topic Re: Citi question in Credit Cards

Citi question

Woolfman — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:23:41 GMT

This weekend i was roped by the wife to go "look" at furniture at ashley furniture . She of course found a set she had to have and since they had 36months no interest. We applied got 4k CL and spent 3400.

My question is this is Citifinacial . Is that going to hurt more than just a normal account? I was thinking i read something somewhere that was talking about consumer credit line or something and its frowned upon .

and on a side note . I have to got to get back on the wagon of resisting to apply . in the last few weeks i have been BAD!!

I have apllied for USAA (denied too many inqs),

Nationwide(denied uknown reason still),

UMB guide dog card ( 2k 9.9 rate per the csr but the website says 11 something is the lowest?)

and yesterday i got a preapproval in the mail from Citi for a MC . I resisted last night but caved this morning approved 12.5k

Message Edited by Woolfman on 12-15-2009 08:23 AM

Re: Citi question

Jazzzy — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:25:49 GMT

I think you will get dinged for "Citifinancial" being a consumer finance company.

Re: Citi question

DI — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:25:50 GMT

Citifinancial are loan sharks.

Re: Citi question

Woolfman — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:39:14 GMT

@DI wrote:
Citifinancial are loan sharks.
They might have different things that make them seem like that to you . But Ive never seen a loan shark give you their money for nothing . So they are just dandy in my thoughts . 36 months no interest. Sure the default rate is 24.99% but alot of store credit cards are just the same.

Re: Citi question

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:53:40 GMT

I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but you probably could have negotiated a better price had you paid cash or with another card. Citifinancial charges most dealers a hefty "discount rate" as they call it to offer interest free financing. I know they charge us 17.25% to offer this particular deal, but we're in the HVAC business, not sure what they charge a larger company like Ashley.

Just my thoughts.

Re: Citi question

Woolfman — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:04:44 GMT

no disrespect taken . But we did haggle and said we could just pay for it , we did not want go into our cash reserves. If we would have just paid cash/credit they would have took 10% off the total as that was the other offer they had going . But in the aspect of interest on any other card it would have cost us more over time in interest than the 10% we would have saved.

Re: Citi question

Creditaddict — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:30:12 GMT

I would really not worry about any points you may loose due to a Furniture account, I would be surprised if you even noticed. I have a mattress account and it has not cost me points, if anything you may loose some points until it's not looking so maxed out but not for the type

Re: Citi question

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:34:24 GMT

@Creditaddict wrote:
I would really not worry about any points you may loose due to a Furniture account, I would be surprised if you even noticed. I have a mattress account and it has not cost me points, if anything you may loose some points until it's not looking so maxed out but not for the type

I think the key here is that it sounds as though this is being reported as a consumer finance account, rather than a regular store account. Back in my stupider days, I had personal, unsecured loans from Washington Mutual, which is now CitiFinancial. Whenever I used to pull my reports, one of the negative factors that came up was "Presence of a consumer finance account".... and something to the effect that these are typically personal bailout loans with bad terms, usually for people who were rejected for personal loans from banks due to bad credit or DTI or the like. I am not saying this situation is the same, just a personal experience with the term "consumer finance" and Citifinancial.

Re: Citi question

Creditaddict — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:38:21 GMT

I get that, but you are always going to have some negative factor, but are you really loosing any points? I don't think a computer application process is going to say omg a furniture personal finance account, they are in trouble, Denied! and in the end I wouldn't care even if I did loose a couple points because guess what my cash makes more than paying cash for my mattress vs financing for free. You only see bad terms if you miss a payment or don't pay off in the 0% period and all those reasons are not the finance companies fault, they are yours.

Re: Citi question

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:08:14 GMT

Even if it's Citifinancial, if it reports as revolving (instead of installment), it will NOT score as a consumer finance account. (This per Barry, the myFICO admin.)

Of course, the trick is knowing if it will report as revolving. A lot of these "furniture store accounts" have started doing so, perhaps because they became aware of the problems caused to buyers' credit.

I know back in the early days of our marriage, we financed some furniture, and it was set up as an installment loan. No clue what it did to our scores --this was long before lowly consumers were allowed to know, and it's long since gone from our reports.

Re: Citi question

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:15:37 GMT

@Creditaddict wrote:
I get that, but you are always going to have some negative factor, but are you really loosing any points? I don't think a computer application process is going to say omg a furniture personal finance account, they are in trouble, Denied! and in the end I wouldn't care even if I did loose a couple points because guess what my cash makes more than paying cash for my mattress vs financing for free. You only see bad terms if you miss a payment or don't pay off in the 0% period and all those reasons are not the finance companies fault, they are yours.

