi Bank Card is blocked it could be because of XYZ as per Citi Bank.  Is there a bug in Squares system that is unable to read everything in a Citi Banks cards information.  Maybe Citi Bank has a new security code that Square does not read.  Does Citi Bank need to inform their customers that their cards could be blocked because of security issues and to prevent unauthorized use.