topic Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL? in Credit Cards

Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

m00nScape — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:14:56 GMT

I have applied 3 times and got approved each time form CapitalOne Platinum, Target, and Discover More with credit score of EQ 717.

I'm planning on getting another card, but this time with at least $4000 CL, which will have a better chance, with Chase or Citibank? And which specific card should I apply for for?

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:30:44 GMT

@m00nScape wrote:
I have applied 3 times and got approved each time form CapitalOne Platinum, Target, and Discover More with credit score of EQ 717.

I'm planning on getting another card, but this time with at least $4000 CL, which will have a better chance, with Chase or Citibank? And which specific card should I apply for for?

I would definitely go to Citi. You will never get a CLI from Chase without a hard inq. Chase are also real nits about things and not behaving in a very cardholder friendly fashion these days. The only reason I have a card with Chase is because they picked up WaMu. I see no change - no improvement, In fact WaMu could have been a better actor! With Citi you have a good chance at a good opening CL and a mechanism for probing for a CLI without getting harded. The cards also have some nice feature. They sent me pre-app's for a couple of cards and I decided to take a shot at the Diamond Preferred. It is a good card - very low APR (mine is 6.99%) - just crummy rewards. That is unless you fancy event tickets. Then the DP card is very hot as you get access to advance tickets for some events which can be very handy, I like the card and so far Citi has been nothing other that good to me. Can't say the same for Chase. Not even close.

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

smallfry — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:30:59 GMT

I would take a longer term view. Citi will give you soft pull regular online CLI if you behave. Chase on the other hand will not give out CLI without pulling hard. 95% of people have this experience with Chase. I like both companies. Citi has the large exposure world wide Chase runs the US.

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

DI — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:42:35 GMT

Apply with Citi. Why?

Congratulations and welcome to Citi® Platinum Select® membership! Your account was approved on 07/08/2009 with a credit line of $4,000. You should receive your new card and Card Agreement within a week.

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:48:08 GMT

Nice! Congrats!

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

DI — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:52:37 GMT

Should I be applying for cards that I don't plan to use? I never charge more than $350 on my Cap 1 card. That's the only card I use. I pay it off each month. Its an old student card. I never get a CL increase. Should I use a different card every other month to keep it from being close and get CL increases?

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:58:17 GMT

@DI wrote:
Should I be applying for cards that I don't plan to use? I never charge more than $350 on my Cap 1 card. That's the only card I use. I pay it off each month. Its an old student card. I never get a CL increase. Should I use a different card every other month to keep it from being close and get CL increases?

Additional cards in your portfolio will help you immensely with regard to your FICO score. A very small number of cards make it very difficult to optimize your utilization. Many of us do have cards that we rotate into and out of service and keep active by using at least once per quarter.

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

DI — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:05:42 GMT

This week I closed a BOA, CHASE and Best Buy cards. I wasn't using them. And with BOA, I was ready for an upgrade. BOA has the worse customer service. I replaced them with Citi and Discover to ofset the avialable credit I lost by closing them.

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

haulingthescoreup — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:12:51 GMT

For scoring purposes, somewhere between 3 - 5 cards is great. It's also a lot easier to manage that number of cards. But if you have multiple open installment accounts (auto loan, student loans, etc.) you might want to have more CC's.

This is because one of the ways you can gain or lose scoring points is by having a certain percentage of your open accounts with balances. Since by definition, all open installment accounts (including mortgages) have balances, if you want to avoid a scoring ding for "too many accounts with balances", you might want to open more CC accounts that you can keep reporting $0 to counteract the loan TL's. If you have 4 open loans, you might think about 6 total CC's --one that can report a balance, four to "cancel out" the balances loans, and one for wiggle room. And so forth.

But unless you think you're going to have multiple open loans forever, that's a weak reason to get additional cards that you otherwise wouldn't fool with. Wanted to let you know that there's that factor to consider, though.

Congrats on the Citi!

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

MattH — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:33:10 GMT

@smallfry wrote:
I would take a longer term view. Citi will give you soft pull regular online CLI if you behave. Chase on the other hand will not give out CLI without pulling hard. 95% of people have this experience with Chase. I like both companies. Citi has the large exposure world wide Chase runs the US.

I would say it depends on many factors. In my own case, my Chase card has a somewhat higher limit ($25K on my Chase versus $20K on my Citi, not that I ever use more than a fraction of that), and the purchase APR on my Chase is a lot lower (currently 5.25% on my Chase versus over 10% on my Citi, not that I pay interest on either card). Both cards have been active for over a decade with excellent payment histories, and I give both cards plenty of transactions every month. Also both companies know I don't move frequently, because they sent the monthly bills to one address from 1992 until my wife and I bought a condo in 2002, and to this address since 2002. Both companies regularly send balance transfer offers, which my wife and I feed to the shredder since we don't carry balances (she has a Citi card in her own name and is an Authorized User on my Chase card).

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

smallfry — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:42:19 GMT

Matt Citi took me up from 4.8K to 11.2K in a year no pulls. I had to beg to go from 5-10 with Chase an EX pull at that. Chase APR 13.24% Citi 6.74%. YMMV.

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

DI — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:48:18 GMT

SmallFry- how often did you use the Citi card to get an auto increase? did you allow citi to make any money in interest off you?

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:10:03 GMT

I agree Citi is the better choice my wife was preapproved for a diamond rewards mc 8400 and 2 days after

they called her and said they had a special rate and bonus points if she would accept the diamond rewards Amex 6 000. After she got the amex but before she activated she called and had them combined for a 14,400

Diamond Rewards MC. and chopped up the amex...

I have had great luck with them have both diamond and cash returns moved from 8700 and 7000 k

to 10,700 and 10,400 within 9months love buttion appears every 3 months so far. Just added the forward card, great for restaurants and movies in April 7k.

Chase on the other hand ask for a CLI and they give you 500 with a hard pull not worth the inquiry...

Go with citi....charge lots and PIF and they will increase it.

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

m00nScape — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:46:44 GMT

What's the difference between Citi Platinum Select (Mastercard) and Citi Diamond (Mastercard)? Which has a higher CL?

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:55:53 GMT

There's not much difference between the Platinum Select and Diamond Preferred. You should go to citicards.com and look at their different cards (30 at last count).

The CL is more based on youir personal credit history, DTI, etc. than which of the cards you choose.

Get the card, make timely payments, and CITI does reward you with generous CLI.

Re: Chase or Citi credit card? Which gives high CL?

mark925 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:14:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

The CL is more based on youir personal credit history, DTI, etc. than which of the cards you choose.

Get the card, make timely payments, and CITI does reward you with generous CLI.

Very, very true.

My experience with Citi has been nothing but awesome the last 8 months. I got a ratejack reversed (and got a better APR out of it) back in November last year, 2 weeks later I got a CLI from $4k to $5,400....then about a week ago I got another CLI ($2,000 CLI). Then right after that I tried applying for their CitiForward card and ended up with a $6k CL.

Citi has been one company where if you stick with it and keep your nose clean they will reward you. I know that's tough to even say or believe in the current climate, but in my case it's been true.