Citi CLI is sensitive to new accounts

[Curious_George2]

Update:

It has now been 6 months, and 6 statements, since the last CLI on my Citi Costco card. I requested a CLI today and got denied. Haven't received the letter yet, obviously.  It looks like they may have been telling the truth all along, that the denials were based on too many new accounts.  Maybe they will change their mind once my new cards all age past 6 months.  That will be October.  I'll probably keep trying occasionally between now and then and will report back when something changes.

[Curious_George2]

My quest for CLIs from Citi has taken a small, surprising twist. It has now been 7+ months since my last CLI on either of my two Citi cards, a Costco and a DC. For two months they denied every CLI request and cited "too many recently opened accounts" as the reason every time.

Last week, my number of new cards within the past 6 months dropped to two, which @Anonymous found to be acceptable to Citi. I do have an auto loan that's less that six months old, so that could be muddying the waters.

I requested CLIs on both cards, but got denied on both. Here's the weird part: They cited different denials reasons in the two letters, dated the same day. On my Costco card, they still say "too many recently opened accounts." But on my DC, they switched to "too many recent inquiries." Both letters reference EQ. It seems strange to me that the Costco card would have different underwriting standards for a CLI than the DC, but these letters suggest that's the case. 

[Anonymous]

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@Curious_George2 wrote:

My quest for CLIs from Citi has taken a small, surprising twist. It has now been 7+ months since my last CLI on either of my two Citi cards, a Costco and a DC. For two months they denied every CLI request and cited "too many recently opened accounts" as the reason every time.

Last week, my number of new cards within the past 6 months dropped to two, which @Anonymous found to be acceptable to Citi. I do have an auto loan that's less that six months old, so that could be muddying the waters.

I requested CLIs on both cards, but got denied on both. Here's the weird part: They cited different denials reasons in the two letters, dated the same day. On my Costco card, they still say "too many recently opened accounts." But on my DC, they switched to "too many recent inquiries." Both letters reference EQ. It seems strange to me that the Costco card would have different underwriting standards for a CLI than the DC, but these letters suggest that's the case. 

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Did they use the 2500 point range score on one of them? My last Rewards+ denial that I got the paperwork for (nothing yet for my denial yesterday) referenced two TU scores, one was not listed on the paper and the other was a 2500 range of which I scored 984 and they both had different reason codes. The 2500 range was fussing about increases in balances and whatever score they used for the other was fussing about inquiries. 

(I just edited because I went to my documents center and checked the letter). 

[Curious_George2]

I didn't know these docs were available online. Thanks for that tip!

When I view the letters there, another oddity appears. All the letters that cite number of new accounts as the reason are listed with "Your credit limit request" in the subject column. All the letters that cite inquiries as the denial reason show the subject as "Your request to increase your credit limit".  What does it mean? I have no idea! 

They haven't mentioned credit scores in any of my denial letters. 

[Anonymous]

I think Citi is just being extra cautious right now. 

I will probably end up closing this card. Its now a year old and still stuck at $1900. 

[Curious_George2]

Apparently they are also sensitive to inquires now. 

I am still getting consistent denials to CLI requests on both of my Citi cards. Their letters no longer reference too many new accounts as the reason. They disliked me when I had 3 new cards in 6 months, but it appears they've forgiven me now that I'm down to 2/6.  

Instead, they are now saying no because "your credit report shows too many recent inquiries." They reference EQ, which shows my inquiries as 4/12, but only 1/6. It's hard to imagine that 1/6 is too many, so it seems that 4/12 is the problem. 

That's a bit of a bummer for me because none of my inquiries will age past 12 months until February. So it seems I am in Citi CLI purgatory until then.  I might ping them with an occasional request in the interim, just in case, but I'm not optimistic. 

[Loquat]

OP just give it a little time. Every lender is a bit skittish these days. Sometimes it’s easy to overlook because we still see lots of increase and approvals in other parts of the forum.

You’ll get there. Citi can be interesting. I’ve been with them for a while and they’ll toss me a bone every now and again. It’s been almost a year in my Prestige which I used heavily and they show me no love.

Like you, I know it’ll happen eventually. Until thing I’ll keep chugging along.

[Curious_George2]

All great points.

I'm not actually upset. In fact, I enjoy probing these systems to figure out what the rules are. And I'm looking for ways to contribute to the amazing collection of information here.

Good luck with that Prestige! Do they give you denial reasons that make sense?

[Curious_George2]

Or not. 

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Citi-Costco-3k-CLI/td-p/6185486