So I am in the process of reassessing my credit needs and as a result I decided to try my luck with Citi - their bonus offer was very appealing and I pulled the trigger and applied .. I was denied instantly.
The reason was : TOO MANY INQUIRIES.
I called and asked to talk to a manager in their credit department .. He very honestly told me we need to see less than 5 inqs in the past 6 months .. and he also mentioned that my FICO score is too low for them (EX 640 which is what they pulled). He said get it around 670 and no inqs in the past 6 months .. and you may see a different outcome!
Too bad for now .. I want to get in with Citi. I will try in November again.
It's good to mention .. that the majority of inqs were from last year car shopping.
I didn't know they have a minimum score ..I've seen people get approved with similar scores. Also - they just gave me this reason .. last July I got the exact same reason ( and my score was 710). It went down due the new accounts I opened and some of them have balances.
@Anonymous wrote:Why did you go for their top end card to try to get an in with them with your score?
Yeah I will try again in 6 months. They wanted to see less than 5 inqs .. I won't apply for more cards so I should have zero inqs (hopefully 
). The thing that's keeping my score down is my utilization .. which I'm working to reduce significantly (within the next 4 months).
Well I got my answers from them .. I wanted to hear it clearly what they need. This manager that I talked to .. said don't apply for new accounts for the next 6 months .. this should take you score up .. and there is a good chance this decision would be different.
I've never actually been able to get a straight answer like this from any other lender .. for example AMEX doesn't give any information .. they stick to the script they have!
