We have a Citi MasterCard that was one of the (apparently) hundreds of thousands whose security was compromised in the recent Heartland Security Breach.
I’d heard the news about the breach, but the first sign I had that we were involved was when I tried to use the card for an online purchase. No email, no phone call, nothing from Citi regarding the problem. When the transaction failed three or four times I knew it wasn’t the vendor website’s fault, so I checked my Citi account online. There I saw a bright red warning that my account had been shut down because of risk of compromise.
When I called (this was back on February 20th or so, I think) to complain about the lack of notice, the customer service representative explained that Citi had no time or resources to notify all the cardholders, especially given the scale of the possible breach, but had rather acted to place all the possibly compromised accounts on hold as soon as they could. I was told they had issued new cards with new account numbers, at no charge to any of us, and that the new card would be here shortly.
Well, we got the new card, and we activated it and set up online access.
Interesting thing we discover, which (aside from the general lack of coverage of the Heartland fiasco in the press and blogosphere) is why I’m bothering to write this: a strange charge we didn’t recognize, with code TOTAL SEC BALANCE TRANSFR-ITEMIZED. The amount charged ($99) was the same as the new charges that had accrued on the old account before the transfer, but “99” is one of those numbers that makes you wonder about intentional design. In any case, this clearly implied we had either been double-charged, or charged an extra and unauthorized $99 fee.
So I got back on the phone and called customer service just now, and spoke with Jim. He explained to me that TOTAL SEC BALANCE TRANSFR-ITEMIZED was a “system message”, which represented (as it seemed) the sum of items booked to the old closed account just before the new one was set up. He explained it was an “accounting quirk in their system”, and that it would disappear at the beginning of the next billing cycle. Merchants had authorized $99 worth of charges right before the account was closed and balances were transferred, and the mysterious line item indicated the transition from “authorization” to actual charge. Jim explained that generally this transition removes the authorization charge from the billing system, but because the account changed in the interim period, the charge accrued on the new account but the authorization couldn’t be removed from the old one (or something like that). He pointed out (very helpfully) that if my card had been misplaced or stolen, the same dynamics would have kicked in there, too, and the same sort of transactions would have happened.
This got me thinking. It may be ephemeral, a “quirk of the system”, but nonetheless on the books and until the authorization is cleared I owe an extra $99 to Citi. It’s mere coincidence of timing that our account came to $99. But it seems highly likely (given the several-days typical delay between authorization and charge in many merchants’ transactions) that any regular cardholder might have one or more transactions spanning a period like this.
So here we have hundreds of thousands, or millions of credit card accounts, all compromised and all synchronously being transferred to new accounts. What fraction of those had interrupted transactions spanning the synchronized transfer, resulting in these TOTAL SEC BALANCE TRANSFR-ITEMIZED “system messages”?
The numbers are hard for me to even estimate with the information I have on hand (though Jim did allow it was “really a lot” of cards). Seems big.
The thing I have to wonder about is: just at this crucial juncture in the financial crisis, when the company is under the closest scrutiny in decades and the stock is suffering from massive loss of investor faith, Citi has double-booked a sizable Accounts Receivable sum.
And probably not just Citi.…
3÷1÷09 — Same thing happened to me. Thought it was an on-line error because card still worked at gas station recently. No phone call or e-mail like I have always received in the past with any suspicious activity. When I called to check my balance by phone, no mention of a problem with the card. I finally talked to customer service who gave me the same story you mention above. I guess it all seems lligit, but am also surprised that I’m not hearing about this in the news…
Good call. I had the same line item as well. Fishy… sadly this whole Citi thing worries me.
Thanks so much for this explanation. I was about to call Citi too — figured they had made a mistake.
I had no idea why I had my account closed of why I had received a new card. When I called them, they asked if I had given any one access to my account. Seems to me they should have explained it was THEIR problem, and not mine, instead of making me think what may have happened. I also had a Discover and a Bank of America card replaced, again telling me my account may have been compromised, but I have my cards and nothing was lost or stolen. Who needs these headaches? Geez.
Thanks for posting this. I had the same issue. I had an Amazon payment in process when my Citi card was switched over, so I also had a line with “TOTAL SEC BALANCE TRANSFR”.
Thanks for sharing your information.
My wife just found out our online bill has the same “total sec balance transfer itemized” for $66.03 on 3⁄20 but we recently did not pay anything in that exactly amount with this card.
I wondered if CitiCard charged its clients for replacing new card. If it is true, it really unjustifiable…
Yea go the same TOTAL SEC BALANCE TRANSFR-ITEMIZED message on mine statement after switching over to the new card number (which by the way is stupid that we have to go thru this). The amount shows 167 being charged and is include my Current total activity amount. But it is not reflected in my Current Total Balance. I had called and the lady I spoke with told me this is solely for CITI’s record. This is a really stupid thing to do the all these card holders especially having to switch due to a SECURITY BREACH!! all i can say is wow citi thanks for wasting my time
Happened to me too! I just called and they gave me the same info. Very strange…
Just saw this on my Citi card. I have credit cards from the major players and Citi’s been the one I trust the least. I had a low interest rate card that has been raised quite a lot. Like many people I have no balance and have paid on time for years. I opted out of this and will wee if they go through with cancelling me in 2010. They spent a lot of marketing money trying to get me to sign up for this card.…guess I’m not as profitable to them as they thought. Like other this “accounting glich” is just another issue I don’t need to waste my time on. Plenty of other competitors.….don’t need Citi anymore.
Ha.. well, thank you for posting this. I just got my $570 Total Sec Balance Transfer item on my account.
Needless to say I was a little freaked out at first. Called them up, and they said the same thing you did. Would have been nice to get some explanation on this when they sent me the new card. Sigh… oh well.
I just got a surprise new card in the mail from Citi, and the same messages online. When I called the customer service operator told me this wasn’t a double charge, but actually a separate charge equal to the balance on my account before it was closed. I am concerned I am going to end up paying twice… Thanks for the info! I’m going to keep working on it.
CiTi gLiTcH.
No problem. The charge means nothing. Record keeping my ass though, like they don’t know how much your balance is… and why print it as a charge ? Balance transfer? Really. They have my number they should’ve text.
Got the same TOTAL SEC BALANCE TRANSFR-ITEMIZED message, but mine totaled $2269.04! It did not raise the total balance but sure had me ticked off. The Indian woman on the phone was 1. Completely unintelligible and 2. Just told me “not to worry about it”. Glad I found this website– puts my mind at ease. Unfortunately, I have a $1600.00 payment I want to send them and the website will not accept an online payment presumably until I active the new card, which I do not have yet.
I got this message in April 2010 for 153.54. Hopefully all the above information is true because I only call citi if I absolutley have to… gotta love outsourcing jobs, right. Give India a bunch of jobs while borrowing money from the Chinese to bail out citigroup.. Ah, don’t get me started. Thanks for the info, everyone.
I’ve just checked my Citi Card balance online and found this TOTAL SEC BALANCE TRANSFR-ITEMIZED message. (Today is Aug 2, 2010).
After reading other victims’ messages, now I feel better, but I am going to dispute this “new charge” online just to make Citi busy.