How hard is it to get a Citi Card?

[dbatl14]

So I guess my 31 inquries is what keeps me from getting a Citi Card. I got a CC from pretty much ever major lender with nice CL's. However Citi alway says it can't pre-qual for me for anything. I guess they don't like to share and want to be the only card in your wallet.

Chase blacklisted me for a Providian account from 15 years ago. I won't ever use them.

[TiggerDat]

I did the prequal last year and got nothing showing up.  I had a few inquiries and was on a spree.  I did have low util though.  I got instant accept for the Dividend card.

Oddly, this was the one I thought I would have the lowest chance of getting.  They didn't give me a big limit, but even with very little use it has been increased.  I even think if I asked again now I would get another increase, but I will wait since I plan on converting the card to the DC since it is redundant with a Freedom and an IT card. 

I think my score at the time was only about 700 and my AAoA was about 4 years.  So maybe I got lucky?

[Anonymous]

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@dbatl14 wrote:

So I guess my 31 inquries is what keeps me from getting a Citi Card. I got a CC from pretty much ever major lender with nice CL's. However Citi alway says it can't pre-qual for me for anything. I guess they don't like to share and want to be the only card in your wallet.

Chase blacklisted me for a Providian account from 15 years ago. I won't ever use them.

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Is that 31 inquiries on one bureau or spread out over all 3? They have never pre-qualified me on their website, but they have sent me 2 mailers recently for their Diamond Preferred card. I have 32 total inquiries - EQ 10, TU 12, and EX 10. I would take it but I'm waiting for a better offer. The first one was for only 9 months 0% APR and then 22% APR after that (IIRC). The second one was 12 months 0% APR and then 20% APR after that. The regular DP card comes with 21 months 0% APR, which is why I'm holding out. But even though they send me pre-approved mailers, they still can't match me to anything online.

[TiggerDat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@dbatl14 wrote:

So I guess my 31 inquries is what keeps me from getting a Citi Card. I got a CC from pretty much ever major lender with nice CL's. However Citi alway says it can't pre-qual for me for anything. I guess they don't like to share and want to be the only card in your wallet.

Chase blacklisted me for a Providian account from 15 years ago. I won't ever use them.

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Is that 31 inquiries on one bureau or spread out over all 3? They have never pre-qualified me on their website, but they have sent me 2 mailers recently for their Diamond Preferred card. I have 32 total inquiries - EQ 10, TU 12, and EX 10. I would take it but I'm waiting for a better offer. The first one was for only 9 months 0% APR and then 22% APR after that (IIRC). The second one was 12 months 0% APR and then 20% APR after that. The regular DP card comes with 21 months 0% APR, which is why I'm holding out. But even though they send me pre-approved mailers, they still can't match me to anything online.

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I used to get those Diamond Preferred invites a lot too.  I don't think I ever actually got anything from the website though.  Maybe I got the Dividend after getting an invite for the Diamond card and figured I was in anyway and that is why I decided to apply, but I still think I would have checked the prequal site for them to see what I did qualify for.  I don't really believe in prequal sites much anyway. 

[Anonymous]

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@TiggerDat wrote:

I used to get those Diamond Preferred invites a lot too.  I don't think I ever actually got anything from the website though.  Maybe I got the Dividend after getting an invite for the Diamond card and figured I was in anyway and that is why I decided to apply, but I still think I would have checked the prequal site for them to see what I did qualify for.  I don't really believe in prequal sites much anyway. 

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I check my SPs on each credit report when I can (although I haven't been able to check for a month or so), but I have only seen SPs from Citi for my Best Buy card which they have done about once a month on EQ since I got the card. I have only seen one SP on EX from just Citi (back in April). The reason I bring this up is because I have tried Citi's pre-qual a bunch of times since last year, so obviously they don't do a SP on us every time we try the pre-qualifier (either that or they were getting my info from the Best Buy SPs- not sure). But if their pre-qualifier is using very old SPs, then that could be why many of us can't get pre-qualified offers.

[dbatl14]

Nope 31 on just Equifax, 15 on TU and EX.

I bought 2 cars and then I refi'd one. When I bought the cars they shot the apps to like 7 different lenders, then a year later when I refi'd one of them I got an offer from Rate Genius for 5% lower. I thought they were the bank but then found out they were only a broker who shot the apps to 7 - 10 different lenders. So I winded up with a lot of the Inquiries but the other where by banks for CC's but I got approved for pretty much 8 out of 10 despite.

Only Citi's been playing hardball then I wonder since I had a Bank Account with them through my job for several years that I used as my main since it was free once they were trying to charge an Account Fee, I closed it and moved my money. Maybe they are still salty about it and feel that since I closed my account there I am no longer welcome. I have no idea

[taxi818]

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@dbatl14 wrote:

So I guess my 31 inquries is what keeps me from getting a Citi Card. I got a CC from pretty much ever major lender with nice CL's. However Citi alway says it can't pre-qual for me for anything. I guess they don't like to share and want to be the only card in your wallet.

Chase blacklisted me for a Providian account from 15 years ago. I won't ever use them.

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Im not so sure if it will stop you from getting a card. it just depends. you have to use strategy with citi.

I apped for a citi card back in November when i was very foolish. Denied. After i decided i will never app for citi until they came to me. Fast foward 8 months later. Went to their web site for kicks and giggles. Pre approval came up. Still did not app. Couple days later got mailer offering me the Double Cash. I was all over it. Instantly approved. At time i had 17 inquires. But the Difference i believe was the last 6 months. I only had 2 inqs the previous 6 months. So they were ok with the total and more focused on what i had done in the last 6 months. It was the same with Chase. also i only had balances on about 4 accounts out of 20. So maybe that helped too. Not sure. Scores were all over 700. Not sure how they decided it.

[Anonymous]

Wasn't hard for me. In 6 mos added Amazon, Sams,  3 Amex cards. They pulled my equifax which was a blessing. 

Still can't believe they gave me 0 for 18 months and their second lowest apr of 13.99. My experience with them was checking their site three times a month since april (got approved end of June) 

Half the time the site would display an error. Or it would say diamond preferred 0 for 9 then  22.9. 

Many mailers for dp and dc 0 for 12 then 19. Many simplicity 0 for 18 then 19.99. Then saw one simplicity 0 for 21 then 12.99. Then back to 19.99 mailers for a few weeks. Then bam citi dc 0 for 18 then 13.9. Couldn't believe it.