Citibank “Pre-qualified” Costco Visa- Is that solid?

[Anonymous]

.Went on Citibank pre-qualify website and got this response: Debtguy3939, you've been Pre-qualified for the following credit card offer- Costco Anywhere Visa.

Are these pre-qualified solid? I know Discover pre-qualify are but don’t know about Citibank. Is the Costco card an excellent credit needed card? Fico 650 have 2 late payments total on credit report. Both 30 day late. Curious if worth the app.

[FinStar]

What APR were you given with the pre-qualified offer?  Was it a solid APR or a range? 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. It gave me fixed 16.99. Same rate on balance transfer. Copy and paste what it showed.

16.99%.

This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate.a

[FinStar]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the reply. It gave me fixed 16.99. Same rate on balance transfer. Copy and paste what it showed.

16.99%.

This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate.a

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Seems to be a pretty solid offer to me as far as an approval.  Has anything changed in the last few months as far as your profile?  Often times, if anything major has changed (slew of new accounts/inquiries, utilization spikes, lower scores, etc.) then that would be the only possible reason for not getting approved.   How long ago were the late payments?  

If COSTCO is one of the places you frequently shop then this would make sense.

[austingal]

I cold apped this card (no pre-qual) a little over a month ago and was approved with scores all 660-ish. They gave me a SL of $4000. I mainly got it to take advantage of a tire deal they were giving if you paid for the tires with the card.

At the time I had a few small medical collections from a few years ago showing on my reports. And one 30-day late on a car loan that happened almost seven years ago.

So I say go for it. I think they'll approve you. I thought they gave me a nice SL considering I have a fairly modest income. It's my second highest SL only after Discover which gave me $6500.

[SomewhereIn505]

You might want to try Citi’s Credit Scorecard. For 90 days, I watched it changed from good Aadvantage to all 4 citi cards (I paid off debt in preparation of our home purchase). But it showed me cards that didn’t come up in the Pre-Approved.

Once we closed on our home, no cards still came up on offers. So I cold app CostCo (at a warehouse) and was approved SL $6,200. A week later I went after AAdvangage and ended up with a SL of $11,000.

[Anonymous]

@finstar most recent 30 day was now over a year ago. Citi never had pre qualified offers prior to the 30 day hitting a year. It always said something like you might like these cards.

Utilization across all cards was 13% (reported) but now it is reporting 47% due to a large charge for an upcoming vacation hitting. I have already paid it off, just waiting for it to report the $0 balance (instead of $4300 current) but that won’t be until early August. Do you suggest I wait until utilization drops?

We do a bunch of shopping at Costco and only buy gas from there. I know they don’t do any balance transfer or purchase apr specials but I PIF every month. Seems to be a solid card

[Anonymous]

@somewhere thank you for the great suggestion. Never heard of their scorecard but sounds like it is worth it.

@austingal the tire deal caught my eye too. Seems like they have a lot of promotions. 15% cash back on a Samsung tv purchase. Rewards look very solid on gas restaurant and Costco. My three biggest expenditures.

[coldfusion]

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@FinStar wrote:

What APR were you given with the pre-qualified offer?  Was it a solid APR or a range? 

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You're right that normally that's a good indicator of how solid a pre-qual might be, but this is an exception.  The Costco Visa has a single APR for all cardholders, set at the current Prime rate (right now, 5%) + 11.99%. 

[Anonymous]

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@coldfusion wrote:

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@FinStar wrote:

What APR were you given with the pre-qualified offer?  Was it a solid APR or a range? 

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You're right that normally that's a good indicator of how solid a pre-qual might be, but this is an exception.  The Costco Visa has a single APR for all cardholders, set at the current Prime rate (right now, 5%) + 11.99%. 

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I have quite doubtful prospects, at least from my viewpoint (if anyone has a different opinion, let me know!) of getting anything from Citi due to having IIB'ed them on my 2014 BK on a home mortgage, plus the Best Buy co-branded store card (which, by one of those little ironies, had been transferred from Capital One to Citi just a few months previously).  Nonethless, I'm told that the Costco Visa can be obtained by people with Citi IIB'ed BK's on their record even though they're liable to be stuck permanently at the SL, so I went to check Citi's prequal site. I didn't get any offers, but the page did suggest the Costco Visa - at exactly the same APR (16.99%) that others have been offered. I'm gardening for the rest of the year, so I'm not expending another HP at this time, but I did find it interesting anyway.

For the record, I tested out Blispay's application yesterday (but didn't complete that one either). I got a 19.99% APR offer but I doubt this means any more than Citi's 16.99%, considering that I've seen many other Blispay appliers offered the same APR.