topic Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige in Credit Card Applications

Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 04:34:02 GMT

I'm wondering if the Premier is easier to qualify for or if they're scrutinized equally.

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Caught750 — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 18:54:02 GMT

Also curious about Citi UW

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 20:16:22 GMT

My only experience has been that they got spooked by inquiries and new accounts. However, I was succesfully in reconning with the EO on one of my approvals (Double Cash fo 7.9K). And 6 months later they approved Costco which they had also denied at the time(never reconned that, called my DC a win and tried again).

Hopefully one of our Citi experts will pipe in to answer if they have different underwriting for different cards. I'd be curious too. I've been considering Prestige as I am LOL/24 for Chase CSR.

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 21:34:47 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
I'm wondering if the Premier is easier to qualify for or if they're scrutinized equally.

@I just got approved on 3/21/18 for $7,600 @ 15.74% APR. I was pre-qualified through their site.

Citi pulled EX & EQ (IL resident)

I would also believe the UW for Prestige is harder because of the annual fee. Probably more income, longer history of on-time payments, and no baddies.

DPs:

TU: 688 (6 medical charge-offs...starting process to remove) 3 INQ (1 drops off in July), EQ: 758 1 INQ (drops off in July), EX: 749 4 INQ (2 drop-off in July)

UTIL: <1% ($2 out of $1,200)

AAoA: 3 years

AoOA: 5.6 years

Revolving history: <3months

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 22:30:17 GMT

For the 6 month window, my 6th inquiry drops off in May. My last one was for an approval for the Citi AA preferred a couple of weeks ago. So in May I'm looking to apply for either the Premier or Prestige - I ultimately want the Prestige, but I want a sign up bonus and I dunno what they'll look like in May but for now the Premier obviously has a better bonus, and I can just PC it to the Prestige in year 2.

Replies to this thread will help me decide, cuz I also suspect the Premier should be easier to qualify for, in which case I'd go for that, especially if the annual fee situation doesn't change by that time.

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 22:41:57 GMT

Premier is minimum $2k SL and Prestige is minimum $5k SL, which means the Prestige has more stringent UW criteria to meet a higher minimum SL.

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 00:28:55 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
For the 6 month window, my 6th inquiry drops off in May. My last one was for an approval for the Citi AA preferred a couple of weeks ago. So in May I'm looking to apply for either the Premier or Prestige - I ultimately want the Prestige, but I want a sign up bonus and I dunno what they'll look like in May but for now the Premier obviously has a better bonus, and I can just PC it to the Prestige in year 2.

Replies to this thread will help me decide, cuz I also suspect the Premier should be easier to qualify for, in which case I'd go for that, especially if the annual fee situation doesn't change by that time.

I wasn't sure if you were already established with credit or not. That is why I gave my DPs because there isn't too much info on the boards. LOL

The next question would be effective AF:

Premier has an introductory $0 fee for the first year, then $95.

Prestige has $450 for at least two years. If you can use the $350 in credits the first year, it is effectively $100 AF. This not including the 4th free night feature or Priority Pass (sorry hard to gauge because you have no cards in your signature). The second year may be harder to justify the AF. Depends on your spending and travel needs.

Also, you could get the Premier for 2 years (total cost: $95), product change to a Double Cash card (then outright apply for Prestige)....or call to see if the Prestige has a new bonus offer through CSR.

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 01:32:34 GMT

Thanks for the feedback. Actually the Prestige has a $250 credit but it's possible to get the annual fee for $350 so it's still an effective fee of $100 if you can lock own the $350 fee.

4th night free is the main reason I'm going for the Premier - also the unlimited roadside and 3 hr trip delay are nice unique perks.

Also that's an interesting proposal about keeping the Premier for 2 years then PCing, but iirc a PC from a TY card is considered the same as a closure as far as the bonus rules are concerned, so if you PC a Premier that you've had for 2 years you'd have to wait 2 more years from that point to be eligible from the bonus again. Although, maybe one could have the Premier for 2 years then get the Prestige before PCing the Premier, I'm not totally sure if that would work.

But, I don't have a need for the DC or any other Citi cards. I have the AA Platinum, and will be PCing it to the Dividend next year. I'm also getting the Sears MasterCard and enrolling it to earn TY points instead of Shop Your Way points so that I can get the 10% offers as TY points. By next year, I should already have 3 cards to use for general spend that are preferrable to the Double Cash. I also will have the Amex Platinum so the Priority Pass is a moot point. Overall as of now I've opened 6 personal cards and 1 business card since July 17, and before that have 6 cards with the most recent having been opened in 2015.

I'll likely nab the 50,000 point bonus on the Premier then PC to the Prestige in year 2 and work to nab the $350 fee.

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 02:43:48 GMT

Correct! My math was based on the $450 fee - ($250 travel credit & $100 Global Entry). Then you could assign additional bonuses of 4th night and Priority Pass. This is if you don't have the CitiGold account (or other methods) to receive the $350 annual fee.

I was also suggesting keeping the TY Premier for two years and seeing if you could PC to DC, then apply for Prestige (to be eligible for any bonus). You would have to apply before PC'ing, to my knowledge. This is also what I plan on doing in two years.

You may also want to do the product change and combine the two lines (for example - close the DC) to have a massive CL for the Prestige, if you're into that.

I'm pretty new to the rewards game, so I apologize if I am wasting your time. LOL. Just try to be an active member on the forums, plus it was hard to gauge your level of expertise without DPs in your signature.

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 06:28:13 GMT

I see. Well I do still get Global Entry from other cards regardless, and I'd value it at like $20 per year since global entry is good for 5 years.

