I’ve seen a number of posts about this topic, but they’re all older than 6 months old and locked, so I’ll create a new one.
Using my Citi credit card, when I go to a Shell gas station, or to CVS, or Walmart, or even PayPal, I’ve been getting prompts to use my Citi ThankYou points toward the purchase. The problem is that the redemption percentage is horrible.
There were a number of people who posted a couple years ago about how they contacted Citi, and were told there was no way to disable this directly through Citi. At that time, you had to contact each retailer directly. Seeing the number of retail partners they have (and the list is growing), contacting each retailer separately would be a huge time waste.
The good news is that Citi now has a way to opt out of this “feature/scam” directly through them. Call the ThankYou customer service number at 800-842-6596 and they will opt you out of most retailers. The woman I talked to said the only one I couldn’t opt out of was Amazon.
You can do this online. Log in to your Citi account on the web. In the ThankYou points module, click ‘View/Redeem’, then ‘More Redemption Options’. Click your initials at the top-right, then ‘Shop with Points Accounts’. Uncheck all the various merchants and then click ‘Save Changes’. I haven’t tested it because I don’t use my Citi card much, but I assume this works.
EDIT: Check back occasionally because new merchants added are enabled automatically! I had a new one after just disabling everything a couple of weeks ago. A global disable would sure be nice.
@Fisher
Thank you so much for this! I was getting ready to stop using my Custom Cash for gas because I’m sick of these stupid prompts and worrying I’ll accidentally hit yes.
@Fisher
Oh wow, good to know! My first instinct was trying to do it on their website, but it wouldn’t let me past the security verification to get into the Thankyou.com site for some reason. That’s when I gave up and called them. But yes, being able to do it yourself on the website is so much less of a hassle!
Cliff said:
Thanks, good to know. I would just roll my eyes at the prompt. Eventually, they stop.
That’s what I planned to do. Except when I was buying gas at Shell last month, it somehow took away ThankYou points without me answering “yes” on the display. I’m not sure if it is a software bug or if you only have a few seconds to choose “yes” or “no”, but it definitely deducted the points from my account and gave me a tiny discount on the per-gallon price of gas.
Others have reported the same thing at several different retailers… not tapping “yes” but still having the points deducted.
Tavis said:
Wonder how many unsuspecting people have fallen for this.
Too many. My authorized user redeemed an Amazon purchase for points because “it was free”, didn’t realize it was a horrible redemption. But Amazon is the one store where you should keep the pay with points option open so that you can take advantage of their promos.
Keep it for Amazon, and disable it for all other retailers. Amex too. There are frequent pay with points offers at Amazon that allow you to get a big discount by redeeming just one point. Tell your authorized user to NEVER pay with points except to trigger the promo. Earlier this month I bought a gift card for a retailer I regularly use for 30% off, so $100 value for $70 and one point.