Good afternoon everyone, I’m not sure if this will affect anyone, but I just saw this on my recent Citi Double Cash Credit Card statement. According to my statement, “Beginning July 21, 2018, cash payments to your credit card will no longer be accepted by bank employees at Citibank branches.” If you do have cash that you want to use to pay off your Citi credit card, “proprietary Citibank ATMs will accept cash payments up to $3,000 per credit card account per calendar month with your credit card PIN. Call Customer Service to have a PIN mailed to you.”
This seems like a lot of work to set up a credit card pin that you will only use at Citi ATMs to deposit cash. I’m not sure if this affects using money orders or cashier’s checks to pay off your Citi credit card. The statement specifically says “cash payments” so I think money orders and cashier’s checks will still be accepted.
What do you think of this change? It doesn’t affect me, since I always pay my Citi credit card bills online. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
A bank… not accepting cash… to pay for a product issued by a bank… WTF?
There is a first for everything! What do you think is next? Not letting you withdraw your own money from your account?
Maybe but that happened to me when I wanted to close out my account with B of A. They told me that I might have outstanding checks and to come back in two weeks. I raised my voice and told the manager that I didn’t have any outstanding checks and that I would close my account now or later with my lawyer! He became angry with me and told me to keep my voice down because he didn’t want people to hear how they were trying to screw me. He then demanded that I use bank by mail (this was before smart phones with apps to make deposits). I told him hell no and that I wasn’t going to pay them an out of network fee of at least $5 and another $5 to the ATM owner to be able to withdraw $20. It was only after I continued to raise my voice and embarrass him for not letting me close my account. I also pointed out that with crap service like this I would be taking my account elsewhere even if they did have a B of A where I was moving to. At that time they were only in the western US.
Indian style. Lol!!!!
Done with Citi bank, shredded my card.
Hi Al, I understand your frustration. Hopefully you can switch to a different bank or credit union that fits your needs better.
First bluebird and serve and now this. What am I going to do with all of my crystal meth money? Now I’ll have to bury it in a barrel .
Gotta go to Vegas and turn it into casino chips and then cash out :)
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We can still use vanilla visa gift cards to pay it off right over the phone?
If that works for you, you can still do that.
Your statement is correct. However, Citi told us their ATM will accept cash for credit card payments.
Another problem is that if you charge say $5000 in a period, you can only pay back $3000 max per month. This puts $2000 into the next period and they will charge interest! So, for a business that charges say $10,000 per month, they will be paying HUGE amounts of interest because of the $3000 payment per month limit! Sounds illegal to me.
Just pay your Citi credit card online with your bank account.
Not everyone does banking with Citi, and not everyone does banking with local, or physical banks. When I’m paid in cash, there is nothing for me to do with it but spend it. I was very annoyed when I tried to use cash to make a payment at a Citibank window. I was told that the bank no longer takes cash for payments but I could use my pin and the ATM to make the deposit. The teller wanted to know if I wanted to open an account, and then deposit the money, and then make the payment. Why would I? With customer service like that who wants to become a customer? I got a new pin, changed it to something I’ll remember and will make cash payments through their ATMs.
Citi is not cash friendly. Do you have another credit card you can pay with cash in branch?
yea, almost all of them.. lol.
I have about a dozen credit cards, and Citi will now be the only I can’t pay cash with. I can even pay cash on all my 6 store credit cards too.
Grant…it is NOT NORMAL for any banks to NOT take cash as a “payment” to “your own account.” I understand not being able to deposit cash into “other peoples account.”
It’s YOUR DEBT on your CREDIT CARD, you should be able to PAY CASH if that business has a “PHYSICAL” location. The only other card I can’t pay cash is the Apple Card.
Hi Bob, I totally agree with you, it makes no sense why Citi made this change.
How long do the cash payments made at the atm take to post?
If you don’t have a citibank account and you have a balance of $3000 then you can’t pay it all off and will be forced to open an account with fees or to pay interest on the balance.
Illegal by Citibank. They cannot refuse cash “this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private”. Let’s all ATTACK Citibank and shut them down.
I don’t think it is illegal, I think Citi it just trying to prevent money laundering.
If they refuse to accept cash when someone is making a payment, they are violating laws of the Treasury which say the money is good. They can test to see if it is counterfeit or not, but that is all. Besides, it is not the job of the banks to try to combat money laundering. Just who the F do they think they are? The CEO of Citibank should be SHOT!!! I would say refusing the cash means they give up their right to the claim to the debt. The person tried to pay, they refused, debt cleared!
Very valid arguments. I wonder if Citi will reverse their decision soon.
Agreed! Money laundering prevention is not a bank’s job. They should already have policies they follow on reporting to govt based on feds.
It is an insult to have a US bank treat US currency like monopoly money. If they can dish it out, they should be able to accept it.
This really needs to be looked further into. When I first came across this whole issue (they made me give a bunch of other personal info to pay my Citi CC at a teller, with cash), they said it’s because you don’t have an account here (with Citibank). I said, yes I do, my Citibank Visa Card is an account with Citibank. Then they said, no, it had to be a checking or savings account.
I agree with you, Sir!!!
That’s crap where you think cartels have their money?
Of curse banks and most the times they don’t use money , they just transfer amounts from local banks to Citibank, HSBC and many other international banks. Do people at Citibank believe that a person who owns a credit card of $20,000 will become rich laundering money? Really? , laundering money is with millions and many politicians are involved.
Or it’s just trying to get rid of cash period. We have been hearing about cashless society for a while. Somebody wants to see exactly what we make and what we spend.
