topic Re: CITI cards... in Credit Cards

CITI cards...

afbar1114 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:35:58 GMT

For some reason i have been looking at citi the past few days. I am liking the card but i dont really see a need for it as i use my chase cards the most.

Re: CITI cards...

thelethargicage — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:00:24 GMT

The Chase cards on your sig are far superior to anything Citi offers.

Re: CITI cards...

afbar1114 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:02:48 GMT

@thelethargicage wrote:
The Chase cards on your sig are far superior to anything Citi offers.

really? i thought citi was on par with them...if thats the case they may never find themselves in my wallet.

Re: CITI cards...

PokemonMaster — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:03:31 GMT

@thelethargicage wrote:
The Chase cards on your sig are far superior to anything Citi offers.

Not entirely true. It depends on a persons spending pattern as to what is superior.

Re: CITI cards...

CreditScholar — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:03:41 GMT

@thelethargicage wrote:
The Chase cards on your sig are far superior to anything Citi offers.

If you're an AA flier then their AA Select or Executive cards may be of use.

The Citi Hilton Reserve is a good card, and their premier/prestige is good if you fit their targeted audience.

The rest are fairly soso imo.

Re: CITI cards...

youngandcreditwrthy — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:13:17 GMT

Citi isn't that great.
Trust me bro, you're better off without them lol

Re: CITI cards...

maiden_girl — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:21:51 GMT

Citi is horrible. They deny you for stupid reasons then if you try to RECON with them...they pretend they arent looking directly at your credit report and tell you to send them a copy of it with the denial letter attached..reallly CITI? Really?

Re: CITI cards...

navigatethis12 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:40:45 GMT

If you are looking for cashback, look elsewhere. The Thank You Preferred with 5% on groceries, gasoline, and drugstores for 12 months is the only good thing they were offering. They make it difficult to redeem for 1 cent per point, but that deal makes it worth it. Other than that, they are pretty lame. The Dividend always has categories that no one uses, making it worthless.

Re: CITI cards...

Rackham94 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:42:19 GMT

OP, around what time did you apply for CSP before or after Freedom? Trying to see what I need to do so I can get CSP as well

Re: CITI cards...

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:00:01 GMT

@afbar1114 wrote:
For some reason i have been looking at citi the past few days. I am liking the card but i dont really see a need for it as i use my chase cards the most.

Most of Citi's cards are lacking when it comes to their rewards programs. I think one of the more useful combinations is the Citi Forward + ThankYou Preferred/Premier/Prestige, although the regular Forward has been removed. I like the Simplicity because I get many offers for balance transfers on it. I just keep my Citi cards because I like diversity and they have decent limits.

I have been hoping they'd make a better ThankYou card that has competitive 5% categories (aside from that old promotional offer) that competes with the Freedom and Discover IT.

Re: CITI cards...

L0RDAVENTAD0R — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:14:30 GMT

I've been a Citi cardholder for almost three years & a Chase cardholder for barely a month & I'm telling you right now, Chase > Citi.

Re: CITI cards...

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:27:51 GMT

I just applied for Thank You Preferred and got approved. They gave me my highest CL too.

I was expecting really terrible service from what I've read on the forums, but so far I've been very wrong. Maybe it's because I'm dealing with their executive department more than their normal CSR. But so far the level of service has been extremely good and I'm very happy.

The good thing about Citi is that you can have more than 1 of the same exact card. I know it probably sounds ridiculous, like why would anyone want 2 Thank You Preferred?! Well, if you ever need to carry a balance for a large purchase or whatever, you can apply for 1 more card and still get the same promotional APR. At the end of the day you have more CL, and another rewards card, abeit the same one. Still a better deal than having to go for BT cards such as Simplicity / Slate that has 0 rewards even after their promotional periods, or having to go to subprime lenders just for some 0% APR.

The bad thing......well their rewards are lacking compared to Chase. There's really not much to dispute about that, and Citi knows it. There's been a lot of rumors about them ramping up their rewards and also signing on more partners, so hopefully they'll have a much better offering soon.

Re: CITI cards...

zerobacan — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:58:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I just applied for Thank You Preferred and got approved. They gave me my highest CL too.