I'm not arguing how much of a negative factor it is to a score, or whether it is the right or wrong financial decision to make. The OP asked if he would get dinged for the presence of that type of account and I was giving my experience. It appears from the post above this that it depends if it shows as revolving or installment, which is a good bit of information for all of us. We are all just trying to give accounts of our personal experience to the OP, per their request... No need to take it past that.

--edited to include referenced quote--

Message Edited by jausanka on 12-15-2009 04:15 PM

Re: Citi question

Woolfman — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:32:27 GMT

Well if thats the case the Rep explained to us that it would be a 4k line of credit . That if we wanted to come back and buy more or once we paid it down some come back for a different set (bedroom for our son) The credit would be available to use . So it makes me believe that this should report then as a revovling account . At least thats what im hoping for . He stated we would even get a card (ashley furniture card?) hehe

But thank you everyone for you help . With my recent apps and such I just didnt need anything else weighing down my score!

Re: Citi question

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:57:45 GMT

Woolfman wrote:

Well if thats the case the Rep explained to us that it would be a 4k line of credit . That if we wanted to come back and buy more or once we paid it down some come back for a different set (bedroom for our son) The credit would be available to use . So it makes me believe that this should report then as a revovling account . At least thats what im hoping for . He stated we would even get a card (ashley furniture card?) hehe

But thank you everyone for you help . With my recent apps and such I just didnt need anything else weighing down my score!

I think you'll be good, since he said that you can re-use the credit line. That's pretty much the difference between revolving and installment. With revolving, you can keep going back to the well. With installment, they loan you what they loan you, you pay it back, and that's it. So as long as they report it correctly, it should look like any other credit card.

Smart decision on the part of furniture stores. I knew my earlier guess about trying not to hurt customer's credit was ridiculously idealistic. By setting these up as revolving, they're increasing the odds that customers will keep returning over time.

Happy shopping! I like a lot of the stuff I've seen at Ashley's, although our local one was recently taken over by a competitor.

Re: Citi question

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:21:55 GMT

I double checked my report and the account I opened with Ashley through Citifinancial last February is showing up as revolving.

Re: Citi question

Woolfman — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:05:02 GMT

Well i guess Citi has love for me , Not sure if its from this app but almost a week after getting the furniture approval i got a pre approval from Citi for a CC . i didnt resist for very long. Sat down and filled out the info and about fell out of my chair . 12.5k CL . yay my highest yet!

Re: Citi question

TangMeister — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:24:33 GMT

@Woolfman wrote:
Well i guess Citi has love for me , Not sure if its from this app but almost a week after getting the furniture approval i got a pre approval from Citi for a CC . i didnt resist for very long. Sat down and filled out the info and about fell out of my chair . 12.5k CL . yay my highest yet!

Congrats!

Re: Citi question

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:02:59 GMT

Hey yall

I have a question for everyone in here. For Citi Credit Cards, do you guys see the CLI button appear on your account online?

I just have a newly open Citi CashReturns MC and I dont see the Request for CLI anywhere..Will it show online later or I have to call in to request for CLI over the phone?

Re: Citi question

DI — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:16:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hey yall
I have a question for everyone in here. For Citi Credit Cards, do you guys see the CLI button appear on your account online?

I just have a newly open Citi CashReturns MC and I dont see the Request for CLI anywhere..Will it show online later or I have to call in to request for CLI over the phone?

Mines appeared back in November. I didn't get an increase due to too many recent accounts. Other members says the CLI button go away. Mine still appearing. If it's still there after my 6th statement generates 1/16, I will push the botton again for the 8th time.

Re: Citi question

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:20:55 GMT

Let me wait for a few months to see if the CLI button appear anywhere for my Citi CashReturns. It's my new account and as for my Citi AAdvantage the CLI is always there. I am not gonna touch it after 6-12 months..

Message Edited by CreditCard101 on 12-20-2009 05:20 PM

Re: Citi question

DI — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:49:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Let me wait for a few months to see if the CLI button appear anywhere for my Citi CashReturns. It's my new account and as for my Citi AAdvantage the CLI is always there. I am not gonna touch it after 6-12 months..
Message Edited by CreditCard101 on 12-20-2009 05:20 PM

It will appear after the 3rd month. But it's not an indication that the account is eligible for a CLI.