First Credit Card App - Citi - SSA-89 form?

[Anonymous]

I recently applied for my first credit card to Citi (Citi Forward Card for College Students). I am looking to establish credit as I have no credit history yet. I am 22 years old, a full-time student, and have never incurred any credit as I have paid in full with cash on my car and have my phone bill taken care of by my parents while I am schooling. I received a letter back from Citi after a few days with an SSA-89 form inside (Social Security Administration Authorization for the Social Security Administration to Release Social Security Number Verification form). It noted that they will do another hard pull whenever they receive it. I made about $18,000 last year and got a raise at the beginning of this year, where I will now make $30,000 for the year. I am applying for the card solely to build credit. I will only use it once a month and pay in full to keep it active, but with <5% credit utilization.

I am worried now if this letter means I am going to be denied as that was what I read here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110302100123AAKT6YK

I have tried to do free credit reports in the past but they never go through. After talking to Experian (or was it Equifax?) 6 months ago or so they said that I couldn't view it because I have no credit history. I am worried now that I may get denied, especially if there are 2 hard pulls on there which may make it much harder for me to get a different card from someone else, correct? My goal was to get approved for one card, so that my credit profile would get filled in. Then get added as an authorized user on my parents' cards as they have perfect credit history and pay everything off monthly. I have read that this still works, despite FICO 08, but perhaps I am wrong? From there I wanted to get a small short term loan just to pay it off and get a different type of positive credit on there. Then wait several months and app for a second card to also use once a month and pay in full.

My question is, should I send back my SSA-89 form and take another hard pull or is it likely that I am going to get denied and should try for an 'easier card' (suggestions?) or just get a secured card? I have the form all filled out with a copy of my SS card as well as an additional short letter which said that I received a pay raise and will be receiving $30,000 this year rather than $18,000 like I reported last year (as I put $30k as my income on my app) and was including a copy of my recent paystub to verify this.

I figured it would be smart for me to ask the financial minds here about what they think would be best for me to do as I trust your advice.

Sidenote: On the credit card app it said to put your personal income if you were under 21 and your household income if you were over 21. I am 22, but recently moved back in with my parents for a bit. They make $270,000 a year and I figured that 'household income' for persons over 21 was actually referring to your income with spouse's income (I am single). I went ahead and put $30k instead of the $300k actual 'household income' as I figured that is what they really needed and the lack of congruence between my $30k income should they asked for me to verify it and the $300k household income noted may raise a red flag. Hopefully this was correct? It is what my parents suggested.

[UFGuy2006]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I recently applied for my first credit card to Citi (Citi Forward Card for College Students). I am looking to establish credit as I have no credit history yet. I am 22 years old, a full-time student, and have never incurred any credit as I have paid in full with cash on my car and have my phone bill taken care of by my parents while I am schooling. I received a letter back from Citi after a few days with an SSA-89 form inside (Social Security Administration Authorization for the Social Security Administration to Release Social Security Number Verification form). It noted that they will do another hard pull whenever they receive it. I made about $18,000 last year and got a raise at the beginning of this year, where I will now make $30,000 for the year. I am applying for the card solely to build credit. I will only use it once a month and pay in full to keep it active, but with <5% credit utilization.

I am worried now if this letter means I am going to be denied as that was what I read here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110302100123AAKT6YK

I have tried to do free credit reports in the past but they never go through. After talking to Experian (or was it Equifax?) 6 months ago or so they said that I couldn't view it because I have no credit history. I am worried now that I may get denied, especially if there are 2 hard pulls on there which may make it much harder for me to get a different card from someone else, correct? My goal was to get approved for one card, so that my credit profile would get filled in. Then get added as an authorized user on my parents' cards as they have perfect credit history and pay everything off monthly. I have read that this still works, despite FICO 08, but perhaps I am wrong? From there I wanted to get a small short term loan just to pay it off and get a different type of positive credit on there. Then wait several months and app for a second card to also use once a month and pay in full.

My question is, should I send back my SSA-89 form and take another hard pull or is it likely that I am going to get denied and should try for an 'easier card' (suggestions?) or just get a secured card? I have the form all filled out with a copy of my SS card as well as an additional short letter which said that I received a pay raise and will be receiving $30,000 this year rather than $18,000 like I reported last year (as I put $30k as my income on my app) and was including a copy of my recent paystub to verify this.

I figured it would be smart for me to ask the financial minds here about what they think would be best for me to do as I trust your advice.

