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Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*

tag
Platinum
Frequent Contributor

Re: Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*


@CC365 wrote:

@Platinum wrote:

My FICO is around 800.

Applied for Citi Card an hour ago, received message: "we received your application".

Called backdoor number and was told: Denied.

Reason: all your revolving accounts show $0, that tells us you are not actively using your credit cards. BS

 

I could not believe what he was telling me. I am using all 8 CC's actively but this month I paid them off before the statement closing day so that when it reports to credit bureaus it does not show any balance. It was my intention that when I apply for Citi card all my revolvers show $0 balance. Guess what: it worked against me, Citi did not like it. Unbelievable...

 

Anyone else received this bogus reason for denial ??? I don't think I will ever again apply for Citi card...

 


If the card is important/worth it to you I would call the executive office (I'll pm you the info if you want) Tell them the reason for the denial and if needed offer to fax them a statement from one of the cards and that you were using them but wanted to show them as Paid in Full. Good Luck!


It's Citi AT&T Universal which gives you 10% off (rebate) on your AT&T purchases for the first 12 months, 5% thereafter. Since my AT&T iPhone bill goes to up to $200 monthly I was gonna save like $20 per month and that was the main reason why I applied. In general I do not need more credit. I have more then $200.000 in available credit on my other cards.

Message 11 of 43
ccnewcc
Established Contributor

Re: Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*


@Platinum wrote:

 

Reason: all your revolving accounts show $0, that tells us you are not actively using your credit cards. BS

 

 

 


What does that even mean?   If you have 8 cards now and you want a 9th and they can't determine if you are using your cards or not, why would they care?  I suppose they are trying to find out if you are going to be a profitable customer of theirs?  But couldn't they also see it as:  Well Platinum's CR doesn't show that he is actively using his cards, maybe he doesn't like them, maybe if i approval him for an att CC, he might use it?

 

I mean, you see what i am saying?  I can see their point of view, but i can also infer that you might be looking for a cc that you will use.  

 

So yeah, strange reason to deny.

Message 12 of 43
navigatethis12
Valued Contributor

Re: Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*

Citi is the only lender that I know will do this. To them, if you are not using what you already have, why do you need more? You can try letting a card report and then faxing them the updated report. You may get another hard pull, or you may not.

Message 13 of 43
Platinum
Frequent Contributor

Re: Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*


@ccnewcc wrote:

@Platinum wrote:

 

Reason: all your revolving accounts show $0, that tells us you are not actively using your credit cards. BS

 

 

 


What does that even mean?   If you have 8 cards now and you want a 9th and they can't determine if you are using your cards or not, why would they care?  I suppose they are trying to find out if you are going to be a profitable customer of theirs?  But couldn't they also see it as:  Well Platinum's CR doesn't show that he is actively using his cards, maybe he doesn't like them, maybe if i approval him for an att CC, he might use it?

 

I mean, you see what i am saying?  I can see their point of view, but i can also infer that you might be looking for a cc that you will use.  

 

So yeah, strange reason to deny.


I partially agree with your point of view but let me explain my point:

If you manually review my Experian report as of today I can guarantee you that you won't be under impression that I do not use revolver accounts and therefore I was unprofitable customer. It's just opposite. I do use them a lot and in responsible way. Until few hours ago one of my revolvers was showing $8000 balance which I paid off but I did not want to apply for new card with $8000 balance reporting, I was waiting until it reports $0 and see what happens. Citi actually did not like that I just paid off all of my revolvers.

Message 14 of 43
greenpang
Contributor

Re: Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*


@Platinum wrote:

@ccnewcc wrote:

@Platinum wrote:

 

Reason: all your revolving accounts show $0, that tells us you are not actively using your credit cards. BS

 

 

 


What does that even mean?   If you have 8 cards now and you want a 9th and they can't determine if you are using your cards or not, why would they care?  I suppose they are trying to find out if you are going to be a profitable customer of theirs?  But couldn't they also see it as:  Well Platinum's CR doesn't show that he is actively using his cards, maybe he doesn't like them, maybe if i approval him for an att CC, he might use it?

 

I mean, you see what i am saying?  I can see their point of view, but i can also infer that you might be looking for a cc that you will use.  

 

So yeah, strange reason to deny.


I partially agree with your point of view but let me explain my point:

If you manually review my Experian report as of today I can guarantee you that you won't be under impression that I do not use revolver accounts and therefore I was unprofitable customer. It's just opposite. I do use them a lot and in responsible way. Until few hours ago one of my revolvers was showing $8000 balance which I paid off but I did not want to apply for new card with $8000 balance reporting, I was waiting until it reports $0 and see what happens. Citi actually did not like that I just paid off all of my revolvers.


I think ccnewcc was just trying to say that, even IF you weren't using them (not that you weren't), this still seems like an illogical reason to deny someone -- because maybe that person just doesn't like the cards she has.

