Send Money

To keep your finances secure online, Citi operates a 2-step activation process for adding a new payee with any UK bank account or International Citi account. You will be unable to make payments to new payees until they have been activated.

Step 1. Enter your payee's details and confirm.
Step 2. Activate your new payee via an SMS Activation Code we send to your mobile telephone.

As a bank it is our priority to protect you and your account against fraud, and Payee Verification is an extra security measure we’re introducing to make it even safer for you to bank online. We use it to confirm it’s you who have requested to add a new payee so that funds will be transferred to the external account you intended.

If you have malicious software on your computer, there’s a risk someone else may be able to access your online account details and send money from your accounts to their own. By verifying your new payees, we can help stop unauthorised transactions on your account, giving you the peace of mind that your account is safe.

We use SMS messages to verify payments as we believe it’s more secure. If a fraudster has managed to find out what your Citi Online sign-on details are, there’s a chance they have also gained access to your email passwords. It’s less likely however that they will have access to your mobile phone and be able to access your SMS messages.

Only the process of adding a new payee via Citi Online is affected.

If this is the case, you will not be able to add new payees via Citi Online. To update your mobile phone information or add new payees please call CitiPhone with your t-PIN (0800 00 55 00, if calling from abroad dial +44 20 7500 5500; if you are a Citigold customer call the Citigold Servicing Team on 0800 00 56 00, if calling from abroad dial +44 20 7500 5600).

Please note: any updates to your mobile phone information will take up to 2 working days to process.

An error message only appears when the incorrect code has been entered. The codes are unique, so please make sure you are entering the correct code for the payee you are trying to add. You have three attempts to enter the code correctly, and if all three fail you will need to request a new code or call CitiPhone with your t-PIN (0800 00 55 00, if calling from abroad dial +44 20 7500 5500; if you are a Citigold customer call the Citigold Servicing Team on 0800 00 56 00, if calling from abroad dial +44 20 7500 5600).

Most SMS Activation Codes arrive within 1 minute. If you are experiencing issues or need to add a payee urgently, please call CitiPhone with your t-PIN (0800 00 55 00, if calling from abroad dial +44 20 7500 5500; if you are a Citigold customer call the Citigold Servicing Team on 0800 00 56 00, if calling from abroad dial +44 20 7500 5600).

Please call CitiPhone immediately with your t-PIN (0800 00 55 00, if calling from abroad dial+44 20 7500 5500; if you are a Citigold customer call the Citigold Servicing Team on 0800 00 56 00, if calling from abroad dial +44 20 7500 5600), as an unexpected message of this type could indicate your Citi Online sign-on details have been compromised and someone else may be attempting to fraudulently send money from your account.

No, it’s a one-off unique code used only to activate a new payee and will then expire. If you add another payee you will receive another unique SMS Activation Code.

The SMS Activation Code will expire when you log out of Citi Online yourself, navigate away from activate payee screen or automatically after the 6 minutes of inactivity (you will be prompted after 5 minutes of inactivity). When this happens, you will need to request a new code.

If you are abroad or have an international mobile phone, you will still receive the SMS Activation Code so the process will not change.

Use the Citi Mobile® Token in the Citi Mobile® UK App to authenticate many of your online transactions. Using the Citi Mobile® Token is the easiest and quickest way to securely authenticate your online purchases, with minimal disruption to your online purchasing experience.