topic Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option? in Credit Cards

Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

smile90000 — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 17:11:05 GMT

I had a huge emergency come up and now need to carry a balance for at least til the end of the year. I have cash but don't want to use it...as it would put my emergency fund too low for my comfort. I've down my research but always like to check this wonderful forum.

1. Citibank Diamond seems to be a good option with 21 months 0%, can someone tell me about their experience with this card?

2. Can you have two Citi cards at the same time? I already have the double cash.

My profile:

Equifax 832, Experian 813, Transunion 713 (they don't list all my accounts so my credit profile looks thin)

Citi DC is about 15 month's old (0 balance)

Only one other credit card which is over 20 years old (utilization is 65%...usually paid off, but then said emergency happened).

Thanks!

Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

Closingracer99 — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 17:17:23 GMT

@smile90000 wrote:
I had a huge emergency come up and now need to carry a balance for at least til the end of the year. I have cash but don't want to use it...as it would put my emergency fund too low for my comfort. I've down my research but always like to check this wonderful forum.

1. Citibank Diamond seems to be a good option with 21 months 0%, can someone tell me about their experience with this card?
2. Can you have two Citi cards at the same time? I already have the double cash.

My profile:
Equifax 832, Experian 813, Transunion 713 (they don't list all my accounts so my credit profile looks thin)
Citi DC is about 15 month's old (0 balance)
Only one other credit card which is over 20 years old (utilization is 65%...usually paid off, but then said emergency happened).

Thanks!

1: it's decent and a good offer for 21 months of 0% APR

2: I have 4 Citi cards and one store card backed by them in my pocket right now: Citi DC, Citi Thank your preferred, Citi Hilton card, Citi AA plat and the Bestbuy Store card

I would look at the simplicity card. Same offer but they don't charge late fees ever and doesnt raise the penalty APR should you miss a payment.

Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

jacetx — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 17:18:09 GMT

@smile90000 wrote:
I had a huge emergency come up and now need to carry a balance for at least til the end of the year. I have cash but don't want to use it...as it would put my emergency fund too low for my comfort. I've down my research but always like to check this wonderful forum.

1. Citibank Diamond seems to be a good option with 21 months 0%, can someone tell me about their experience with this card? It's a good card if you want to transfer a balance to it since it has a long intro 0% APR
2. Can you have two Citi cards at the same time? I already have the double cash. Yes, you can have 2 Citi cards and later you could move the limit from the Diamond into the Double Cash.

My profile:
Equifax 832, Experian 813, Transunion 713 (they don't list all my accounts so my credit profile looks thin)
Citi DC is about 15 month's old (0 balance)
Only one other credit card which is over 20 years old (utilization is 65%...usually paid off, but then said emergency happened). I'm not sure how much you need on the new card but the 65% utilization might cause your initial limit to be low if approved, might not, but is highly likely.

Thanks!

Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

smile90000 — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 17:41:41 GMT

Wow! You guys are awesome.

Here are my options:

1. I can charge said emergency on my credit union card...which will give me utilization of 60% (I thought it was 65%), and keep the Citi DC at 0%

2. I could split the charge which would give me 30% utilization on Citi and 39% utilization on the credit union card.

Would these options be viewed differently by Citi?

Thanks!

Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 17:47:27 GMT

If you have time, go thru the Citi approvals here. I have yet to see a $5k+ approval for a Citi card recently. Mind you, I haven't searched either. My initial thought is Citi doesn't start with high or even moderate SL's.

Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

DoroLucky — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 18:12:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
If you have time, go thru the Citi approvals here. I have yet to see a $5k+ approval for a Citi card recently. Mind you, I haven't searched either. My initial thought is Citi doesn't start with high or even moderate SL's.

Was recently approved for the Citi Thank You Preffered with a SL of $4600. Thats pretty close to $5K. Haven't gotten the card yet but will try for a CLI upon activation.

Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

jacetx — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 19:44:50 GMT

@smile90000 wrote:
Wow! You guys are awesome.

Here are my options:
1. I can charge said emergency on my credit union card...which will give me utilization of 60% (I thought it was 65%), and keep the Citi DC at 0%

2. I could split the charge which would give me 30% utilization on Citi and 39% utilization on the credit union card.

Would these options be viewed differently by Citi?

Thanks!

I'm a little confused is your utilization 60% now or will be? If that's your utilization now, even if you split it, +30% is not good and you would have to wait until it reports to the bureaus. For best starting limits one card should be under 10% and the others at 0%. If its not, you need to apply for the new card while the utilization is low.

Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 21:25:30 GMT

@jace8602 wrote:
@smile90000 wrote:
Wow! You guys are awesome.

Here are my options:
1. I can charge said emergency on my credit union card...which will give me utilization of 60% (I thought it was 65%), and keep the Citi DC at 0%

2. I could split the charge which would give me 30% utilization on Citi and 39% utilization on the credit union card.

Would these options be viewed differently by Citi?

Thanks!

I'm a little confused is your utilization 60% now or will be? If that's your utilization now, even if you split it, +30% is not good and you would have to wait until it reports to the bureaus. For best starting limits one card should be under 10% and the others at 0%. If its not, you need to apply for the new card while the utilization is low.

Similarly confused.

If you have not incurred said emergency charge yet, don't do it until you apply for the new card. Or, apply for the card before it hits your credit report. The credit unions I have report at the end of the month regardless of when the statement cuts (I think, I haven't carried a balance on them for a while). If the emergency expense isn't on your report yet, and you don't know when your CU reports, I'd find out.

If you use a Citi card, you couldn't use a different Citi card to BT, but I know some/all Citi BT's let you BT to a checking account (in which case you could pay your DC with it).

If you haven't incurred the expense yet and get the new card first and Citi does have the transfer to checking thing, you could charge it on your DC so you can get 2%. Or if you won't do that and your CU doesn't offer rewards, you could pay with the cash you have and then BT to your account.

I'll let others comment on splitting the charge.

Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

Revelate — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 04:05:47 GMT

Pick up a 0% intro card if you just have to cover 9 months or thereabouts, Citi is a solid spot for that but there's a bunch of 12 and I think 18 month offers out there currently. Chase just sent me a bunch of 0% offer checks for my Ink of all bloody things, that was a new one for me.

Not that I want to conflate my business cards (for my not quite real business) with personal expense, but if my school accepted credit cards as I have to cover a cashflow shortfall sporadically over the next two years, Citi was high on my list with the pre-approvals they keep sending me for it. Sadly, my school doesn't, so 3.25% HELOC it is.

Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 04:27:16 GMT

If you're not married to Citi, try AMEX (high CLs), US Bank (high CLs) or even BofA (21 months), all 0% APR for what should be long enough.

Re: Excellent Credit. Need to Carry Balance. Is Citi Diamond Best Option?

NRB525 — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 04:40:30 GMT

@smile90000 wrote:
Wow! You guys are awesome.

Here are my options:
1. I can charge said emergency on my credit union card...which will give me utilization of 60% (I thought it was 65%), and keep the Citi DC at 0%

2. I could split the charge which would give me 30% utilization on Citi and 39% utilization on the credit union card.

Would these options be viewed differently by Citi?

Thanks!

You likely have BT offers on your Citi DC already. Check your online account to see if there are any. Then an option is to charge the entire amount to your CU card, and BT the amount over to the existing DC at a 3% fee and 0% APR.

What are the limits on each of the CU card and the DC card?

What are the other two cards, specifically, meaning bank issuer and brand of card? Limits on each of those two?