topic Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance in Credit Cards

Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:06:15 GMT

I have an AA Citi card which I recieved about a year ago in which I had a $2000 limit. I have never been late with a payment and always paid more than I owed. I also have a sears card & another Citi card with Citi and again, no late payments, etc. I had a balance of $1900 on the AA card and paid it off on Nov 2. On Nov 14 they lowered my limit to $300.... I called them and they said that I have too many other revolving cards. I have not added any new cards since they granted the card and I when she "reviewed" my credit again, she said that I am not under the "limit" to have the limit restored. The pulled this on me about 6 months ago as well on the Sears card - as soon as I paid off the high balance of $1200 they lowered it from $2500 to $200.... whats the point of having these cards now? I used the sears card a few times, but the large purchase was for a grill and paid it off the next month- just wanted to get the reward points. And my AA card, I paid it off every month as well as I just wanted to get the miles. Now I am getting ready to travel to europe and was planning on taking my AA card to earn the miles but now its worthless... Is there anything I can do besides calling them because the lady I spoke to was not helpful nor did she listen to me either. Also when I asked her about what the experian report said she was completly inaccurate as I was on the experian webiste and pulled my report as we were talking... WHAT TO DO?

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

daybreakgonesXe — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:35:52 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have an AA Citi card which I recieved about a year ago in which I had a $2000 limit. I have never been late with a payment and always paid more than I owed. I also have a sears card & another Citi card with Citi and again, no late payments, etc. I had a balance of $1900 on the AA card and paid it off on Nov 2. On Nov 14 they lowered my limit to $300.... I called them and they said that I have too many other revolving cards. I have not added any new cards since they granted the card and I when she "reviewed" my credit again, she said that I am not under the "limit" to have the limit restored. The pulled this on me about 6 months ago as well on the Sears card - as soon as I paid off the high balance of $1200 they lowered it from $2500 to $200.... whats the point of having these cards now? I used the sears card a few times, but the large purchase was for a grill and paid it off the next month- just wanted to get the reward points. And my AA card, I paid it off every month as well as I just wanted to get the miles. Now I am getting ready to travel to europe and was planning on taking my AA card to earn the miles but now its worthless... Is there anything I can do besides calling them because the lady I spoke to was not helpful nor did she listen to me either. Also when I asked her about what the experian report said she was completly inaccurate as I was on the experian webiste and pulled my report as we were talking... WHAT TO DO?

Unfortunately, credit card companies raise a red flag when your statement balance is ridiculously high to your credit limit (that 1900/2000 did you in with them). It's all fine and dandy to charge it up to 1900 then pay it off right away, but letting that balance sit and report does NOT sit well with them, since it poses you as a high risk. They had to bump you down to a lower limit, regardless if you always have on time payments, because in their minds, they say: "well, if he's going to have 95% utilization with us, it's safer and more likely for him to pay $285 rather than $1900."

I would look into that too many revolving accounts too...it's not a matter of how many RECENT cards you have, it's how MANY you have...how many cards do you have? 5? 10? 20? Anything around or over 15 usually raises a big red flag to companies, especially if they were opened up all around the same time. 10 sometimes raises a flag, but only if like 5 of them were opened all at the same time.

Personally, don't bring those cards to Europe with you, but buy like a newspaper or something cheap with it once a month and pay on time. Giving them the little kick that "hey, you lowered my limits, so say goodbye to me using you for good purchases!" while maintaining positive history with them will enable them to reconsider you for raising your limits. Do this for at least 6 months before hardcore negotiating again. In the meantime, you can write a letter to the executive office, e-mail them, give them a call to let them know how unhappy you are with this.

So sorry it had to happen to you unfortunately that's the name of the credit game!

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

improvingmycredit — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:22:44 GMT

@daybreakgonesXe wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I have an AA Citi card which I recieved about a year ago in which I had a $2000 limit. I have never been late with a payment and always paid more than I owed. I also have a sears card & another Citi card with Citi and again, no late payments, etc. I had a balance of $1900 on the AA card and paid it off on Nov 2. On Nov 14 they lowered my limit to $300.... I called them and they said that I have too many other revolving cards. I have not added any new cards since they granted the card and I when she "reviewed" my credit again, she said that I am not under the "limit" to have the limit restored. The pulled this on me about 6 months ago as well on the Sears card - as soon as I paid off the high balance of $1200 they lowered it from $2500 to $200.... whats the point of having these cards now? I used the sears card a few times, but the large purchase was for a grill and paid it off the next month- just wanted to get the reward points. And my AA card, I paid it off every month as well as I just wanted to get the miles. Now I am getting ready to travel to europe and was planning on taking my AA card to earn the miles but now its worthless... Is there anything I can do besides calling them because the lady I spoke to was not helpful nor did she listen to me either. Also when I asked her about what the experian report said she was completly inaccurate as I was on the experian webiste and pulled my report as we were talking... WHAT TO DO?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I would look into that too many revolving accounts too...it's not a matter of how many RECENT cards you have, it's how MANY you have...how many cards do you have? 5? 10? 20? Anything around or over 15 usually raises a big red flag to companies, especially if they were opened up all around the same time. 10 sometimes raises a flag, but only if like 5 of them were opened all at the same time.

Hello adpijess and Welcome to the Forums!

+1 on this! It's unfortunate, but they feel you have too many other possible credit card obligations that could put you at risk. Many times, this is a result of Debt to Credit obligations or risk based on Income vs possible debt. A letter to executive office might make a difference because with Citi, often times the analyst's hands are tied by what the "computer" says. I wish you the best of luck on this!