I was expecting really terrible service from what I've read on the forums, but so far I've been very wrong. Maybe it's because I'm dealing with their executive department more than their normal CSR. But so far the level of service has been extremely good and I'm very happy.

The good thing about Citi is that you can have more than 1 of the same exact card. I know it probably sounds ridiculous, like why would anyone want 2 Thank You Preferred?! Well, if you ever need to carry a balance for a large purchase or whatever, you can apply for 1 more card and still get the same promotional APR. At the end of the day you have more CL, and another rewards card, abeit the same one. Still a better deal than having to go for BT cards such as Simplicity / Slate that has 0 rewards even after their promotional periods, or having to go to subprime lenders just for some 0% APR.

The bad thing......well their rewards are lacking compared to Chase. There's really not much to dispute about that, and Citi knows it. There's been a lot of rumors about them ramping up their rewards and also signing on more partners, so hopefully they'll have a much better offering soon.

Enharu, wondering why you got denied for the Amex?

I was just checking out Citi's CC in the bank. I had to talk to a csr about my wife citi card that got fraudulent charges on it...and the AA Advantage sign up bonus looks pretty good. I can book a RT flight to Chile with those miles... the ticket its about 1k normally...

Re: CITI cards...

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:48:01 GMT

Amex quoted me for too many recent inquiries (had 5 a month before I applied. All due to auto loan), and loan balance to original amount borrowed too high (100% loan balance, since its a brand new auto loan). I didn't even want to recon because it's going to be another HP for Amex, so I figured my best chances is to wait.

The AAdvantage and Hilton has some really nice rewards right now. And Citi allows you to have 2 of the same cards (except for AA it has to be visa / amex + MC), so the sign up bonuses stack

Re: CITI cards...

dddewdrop — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:13:26 GMT

The three biggest banks in the United States are Citicorp, Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. It follows that these companies all offer credit cards which are highly rated and competitive. Both Citi and Chase have a huge number of credit card account holders and are industry standards. A Citi or Chase tradeline on a credit report with a decent CL is great for credit and looks good for lenders when applying for a mortgage. How you dissect the individual benefits of different cards is a matter of opinion but the prestige of each company as a credit reference is not. They are both very prestigious.

Re: CITI cards...

jsucool76 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:16:35 GMT

Chases rewards seem to be better than citis from what I've heard.

Also @dddewdrop
3 largest banks are chase, boa, and citi xDz

Re: CITI cards...

medo — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:23:47 GMT

How hard would you say it would be to get a Citi card? You must have excellent credit or would they work with fair credit?

Thanks.

Re: CITI cards...

maiden_girl — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:57:41 GMT

@medo wrote:
How hard would you say it would be to get a Citi card? You must have excellent credit or would they work with fair credit?

Thanks.

Citi is very picky. When I applied, I had a 714 FICO score and it was denied due to too many inquires but I notice many college students here end up getting a card with little or no history so I have no idea.

Re: CITI cards...

CS800 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:33:39 GMT

@maiden_girl wrote:
Citi is horrible. They deny you for stupid reasons then if you try to RECON with them...they pretend they arent looking directly at your credit report and tell you to send them a copy of it with the denial letter attached..reallly CITI? Really?

I share your frustration and that's the reason why I don't even have a CITI card. I have tried to get in with them for the longest time and finally gave up recently. ALways denied for the silliest reason.

I remember calling to recon and they told me that I had 4 inqs on EX (only 2 were about 1 year old, the rest were over 3) tha'ts why they denied it.

Another time was that My accounts were too new. I had 3 new accounts (new as in they were over 1 year old with low limits back then). Right after I gave up, I applied for the BOA privileges card and they also check EX just like citi and they gave me a $15000 CL; go figure

So as much as I wanted to add CITI to my portfolio, I just gave up on them.

But as usual YMMV

Re: CITI cards...

dddewdrop — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:44:11 GMT

@jsucool76 wrote:
Chases rewards seem to be better than citis from what I've heard.

@Also @dddewdrop
3 largest banks are chase, boa, and citi xDz

It really depends on how you are ranking them. I believe the article I was looking at was talking about outstanding mortgages. It listed the three I mention and left out BofA. It was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago. Here is one that lists these three and BofA as the top 4. Either way, it doesn't change the point I was making...

http://banking.about.com/od/bankaccountreview1/tp/the-big-4-banks.htm