Getting Citi card - Dividend Platinum Select?

[mikka1]

Well, just realized that despite having almost 5-years banking history with Citi (I still have a checking account with them and actually it's my main one that I use to pay most of my bills if I can't do it using my CC for free) I don't have a Citi card in my wallet.

Citi keeps sending me pre-screened offers of their Simplicity (AFAIK with no rewards at all) and ThankYou Premier with $125AF which I don't want to pay, but around a year ago I have been denied for Citi cards twice (!) - first time for their Citi Expedia card and the second time (after a couple of months) for some store card backed by Citi (I think it was Childrens Place, but I'm not 100% sure).

I'm looking now at Dividend Platinum Select card that apparently is similar to Freedom and Discover More with its rotating 5% categories, though I've never seen a full calendar for 2013 and those categories I see for Q1 (zappos, fitness & drugstores) seem not to be extremely appealing. 

Any other Citi card I should look at? I was also thinking about Forward with its 5 points per $1 for Dining, but I read several times that those points on Forward are not worth $0.01 and quite hard to redeem, but have no idea to what extend it's true. 

Any thoughts / advice? Should I apply for Dividend Platinum Select or Forward or anything else? Or should I just NOT apply for anything with Citi? (if so, why?)

Do you think I can get Dividend Platinum Select with my scores?

I simply don't want to waste a HP now - I haven't applied for anything since August and it would not be wise to miss this shot now. I actually want a card with quite a decent limit, ideally with $5k+, but will be rather happy to get $4k (though everything less than $3k will definitely be considered as a kind of failure).

And the last question - at some point I ran into Citi printed ads (in one of the branches) saying that they welcome international Citi customers and help them "to settle in the US etc... blah-blah-blah". I am now 3-4 years customer of Citi in one of European countries with a combined CC limit on 2 cards with them of more than $10k (in local currency). Did anyone have a chance to leverage this with Citi in the US? I am almost sure that it would play no role in actual approval process, but I would say it should in determining CL size, but I simply have no idea of how to play this card. Anyone had similar experience?

Thanks! 

[slippy84]

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@mikka1 wrote:

Well, just realized that despite having almost 5-years banking history with Citi (I still have a checking account with them and actually it's my main one that I use to pay most of my bills if I can't do it using my CC for free) I don't have a Citi card in my wallet.

Citi keeps sending me pre-screened offers of their Simplicity (AFAIK with no rewards at all) and ThankYou Premier with $125AF which I don't want to pay, but around a year ago I have been denied for Citi cards twice (!) - first time for their Citi Expedia card and the second time (after a couple of months) for some store card backed by Citi (I think it was Childrens Place, but I'm not 100% sure).

I'm looking now at Dividend Platinum Select card that apparently is similar to Freedom and Discover More with its rotating 5% categories, though I've never seen a full calendar for 2013 and those categories I see for Q1 (zappos, fitness & drugstores) seem not to be extremely appealing. 

Any other Citi card I should look at? I was also thinking about Forward with its 5 points per $1 for Dining, but I read several times that those points on Forward are not worth $0.01 and quite hard to redeem, but have no idea to what extend it's true. 

Any thoughts / advice? Should I apply for Dividend Platinum Select or Forward or anything else? Or should I just NOT apply for anything with Citi? (if so, why?)

Do you think I can get Dividend Platinum Select with my scores?

I simply don't want to waste a HP now - I haven't applied for anything since August and it would not be wise to miss this shot now. I actually want a card with quite a decent limit, ideally with $5k+, but will be rather happy to get $4k (though everything less than $3k will definitely be considered as a kind of failure).

And the last question - at some point I ran into Citi printed ads (in one of the branches) saying that they welcome international Citi customers and help them "to settle in the US etc... blah-blah-blah". I am now 3-4 years customer of Citi in one of European countries with a combined CC limit on 2 cards with them of more than $10k (in local currency). Did anyone have a chance to leverage this with Citi in the US? I am almost sure that it would play no role in actual approval process, but I would say it should in determining CL size, but I simply have no idea of how to play this card. Anyone had similar experience?

Thanks! 

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I've been a little disappointed in the Dividend Platinum Select rewards program. You have redeem in multiples of $50, they'll only send you a check (won't apply to balance or anything), and like you said, the extra cashback % options are rarely useful. I don't know if there's a better Citi card though

[nishant1]

My observation is that Chase cards are superior to Citi cards. There are too many strings to Citi cards.

Citi 5% categories are not customer popular so there is no incentive to use that card.

I moved my Citi dividend card from wallet to the hibernation file in the cupboard quite some time ago.

Citi Forward is one the better cards from usefulness point of view.

[SnackTrader]

Do you have a mortgage or student loans?

Are you okay with rewards on dining, bookstores, movies totaling approximately only 3.5% or do you need 5% back to make it worth it?

If you answered yes to the above, the Citi Forward will work for you. 

Sure, you may not get cash from your purchases applied to your balance every month, and you may be using your cash back for things you aren't completely used to, but just the same you will get a prime credit card that offers significant cash back rewards. That's why I got the Forward.  But I will concede that the card may not be for everyone. 

[kevinjjc]

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@nishant1 wrote:

My observation is that Chase cards are superior to Citi cards. There are too many strings to Citi cards.

Citi 5% categories are not customer popular so there is no incentive to use that card.

I moved my Citi dividend card from wallet to the hibernation file in the cupboard quite some time ago.

Citi Forward is one the better cards from usefulness point of view.

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+1  My thoughts exactly.

[mikka1]

No, no mortgage, no student loan. 

3.5% is better than 2% on Dining that I can get with Chase Amazon Visa, but worse than 5% that I can get with my Discover in Q1 2013 :-)

So, you think that Divident Platinum Select is useless and I should aim for Forward? 

Any other cards I should look at?

Thanks

[kevinjjc]

US Bank Cash+

[mikka1]

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@kevinjjc wrote:

US Bank Cash+

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I thought it's no more open for new applications only, only in person, right? 

I tried entering my zip code (NJ) on US Bank website and got a message that there were no branches in 100 miles radius from my home...

But fully agree, it's more interesting than any of Citi offers...

[kevinjjc]

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@mikka1 wrote:

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@kevinjjc wrote:

US Bank Cash+

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I thought it's no more open for new applications only, only in person, right? 

I tried entering my zip code (NJ) on US Bank website and got a message that there were no branches in 100 miles radius from my home...

But fully agree, it's more interesting than any of Citi offers...

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Yes, unfortunately right now you can only apply for the Cash+ in the branch. I was lucky... I'm in NY, but I applied online after they removed the "apply online" button, but I had saved the link... got approved for 15k

[mikka1]

I don't actually understand the whole point of this - they always had relatively strict acceptance criteria, so why did they limit the offering even more? Would have been much easier just to phase the card out if its economics is not that attractive for them...