Citi’s glitchy balance transfer tool emails customers about phantom balance transfer offers

I won’t be duped again by Citi’s email enticing me to finish my balance transfer (BT).

Before Citi introduced its new feature that lets customers preview their available Flex Loan and balance transfer offers, I would use Citi’s balance transfer link to see if I had a BT offer. Within a few days of doing so, Citi would send me an email asking me to finish my balance transfer.

“Your Balance Transfer Offer is Waiting,” the first email subject read. In the email, Citi asked, “Did you forget your balance transfer offer?”

No, I didn’t  forget. You never presented me with a balance transfer offer, Citi.

The first time that this happened over a year ago, I was excited that Citi noticed my interest (no pun intended) and decided to provide me with a BT offer. I followed the link and right now, I can’t recall if the link had expired if I was just unable to view the offer when I logged in. But, I do remember navigating to the balance transfer section to locate an offer, and even looking in the main offers section. I eventually reached out to Citi to confirm that there was no balance transfer offer for me.

This happened multiple times over the course of a year. One of the emails read, “Complete your Balance Transfer now. Saving on interest is just a few clicks away.” I’d love to, Citi, but no such offer exists for me. Please stop teasing me.

You’re probably wondering why I would assume that Citi decided to offer me a balance transfer offer just because I visited their balance transfer page. It’s possible. In fact, I’ve been successful in invoking offers from Citi and other companies by taking certain actions. I’ll write about that later. But, I mentioned that because while Citi’s requests for me to complete non-existent balance transfers were obviously glitches, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t follow-up on similar emails that you get from Citi. I won’t either. At worst, I’ll be letdown if the offer doesn’t truly exist. But, at this point, it’ll be expected and not much of a letdown. At best, I’ll walk away saving money on interest.