I’m not a fan of cash or change, so I’m liking the digital payment economy.
Agreed! Money laundering prevention is not a bank’s job. They should already have policies they follow on reporting to govt based on feds.
It would be all fine and dandy if I was even able to pay the account at the bank’s ATM. I had $500 payment to make on my account. I wanted to pay a portion now, and then a portion later on. Note, that when I did pay, and entered the correct pin it said there was an error 01000. So I called them and complained, supposedly they are looking into the error.
That is a bummer. Let me know if Citi fixes the problem.
Just another example – the CEO does not give a crap about the customer. It is anothet choice that decreases service and makes life INCONVENIENT for their supposed valued customers.
Keep your TELLERS!!
Complain to Citi on social media, let them know how you feel.
I just experienced this as I went to pay my citi visa at the branch. Absolute craziness. I am thinking about taking on this battle as their policy has issues. The legal tender laws passed by congress says presenting payment in US currency to a creditor meets one’s legal burden of paying their debt. The creditor citi does not have to accept the currency, but they lose their legal recourse to challenge that debt. I am thinking about going to citi and attempting to pay my visa and documenting my good faith effort to pay my debt and citi’s refusal. If Citi dings my credit I would be damaged and have recourse to sue. What do you think?
It is an interesting idea, I wish you good luck. I won’t be taking a risk like you, but keep us posted if you do :)
It sounds good. I would force them to provide you a letter stating that you presented to pay X number of dollars on your Credit Card Bill, with cash. That their own policy does not allow them to accept such payment in cash. So therefore they have refused payment. I’d be adamant, even if they threaten to call police.
You absolutely have a valid point. If you’re going to go through with it, I would pay the maximum $3000 in cash each month to also show good faith and your good intention to pay off the debt. Keep us posted
I just had this problem too. The federal government states that a business can not refuse cash for a debt, but here is the bank refusing my cash for debt. How is that legal? Is there anything we can do to fight it?
Yes we can. Remove their CEO by any means necessary!
Does anybody know the status of this? I recently contacted then via email and was told the same thing – We no longer accept cash at our banks – WTF? I think we should find a good class action lawyer to take this on.
Somehow these criminals are getting away with this. There should be no way a company can get away with putting such restrictions on paying legal debts with US Currency Cash. But then again, this is no longer the US it was when we were young. Somebody should shoot Citi’s CEO!!!
NOT AMERICAN…Ever heard of the words” For all debts public and private”! I went to the bank, would not accept cash, ATM machine would not accept case “at this time”
Paying off my credit card and never entering CIti Bank again!
I totally agree Bill. They should not be allowed to do this.
i went to a citibank recently and i didn’t know they didn’t take cash as a payment i was so upset, what bank doesn’t take cash. It is a stupid idea and who knows what’s next – who makes these stupid rules oh and the rep couldn’t help in any way, she didn’t have access to my account she couldn’t tell me about a specific charge so could only take payment other than cash.
Yes, Citi has this stupid rule about not taking cash. Makes sense to no one. I’m sorry the rep wasn’t able to assist you with your account.
Is that still a rule?
Yes, the rule is still true.
Yeah I think that’s bunch of bull crap not accepting cash for payment that’s a class action
It’s Citi and they think they can do whatever they want.
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Take your business elsewhere. Money talks.
Well now with all these actions over coronavirus, most of which are in Direct Contravention of the Constitution, I wonder if Citi is complicit in trying to force a cashless society, so the govt can stop the underground cash economy. Money changing hands without the govt wetting it’s beak. It’s been a while, but last i knew, you could pay cash on your credit card at one of Citi’s ATM machines. Has that changed?
Hi John, I’ve never paid any Citi CCs at the ATM, so I’m not sure.
I tried to make a cash payment on my credit card. I called to get a pin number and they said they could mail it to me in 5 to 10 days. I then asked if they could please provide a location of an ATM that is nearest me. i was then told there are no ATMs in Utah connected with Citibank that will accept cash payments. What is the world coming too. I am a senior with disabilities and I never thought I would live to see this day come. I am so sorry for my grand children.
I’m sorry Penelope, Citi is no longer accepting cash to pay Citi CC bills.
Grant, has there been a change. After they first started the no cash (at tellers) I paid on my CC many times at an ATM.
Hi Jon, that is good to hear. So paying cash via an ATM works, but paying cash in a branch doesn’t work?
As of last year, yes. I did it many times before I moved. Clients would sometimes pay with a lot of cash and instead of depositing it into my account, then paying I would directly pay my CC balance at an ATM
Good to know. Im curious if anything has changed in 2020 since the last time you tried depositing cash in an ATM to pay your Citi CC. If you happen to try it this year, please let me know if it works the same as last year.
I know this post is 2 years past the last one. However I want to Citibank today and only owed about $200 and they wouldn’t take cash. Only a check. There are no branches around me and I had to make a trip to pay this. I don’t even know where my checkbook is. They said I could set something up online so I went home and tried it but the website was down. It’s a Costco Visa card so I went there and they would take payments either.
Finally found my checkbook and the mailing them in a check and I’m canceling my card as soon as it clears. Went to Costco and told them to cancel my account too. Crazy that places don’t take cash for stuff that they issue, and Costco said they don’t take any payments at all.
Only got the card because I was buying tires once and it saved me money. I don’t get enough back and rebates to make up the extra cost.
Hi Hubert, I’m sorry to hear about your experience dealing with Citibank and Costco to pay your Citi Costco Visa credit card bill. That sounds very frustrating.