That is an interesting idea about PCing to the double cash then combining credit lines with the Prestige before closing the DC, but honestly I'm not too concerned with credit limits. Since I pay my cards in full and don't keep insanely high balances anyway I personally don't have much benefit just from that.

You're not wasting my time lol, I do appreciate the feedback.

Well I'm pretty new to this forum, I don't know what exactly DP stands for and haven't bothered looking it up, but here're the cards I have in order from oldest:

Wells Fargo Rewards (opened right after high school)
Chase Freedom
US Bank Cash+
Barclay Commence MC (formerly Sallie Mae Rewards, but they gimped it by forcing the Commence to replace it)
Amex BCP (currently no AF, had downgraded to BCE and had an upgrade offer back tonBCP with waived AF for a year)
Chase Freedom (was a slate, PCed to a 2nd Freedom)
Freedom Unlimited
Nusenda CU Platinum Cash Rewards
Chase Ink Preferred (got for SUB, PCing to Ink Cash in year 2 for bonus categories)
Vantage West CU Connect Rewards
Chase Sapphire Preferred
Penfed Pathfinder Rewards
Citi AAdvantage Platinum (PCing to Dividend in year 2)

My app queue:

Citi Premier (PCing to Prestige, or however that plays out lol)
Sears MC
Spirit Airlines MC
Ameriprise Amex Platinum (ultimately gonna see about churning through the Amex Platinum cards for the SUBs and stopping on the Charles Schwab for the keeper)
Ameriprise Amex Gold (for the SUB - closing or PCing to Plat if there's a decent upgrade offer in year 2, otherwise closing both Ameriprise cards and moving on to vanilla Amex Plat)
Amex Hilton Honors (no AF version, basically for padding my MR points and allowing me to use the Platinum's Hilton status)
Discover It
PayPal Cash Back MC (linking to the PayPal Business Debit card, which I already have, for 3% back on all credit and 2% back on debit transactions)

Basically every card I have or am getting, besides the WF Barclay cards, are either high earning category specific cash back cards (5 or 6%), all category cards (Spirit air, PayPal cc linked to PayPal debit, and freedom unlimited [which may end up being useless to me with those other cards]), or awesome travel rewards cards. I end up with a strong Chase quadfecta ($95 AF), a strong earning Citi TY combo with the Prestige and Sears MC (assuming I receive the targeted 10% offers for the Sears MC which would be 10x TY points per $ for groceries/gas/restaurants) ($100 effective fee as I should be able to lock in the $350 fee for the Prestige), and a solid Amex setup, although most of my MR point earning prospect will be from churning the Platinums and respective Gold cards for the SUBs ($150 effective fee for the Platinum and I'll close the Golds after their first year). Besides that the only fee is the Spirit Air card for $59 starting in year 2, and the Pathfinder gives $100 incidental credit with no fee. So if you fully value all of the credits, my effective annual fees for all of these cards would be $304.

Besides CCs I also have:
Consumers CU Rewards checking (Kasasa interest account, 3.09% on up to $10k)
Farmers Bank & Trust Kasasa Cash Back (5% back on up to $200 in purchases per month)
Insight Prepaid (x3 - 5% savings on up to $5k per card for a total of $15k)
NetSpend prepaid (5% on $1k - I may go for the other 4 variants of this card for $4k more, but I only recently got the 2nd and 3rd Insight cards, I didn't think I'd get them originally so I may pass on the additional NetSpend cards)
Target Red debit card
PayPal business debit card
Chase Disney debit (intermediary account that I already had for years anyway, might as well set it up for Disney perks)

This is all on top of my mutual fund, Roth IRA, and TSP.

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 12:29:08 GMT

DP = Data Points (usually referring to your FICO score), as well as, other cards. Not all, but majority of people put this in their signature to help when asking questions. Just simply a reference point to see approval odds and current profile.

Nevertheless, you have a strong profile and much more experienced than I am. So, nvm LOL

I'm just a 20-something year old starting out.

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 06:24:27 GMT

Lol it's cool man I quite recently turned 30 myself, and I do appreciate your feedback. I'm actually not really sure what my fico score is now, the last card approval I got which was from Citi said it was like 680, but just in February I think it was 730, and I checked I believe on myfico yesterday it said 695. Maybe I've opened too many accounts recently or something, idk, I have 1 negative a 60 day late from 2016. I'm not sure if that could influence the rate that my score drops from opening new accounts or if these scores are even from different bureaus (haven't bothered to compare all 3 directly or read the fine print) - I should probably do that before I apply again in May...

Re: Approval odds: Citi Premier vs Prestige

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 11:17:55 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
Lol it's cool man I quite recently turned 30 myself, and I do appreciate your feedback. I'm actually not really sure what my fico score is now, the last card approval I got which was from Citi said it was like 680, but just in February I think it was 730, and I checked I believe on myfico yesterday it said 695. Maybe I've opened too many accounts recently or something, idk, I have 1 negative a 60 day late from 2016. I'm not sure if that could influence the rate that my score drops from opening new accounts or if these scores are even from different bureaus (haven't bothered to compare all 3 directly or read the fine print) - I should probably do that before I apply again in May...

By the time I reach 30, I hope to have a profile like yours lol. Especially, the investments!

Late, probably not. Maybe if your AAoA has dropped significantly? Or if your utilization (> 30%) is high one month, then it should correct itself. I would check https://www.creditchecktotal.com/ in May, which will give you all three bureus for $1. Before the end of your trial, I would email or call to cancel before being charged. I would also check CreditKarma to make sure nothing "false" is bringing down your scores.