Credit Scores: FICOs: TU 721 | Plus FAKOs: EX 726, EQ 739, TU 735 | CK FAKOs: Transrisk 689, Vantage 790
My Wallet: Amex Green (NPSL) | Amex SPG (21.6K) | Citi ThankYou Preferred (10.5K) | Amex BCE (8K) | US Air Premier MC (9.5K) | Chase Sapphire Preferred (8.5K) | Chase Freedom (5K) | Barclays Arrival (5K) | Pier 1 (2.5K) | Express (0.8K) | Kohl's (0.5K)
DH's Wallet (AU): Amex PRG (NPSL) | Chase Sapphire Preferred (26.2K) | Amex Delta (22.5K) | Barclays Arrival (12.8K) | CareCredit (8K) | Amex BCE (7.5K) | Chase Freedom (7K) | Sears Citi (6K) | Victoria's Secret (1K)
Message 15 of 43
mikka1
Frequent Contributor

Re: Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*

LOL, I'm waiting now for my Chase Amazon to report 0 bal to apply for Citi and today I was even upset of Discover unexpectedly reporting some balance (mid-cycle) on one of my cards. Who knows, maybe Discover has just saved me from similar frustration with Citi.. j/k

But agree that's kind of a weird reason for denial anyway...

In my wallet now: Amex PRG NPSL, Amex BCE $15k $17k (thanks to recent CLI), Chase Freedom 11k, CSP $6k, Chase United ME $5k, Citi Dividend $5.6k, Discover It $4.5k and a handful of other cards...
TU Dec 2013 - 752Sep 2013 - 764 - new all time maximum

Obsolete data aboveCurrent TU - probably around ~810, only using a few Chase & BofA cards now, not applying for much until we buy a house
Message 16 of 43
Platinum
Frequent Contributor

Re: Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*


@navigatethis12 wrote:

Citi is the only lender that I know will do this. To them, if you are not using what you already have, why do you need more? You can try letting a card report and then faxing them the updated report. You may get another hard pull, or you may not.


I too believe that Citi is the only lender that will do this. As I already mentioned I do not need more credit. I have enough, more then $200.000 in revolver accounts available. The main reason was to save aprox. $20 per month on my AT&T bill when I pay with this card. If I knew for sure that they will not pull again another report I would be sending them reconsideration letter, otherwise it's not worth it. 

 

I also wanted everyone on this board to be aware of this ridiculous Citi application computer system setting before they apply for Citi card to have at least one revolver account report more then $0 balance.

Message 17 of 43
CreditWorld2013
Frequent Contributor

Re: Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*


@Platinum wrote:

@ccnewcc wrote:

@Platinum wrote:

 

Reason: all your revolving accounts show $0, that tells us you are not actively using your credit cards. BS

 

 

 


What does that even mean?   If you have 8 cards now and you want a 9th and they can't determine if you are using your cards or not, why would they care?  I suppose they are trying to find out if you are going to be a profitable customer of theirs?  But couldn't they also see it as:  Well Platinum's CR doesn't show that he is actively using his cards, maybe he doesn't like them, maybe if i approval him for an att CC, he might use it?

 

I mean, you see what i am saying?  I can see their point of view, but i can also infer that you might be looking for a cc that you will use.  

 

So yeah, strange reason to deny.


I partially agree with your point of view but let me explain my point:

If you manually review my Experian report as of today I can guarantee you that you won't be under impression that I do not use revolver accounts and therefore I was unprofitable customer. It's just opposite. I do use them a lot and in responsible way. Until few hours ago one of my revolvers was showing $8000 balance which I paid off but I did not want to apply for new card with $8000 balance reporting, I was waiting until it reports $0 and see what happens. Citi actually did not like that I just paid off all of my revolvers.


Credit is a very comical game. For example, In order to build credit one must have credit. To have credit you must build credit. To have "good" credit one must have debt...but only "good debt". In any event, I sent you the info via PM as I think the savings is probably worth it. Good Luck and keep us posted if you decide to recon it. (They might be open on Monday but most likely Wednesday due to New Years)

Message 18 of 43
ccnewcc
Established Contributor

Re: Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*


@greenpang wrote:



I think ccnewcc was just trying to say that, even IF you weren't using them (not that you weren't), this still seems like an illogical reason to deny someone -- because maybe that person just doesn't like the cards she has.


Yep exactly.  Didn't come out they way i wanted.  I was guilty of DWT.  Distracted While Typing.  lol

Message 19 of 43
bs6054
Valued Contributor

Re: Citi Denial Reason, Hard to Believe ?!@#$%^&*

We need to remember that the general credit population aren't FICO aware/utilization-obsessed/whatever term you wish.   Citi is a business, and my guess is that most people showing 0 balances on everything are not heavy card users and will not be profitable.

 

While the cost of an extra customer is probably quite small (especially if you enforce electronic statements and payments) it's not zero, so it may simply not be worth Citi doing even a slightly deeper analysis. (I think number of accounts with non-zero balances is a standard figure they get, so no work there).   For every good customer they fail to acquire like OP, there are possibly at least as many they would not want after a more extensive look.

 

It sounds like this card would be useful to you, and you have a good case (they didn't reject you because of 3 BKs and 4 bank fraud convictions for example!) so with some effort you should be able to get the decision changed.  Have to decide if your annoyance at them outweighs the benefit of the card.  (BTW, what about Cash Plus, that will give 6.25% on those bills)

Message 20 of 43
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