Citi wants to pull my credit multiple times for a CLI?

[Anonymous]

Is this standard for Citibank, and how should I handle the situation?

I requested a credit limit increase from Citibank last Wednesday.  On Thursday, they hard pulled my Experian report.  I expected them to then call me, because due to a very recent identity theft incident, I have a fraud alert on all of my credit reports asking credit issuers to call to verify my identity.  No call received.  On Saturday, I got a message from Citibank through the online message center that they need me to call them, because they were unable to reach me for identity verification.  When I called, they informed me that I would need to consent to another credit pull.  When I asked them about the Experian pull they already ran, they said that because they couldn't reach me to verify my identity at the time they made the pull, they couldn't use it and had to start from scratch.  Putting aside that I never got a call from them, that still seems bogus; it would make sense if I had a freeze on my credit, but I didn't -- it was just a fraud alert.  I told them I would consent to the second pull *if* they could put me on the line directly with the person doing the processing so that I could verify my identity live and therefore avoid a repeat of the same situation, but they said they couldn't do that because the credit pull is done by a back-office division that does not interface directly with customers or Citi's customer service agents.  They even suggested that I should just delete the fraud alert (uh, no) so that they could do whatever they needed to do without having to consult with me.  

What are my options at this point to avoid another hard pull, other than dropping the request? I've already got the one hard pull they made on my Experian report with nothing to show for it, and they can't even promise me that the same thing won't happen again if I authorize another pull.  It just seems like my credit is potentially getting punished for Citi's poor handling of the situation.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Drop Citi. 

You can ask them to recode the HP as a SP since you believe the mistake was theirs, or try disputing it because they said it was unusable.

Personally, I dropped Citi about 10 years ago cause their practices were some of the worst I've ever dealt with.

[Anonymous]

---

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

Drop Citi. 

You can ask them to recode the HP as a SP since you believe the mistake was theirs, or try disputing it because they said it was unusable.

Personally, I dropped Citi about 10 years ago cause their practices were some of the worst I've ever dealt with.

---

Agreed. Ask for a recode.

[FinStar]

---

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

Drop Citi. 

You can ask them to recode the HP as a SP since you believe the mistake was theirs, or try disputing it because they said it was unusable.

Personally, I dropped Citi about 10 years ago cause their practices were some of the worst I've ever dealt with.

---

Unfortunately, these are their internal policies when it comes to ID verification if an alert is present on CR and the contact attempt is unsuccessful.  We're definitely not privvy to the interactions between Citi and OP, but if the OP doesn't wish to pursue the CLI then that HP would be hard to dispute. 

When a similar situation ocurred (unbeknownst to me that EQ has sent info to EX) a fraud alert was also on mine.  But, they were able to reach me and the instance was resolved.  It happened again with a new app (gotta love EQ), and I was provided with a contact number to reach them, so resolved there as well.

Worse case scenario, OP waits until their eligibile for a SP CLI, but if fraud alert is still present, then it may not be as fruitful.  

[Remedios]

I've transposed last two ss# digits on my Citi app that resulted in "we'll get in touch with you",  but I called them right away and app was finalized over the phone without a second pull.

I just had to answer a few questions, get a code sent back to me, read it and done. 

I do not think a solid case for re-coding HP to SP can be made here.

While unfortunate that it happened, permissible purpose is there. 

Also, a lot of times when lenders say they tried contacting us, they actually did, but maybe at an old phone number, home phone that has been disconnected, even work phone.

I still have Chase ask if I want text sent to my work phone number, even though it's not a default number and it never was. 

[Anonymous]

I have a fraud alert on my reports to. I am not sure moving forward, but when I asked for a cli I immediately called Knowing it was there and they took care of everything right then. I have also been given nice auto cli increases from them. It may be profile likes and dislikes, but I wouldn't give up on them yet and demand to speak with a supervisor. 

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I have a fraud alert on my reports to. I am not sure moving forward, but when I asked for a cli I immediately called Knowing it was there and they took care of everything right then. I have also been given nice auto cli increases from them. It may be profile likes and dislikes, but I wouldn't give up on them yet and demand to speak with a supervisor. 

---

That's what I would have expected to be able to do, but the supervisor that I spoke with when I asked for one was adamant that they cannot communicate directly with the department that handles CLI requests aside from putting the requests into the queue through their system, and that my only option was to wait for them to call me when they got around to pulling my credit.  I do suspect that there is a direct number to get in touch with the right people immediately, but Citi is seemingly refusing to acknowledge its existence and will only point me to the general customer service number printed on the back of the card.

[Anonymous]

I would have called back. Everyone has a fraud department and that is where they clear it. Sometimes you get an agent, no matter what card or bank it is, who just don't know as much as they think they do. If you don't get a satisfactory answer, always hang up and call back. If it hasn't been to long, I would now to and get to a supervisor to find an answer.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Have you tried the numbers here?

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Backdoor-Numbers/m-p/374744#M5540

[Anonymous]

True enough that department has always been unreachable at Citibank for me as well. Their credit report team.

However you can reach them by mail or fax. I would draft a letter explaining the circumstances and request that the first hard inquiry be recoded as a soft inquiry. You should only have one HP for the increase request.

I’m going through a recoding scenario with another institution now.