Declined -- Citi AA World Elite MC

[Anonymous]

Greetings! This is my first post on the boards so go easy on me.

Back story:

The last 6 months was a little rough on the finances due to job loss. Long story short, Citi closed my old AAdvantage Plat. Select Visa that I had maintained in perfect standing since 2013 back in Dec after going 30 days late and a bounced payment. I got set up on a payment plan in Nov. and just lst week paid the balance of $4,5K completely off after returning to work.

That was my primary card that I used for just about everything and as stated, was a loyal customer for almost 4 years without so much as a high balance -- so I took the time to re apply and got an instant decline. The reconsideration lines yielded the same result and come to find out that 3 student loans had come out of deferral early and were reporting 180 days late. I called Nelnet and had the deferral reinstated as of the original cutoff and got letters to the effect. Needless to say, this was the primary cause of the decline. I have initiated disputes with all 3 agencies however that takes time.

My question is: Can I take all this information to a branch for a face to face meeting and possible reconsideration? As stated, I have returned to work and have almost $12K more salary than I did when I was a member before. I only ask because I have seen it mentioned in posts here.

Thanks for the help guys and I appreciate y'alls time.

[csryang]

Yes you can walk into a branch and see if they have a local analyst to help you out. Another method is calling their executive office and explain your situation.

I am not Citi but I think they might pull another report just to confirm that everything you said is true and got everything paid off. With the denied application, you are entitled to check your credit reports with 3 main ones up to one to couple months I think. Feel free to keep checking the status of the dispute and make sure the rest of the information is accurate every couple days or so online.

Once everything is good and it it's within a month of your initial application, you can have them repull your credit for the same application or you maybe as well just apply again later.

One thing I learn from Citi app is that once you are instantly denied, it's super hard to get it overturned but it's not impossible.

[Anonymous]

As a former branch manager at Citi, what I will tell you is that they do have a branch appeal process. It is way more effective than going through EO as the EO uses the exact same 4 execuitive underwriters as the branch managers do with out all the headache. 

I personally have gotten dozens and dozens of applications over turned using this method for my clients. However, the EU's will most likely require an additional hard pull re-review if it is something that is incorrect on your credit report that has been fixed. I would strongly advise that you wait until the items have been corrected on your CB reports. I am reminded of a client who had a similar situation as well as a seven figure bankaccount and while they did accept the correction letters (was fraud related) he was more angry at the low starting limit (around $1,500 because of his low score). Once the items updated on his CB we were able to send it back and he got approved for a much higher limit (20k). 

[csryang]

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@Anonymous wrote:

As a former branch manager at Citi, what I will tell you is that they do have a branch appeal process. It is way more effective than going through EO as the EO uses the exact same 4 execuitive underwriters as the branch managers do with out all the headache. 

I personally have gotten dozens and dozens of applications over turned using this method for my clients. However, the EU's will most likely require an additional hard pull re-review if it is something that is incorrect on your credit report that has been fixed. I would strongly advise that you wait until the items have been corrected on your CB reports. I am reminded of a client who had a similar situation as well as a seven figure bankaccount and while they did accept the correction letters (was fraud related) he was more angry at the low starting limit (around $1,500 because of his low score). Once the items updated on his CB we were able to send it back and he got approved for a much higher limit (20k). 

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Nice info. Thank you for confirming. When you said "without all the headache," what did you mean? 

Walking to a branch is deinitely easier than EO... I wish I had a Citi branch near me though. Personally I just got denied for Citi the first time recenly so I learned this. I was denied even through EO recon. I dont blame them as I have lots of accounts and inquiries. It's just that I have been with Citi credit cards for a while and I have never received any auto CLI and their total credit extended to me is one of the lowest compared to other big banks.   

Other than patiently waiting and garden for 6 months, any tips from a Citi insider? Would direct deposits to citi checking help?

[Anonymous]

Okay. Thanks for the help!

I'm definitely waiting until this stuff gets cleared up to re-apply. Is there any negative should this process take longer than the 90 days the initial application is valid for? I only have one hard pull showing on my report which is from the inital application.

[csryang]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Okay. Thanks for the help!

I'm definitely waiting until this stuff gets cleared up to re-apply. Is there any negative should this process take longer than the 90 days the initial application is valid for? I only have one hard pull showing on my report which is from the inital application.

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Regardless, they will probably have to repull your credit when they evaluate your credit again. 

If you really want to have them re-consider this intial application with its associated sign-on bonus/terms&conditions, you need to contact all 3 major credit bureaus to have them fix and update your profile as soon as possible. By 30 day mark from your initial application, it's the final deadline to have Citi reconsider this initial application by repull your credit. Once you go pass that 30 day period, you will have to resubmit another application which might have a different sign-on bonus/terms&conditions 

[Anonymous]

By headache I mean having to deal with a department than a person. When you deal with a branch there is the chance you will get a survey that is a huge factor in the branches incentive, ie: they are going to advocate harder than an EO who is just putting in a systemic request for rereview.

The form that the branch would complete was fairly straight forward. 1- How long have / what kind of client been a citi client 2- what is the companies total margin on the customer (net profit) 3- how much does the customer have with the company 4- how much does the customer make 5- what does the customer want?

Took 2-3 minutes to gather the info in the system and send over. Took 24 hours for response. Was a great process. We would get replies back directly from a person that would say yes, no, or counter and a limited reason why. Of all the escalations I completed more were overturned (with at least a counter) than declined.

We had one final escalation process that takes 10-14 days above that and that was to send it over to credit policy who was the product owner who created the marketing as well as the criteria for the product. This group is also fantastic.

[kdm31091]

The point about the EO is a good one. Sometimes people forget that the EO themselves do not make decisions and are routing your request to the same underwriters as anything else. So there's often not much advantage to a recon with the EO vs underwriting directly

[zooyork970]

So after looking, it looks like most of the Texas locations were closed in a wave of branch closures. Any pointers on where I could go to talk to an actual person?

Thanks!