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

armbenderc — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:59:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have an AA Citi card which I recieved about a year ago in which I had a $2000 limit. I have never been late with a payment and always paid more than I owed. I also have a sears card & another Citi card with Citi and again, no late payments, etc. I had a balance of $1900 on the AA card and paid it off on Nov 2. On Nov 14 they lowered my limit to $300.... I called them and they said that I have too many other revolving cards. I have not added any new cards since they granted the card and I when she "reviewed" my credit again, she said that I am not under the "limit" to have the limit restored. The pulled this on me about 6 months ago as well on the Sears card - as soon as I paid off the high balance of $1200 they lowered it from $2500 to $200.... whats the point of having these cards now? I used the sears card a few times, but the large purchase was for a grill and paid it off the next month- just wanted to get the reward points. And my AA card, I paid it off every month as well as I just wanted to get the miles. Now I am getting ready to travel to europe and was planning on taking my AA card to earn the miles but now its worthless... Is there anything I can do besides calling them because the lady I spoke to was not helpful nor did she listen to me either. Also when I asked her about what the experian report said she was completly inaccurate as I was on the experian webiste and pulled my report as we were talking... WHAT TO DO?

I think this is one of the YMMV one. I have Citi for almost two years. At the time, I have 1600CL, and I have 1500 balance.

Since it is a 0% APR and 0% BT I took advantage of it and just finish paying it off last month (took almost 8 months).

In Sept, balance was 1100, I request CLI and got approved to 3k without any pull.

Now, sitting at zero balance with no AA.

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:23:33 GMT

I can't help but I wanted you to know that you aren't the only one. I got a Citi $2,000-limit card about 8 months ago, and I took advantage of the generous BT offer. I transferred one balance, for about $900, and was about to do another one when I saw that the BT button had disappeared. Sure enough, they took away my ability to complete BTs about a month after I opened the account. Of course, nothing had changed. They did a soft pull of my credit and something spooked them, but it didn't spook them when they granted the account.

I got the BT anyway by doing it the "homemade" way. I just paid for something else very expensive (monthly rent) with that credit card and then used the cash I would have spent on rent to pay off another card. Voila! Homemade BT.

I realize they cut your line down to almost nothing, though, which is a different story. They are stinkers! I would not be surprised that if/when I pay off the account, they might do the same to me.

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

android01 — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:40:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have an AA Citi card which I recieved about a year ago in which I had a $2000 limit. I have never been late with a payment and always paid more than I owed. I also have a sears card & another Citi card with Citi and again, no late payments, etc. I had a balance of $1900 on the AA card and paid it off on Nov 2. On Nov 14 they lowered my limit to $300.... I called them and they said that I have too many other revolving cards. I have not added any new cards since they granted the card and I when she "reviewed" my credit again, she said that I am not under the "limit" to have the limit restored. The pulled this on me about 6 months ago as well on the Sears card - as soon as I paid off the high balance of $1200 they lowered it from $2500 to $200.... whats the point of having these cards now? I used the sears card a few times, but the large purchase was for a grill and paid it off the next month- just wanted to get the reward points. And my AA card, I paid it off every month as well as I just wanted to get the miles. Now I am getting ready to travel to europe and was planning on taking my AA card to earn the miles but now its worthless... Is there anything I can do besides calling them because the lady I spoke to was not helpful nor did she listen to me either. Also when I asked her about what the experian report said she was completly inaccurate as I was on the experian webiste and pulled my report as we were talking... WHAT TO DO?

I'm sorry this happened to you. Although I don't know your history, I've seen this happen much more with folks who are new to credit and have thin files. There's not enough history for Citi (or other banks) to be confident in your ability to pay, so they do get spooked, even if your payment history has been good so far. So, if you fall into the category of being new to credit or rebuilding, this is likely (in my opinion) why they decided to do what they did.

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

Epcot — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:55:18 GMT

I have been closely watching my Citi AA account as I just paid the balance down from 20k to about 3k. I carried a balance for a couple years. I paid it down almost two months ago and no movement yet. They are my highest CL as well. I have over 10 years history and an AAoA over 6. Been with Citi for about 7 years.

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

distantarray — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:46:39 GMT

personally I think 0% balance transfer offers are a good way for banks to gauge how much you can pay back each money and valuable information for their underwritters , but just a personal opinion.

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

jsickz32 — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:54:57 GMT

I have a citi forward with a 2000 limit and have added about 6 cards since I got it and I have no problems

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

StartingOver10 — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:16:03 GMT

@distantarray wrote:
personally I think 0% balance transfer offers are a good way for banks to gauge how much you can pay back each money and valuable information for their underwritters , but just a personal opinion.

I hate to be dense, (but it is late afternoon today..lol) but I don't know what you mean here...do you mean that if you take advantage of a BT offer they ding you internally in some way? I have not taken advantage of any BT's because I always felt it was one of those things that if you do take advantage the cc issuer may put you on a 'watch list' to see how you are doing with your financials. I could be wrong.

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

Mike360 — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:28:56 GMT

Sorry to hear. Citi likes doing this cause they did this to me a couple years ago.

Re: Citi Bank Lowered credit limit after payoff of balance

crunching_numbers — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:24:44 GMT

Citi is on my naughty list as well. Just look in my signature at my CL's. Notice anything about Citi? Yep. Less than half of all my other cards. When I asked for a CL increase, they turned me down. The reason? Too much available credit on all of my other cards in relationship to my income. Personal income=$90K, HHI=$211K. Apparently everyone else is comfortable with a higher limit but Citi thinks $3K is the most I should be trusted with. After all, what if I max out all those other cards, and then can't pay Citi?