topic CITI Sears MC CLD in Credit Cards

CITI Sears MC CLD

fused — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:50:58 GMT

So, my wife and I check the mail and she received notification that CITI has cut her CL on her Sears MC from $8,750 to $5,000. Here is the reason they gave (verbatim):

"As always, we appreciate your business, and wanted to let you know about a change being made to your account. Your credit line is being lowered to reflect your spending. Based on your spending history, and since you are currently only using a small portion of the available credit, we have lowered your credit line to $5,000."

Nice excuse CITI, my wife has had a $0 balance on this card for a loooooong time. You can be sure she will never set foot in Sears again, let alone use this card anywhere else.

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:11:02 GMT

Unbelievable! It sounds to me like they're saying that they CLD'ed you because you weren't carrying a balance.

But on the other hand, lk11 on here is carrying a balance ( link ) and was CLD'ed for that.

Use your card, and we'll CLD you. Don't use your card, and we'll CLD you.

I don't know what to do with this card, either. The interest rate is insanely high, I can't (so far) reallocate any of the credit limit to another Citi card, I haven't received any decent BT offers in about 2 or 3 years, the Sears stores are a mess, and on top of that when I disputed through Sears and Equifax the way that the account was being reported Sears/Citi deleted the tradeline from all three credit bureaus.

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

Miner — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:12:13 GMT

Don't blame Sears for what CITI did. And we all know that excuse stinks, but at least they tried to come up with a more polite reason for the CLD then what most people have been receiving.

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:18:45 GMT

@Miner wrote:
Don't blame Sears for what CITI did.

I'm not saying to be argumentative. I'm wondering out loud. My understanding is that for a cobranded store credit card such as this one, although Citi is servicing the accounts for Sears, it's Sears that makes the rules for the underwriting policies for this Sears Mastercard.

e.g., over the years when I've repeatedly called the number on the back of my Sears MC and complained about the "non-negotiable interest rate", each agent has said the same thing: Citibank's hands are tied by the contract that they signed with Sears when Citi took over servicing the accounts.

Message Edited by MojaveMoon on 10-14-2008 05:18 PM

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:37:07 GMT

MojaveMoon wrote:
Unbelievable! It sounds to me like they're saying that they CLD'ed you because you weren't carrying a balance...

I don't read it that way. From the letter:

"As always, we appreciate your business, and wanted to let you know about a change being made to your account. Your credit line is being lowered to reflect your spending. Based on your spending history, and since you are currently only using a small portion of the available credit, we have lowered your credit line to $5,000."

Level of spending isn't the same thing as carrying a balance.

Sorry to hear about this, fused! I'm guessing that with my $5.50 recurring monthly charge as my only activity in months and months, my $1,212 CL is in deep jeopardy!

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

fused — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:58:50 GMT

Miner wrote:
Don't blame Sears for what CITI did. And we all know that excuse stinks, but at least they tried to come up with a more polite reason for the CLD then what most people have been receiving.

Agreed! I have been telling my wife that this will be happening to many of us, good credit or not. As for blaming Sears, I didn't mean for my post to come off that way. My issues with Sears are deep-seated and I have nothing good to say about them.

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:10:07 GMT

@fused wrote:
My issues with Sears are deep-seated and I have nothing good to say about them.

x 2 fused, sorry to hear about the cld. the only time i set foot in a sears now is to save steps by using thier empty parking space and direct acess to the mall.

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:32:13 GMT

WOW- so not even close to 800 scores are not safe either-

Does she have any other CITI accounts?

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

fused — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:45:50 GMT

Timothy wrote:
WOW- so not even close to 800 scores are not safe either-

Does she have any other CITI accounts?

Only a paid/closed CITI Financial installment loan in good standing from 2004. It seems that even if you have great scores like my wife has, you're still considered a risk. Unsecured credit can turn toxic in a heartbeat, so I understand why this is happening.

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

CreditAble — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:27:12 GMT

@fused wrote:

I have been telling my wife that this will be happening to many of us, good credit or not.
Hmm. I wonder if the credit card issuers are expecting massive defaults across the whole FICO score range spectrum. The ramifications of that scenario are scary.

Message Edited by CreditAble on 10-15-2008 12:27 AM

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:47:50 GMT

Could it be that there is actually some constraint on how much total credit they can offer to consumers, somehow tied to their finances? So that if their total available something-or-other is reduced, they have to correspondingly lower existing CL's.

To me, credit limits are sort of imaginary money anyway, but I'll bet there is some form of tie between company health and our CL's.

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

jmbfl — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:30:52 GMT

I live in South Florida. I am becoming happier with each passing day that I do not have a mortgage showing on my CBR's. It's not just an unfounded fear on their part - the housing/mortgage situation is in very bad shape!

Re: CIT Sears MAC CLD

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:13:59 GMT

Good morning all, I had the same "STINKING" thing happen to me today CLD from 7.2K to 4K because of low balance. However I did call up and talk to a csr and she stated she could re-instate my CL back to my original limit and she did. Albeit most likely is a temporary fix,so for my FICO"s are safe from the "chopping block". For what its worth any of you guys might want to give them a call we have nothing to lose. Credit 08

Re: CIT Sears MAC CLD

fused — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:43:36 GMT

credit08 wrote:
Good morning all, I had the same "STINKING" thing happen to me today CLD from 7.2K to 4K because of low balance. However I did call up and talk to a csr and she stated she could re-instate my CL back to my original limit and she did. Albeit most likely is a temporary fix,so for my FICO"s are safe from the "chopping block". For what its worth any of you guys might want to give them a call we have nothing to lose. Credit 08

Which CCC?

Re: CIT Sears MAC CLD

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:03:19 GMT

That would be Sears Gold Mastercard thru Citi Financial btw received a letter from them today about the subject.

Re: CIT Sears MAC CLD

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:07:12 GMT

credit08 wrote:
That would be Sears Gold Mastercard thru Citi Financial btw received a letter from them today about the subject.

Mmm, should be through Citi, not through Citifinancial...

Re: CIT Sears MAC CLD

athensguy — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:11:18 GMT

How long has it been since she used it? I thought it was pretty common to have to start worrying about the livelihood of your cards if they hadn't been used in 6 or more months.

Re: CIT Sears MAC CLD

fused — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:33:09 GMT

CITI has simply found a nicer way to hand out CLDs to their card holders.

Re: CIT Sears MAC CLD

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:20:45 GMT

Hey HTSU to be precise its CitiBank SD to me Citi is just Citi what can I say just another run of the mill CC.

Re: CITI Sears MC CLD

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:33:48 GMT

Hello, my first post...My son recieved the same letter yesterday with a cld from 7250 to 4100...He's had the card for 4 yrs never late and bal. of 2k...always pays at least 100 a month....has excellent credit no derog. He called the number on the letter, explained the issue he has due to util. to a rep. she put him on hold came back and said the cl was reset back to 7250.00...checked on the website and cl is back to original cl...a call won't hurt...good luck.