Sidenote: On the credit card app it said to put your personal income if you were under 21 and your household income if you were over 21. I am 22, but recently moved back in with my parents for a bit. They make $270,000 a year and I figured that 'household income' for persons over 21 was actually referring to your income with spouse's income (I am single). I went ahead and put $30k instead of the $300k actual 'household income' as I figured that is what they really needed and the lack of congruence between my $30k income should they asked for me to verify it and the $300k household income noted may raise a red flag. Hopefully this was correct? It is what my parents suggested.

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Unfortunately you are going to have an issue even if you apply with another creditor for a card and forgo this card. I suggest giving them the information they need; It looks like they were unable to pull your file because it doesnt exist yet. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks, does anyone know the likelihood of getting accepted by Citi with no credit history? The card is marketed for college students starting out, but who knows with how tight lending has gotten.

Edit: not sure why the forum made me pick a new name?

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Edit: not sure why the forum made me pick a new name?

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There's an occassional glitch that prompts you to create a new name. Try logging in with the old info. If prompted with the request for a new name, try refreshing or logging out and back in. If having further issues, post in the Technical board and an Admin will hook you up.

Welcome to the forums, BTW!

[aftermath]

You have no hard inquiries because you have no credit report.

Citi can try to pull your report 100000000 times and you will still have no hard inquiry on your reports.  You can not do an inquiry on something that doesn't exist, so don't worry about the number of hard inquiries you have, because you have none.

The reason why they sent you that form is because they need to know if you are a real person and that you social security number actually exists since you have no credit report.

I'm sure that is not a denial.  If they wanted to deny you they wouldn't bother going through the trouble of identity verification.

Just fill it out and send it in.

You will have the same results with any other credit card company as long as you have no credit report.

Hopefully Citi will approve you and a credit report will be established once they start reporting and then you can move forward in your journey to build credit with other creditors since you will now have a credit report.

[Anonymous]

I filled out the form and sent everything in (including a copy of my most recent paystub just in case). Got approved for a $2,000 CL 3 days later. Woohoo, my first card!

Now I just need to get everything setup correctly and figure out how to pay the card off pre-statement to keep the utilization down. I have put about $85 on it and would like to pay that off before spending any more (to keep my utilization <5% , unless that is TOO conservative of a utilization?). It says in the little help icon on the page:

 "Be sure to pay at least the minimum payment due by your due date but not more than your Current Balance."

I am trying to pay exactly my current balance but get the error:

"You have entered an amount greater than your statement balance. Please re-enter an amount less than or equal to your statement balance. "

My statement balance is obviously $0 as I just got the card. It says that the payment for this $0.00 minimum balance was June 7th.

Can I not pay before my statement comes out? I may be interpreting things incorrectly on paying off chunks to keep utilization low. I would ideally like to pay everything off every week or so. I was under the impression that you want to pay it all off (most of the time) before the statement is even cut. Is this wrong?

Here is a screenshot, with sensitive information blanked out, of the payment page.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I filled out the form and sent everything in (including a copy of my most recent paystub just in case). Got approved for a $2,000 CL 3 days later. Woohoo, my first card!

Now I just need to get everything setup correctly and figure out how to pay the card off pre-statement to keep the utilization down. I have put about $85 on it and would like to pay that off before spending any more (to keep my utilization <5% , unless that is TOO conservative of a utilization?). It says in the little help icon on the page:

 "Be sure to pay at least the minimum payment due by your due date but not more than your Current Balance."

I am trying to pay exactly my current balance but get the error:

"You have entered an amount greater than your statement balance. Please re-enter an amount less than or equal to your statement balance. "

My statement balance is obviously $0 as I just got the card. It says that the payment for this $0.00 minimum balance was June 7th.

Can I not pay before my statement comes out? I may be interpreting things incorrectly on paying off chunks to keep utilization low. I would ideally like to pay everything off every week or so. I was under the impression that you want to pay it all off (most of the time) before the statement is even cut. Is this wrong?

Here is a screenshot, with sensitive information blanked out, of the payment page.

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One way to avoid this is to use your own bank's Web BillPay.

[brian2220]

I think the reason behind this is it is a new accounts and a new checking acct to pull money out of. I had the same problem with them and Amex and was only allowed to do 1 payment for the first month but now I can do it whenever I please.

[smc733]

Give them the form, they probably want to make sure that a 22 year old with no credit profile isn't fraudulent, and is actually a legitimate applicant.

I think you made the right move listing only your personal income.  Even for people >21, Amex ASKS for HHI, but come F/R time, that HHI better all be yours...

[grigorexxxcore]

Congrats on your card! But I would be very careful, my cousin was approved for a Citi Card as well and they needed the same documents from him and 4 days later he was approved, then they suspended his account because the Social Administration did not reply to Citi as soon as they wished, but that's just a heads up, congrats though!