Is Citi Inquiry Sensitive?

[Anonymous]

I have a love/hate relationship wih Citi. In November I opened up a Citi Aadvantage Platinum Select mastercard. Received an instant approval @11k limit. In late December I app'd for the Citi Premier TY card. I was instantly denied for "too many recent inquires". I have a solid credit score (around 750) and maybe 2-4% utilization, but I have opened a lot of new cards and have a ton of inquires on EX (seriously 25...j mostly from a house purchase). I recon'd and they refused to open the account or move credit from one of my other two Citi accounts. It was a flat out no.

In early Feb I app'd for the Citi Prestige and recevied the dreaded pending/call in message with the app id. Gosh, I hate calling. So, I called in and after a 2-3 minute wait was approved at a $21k credit line (in addition to my other cards). I have way more than 6 inquiries in the last 6 months. My new theory is that Citi is only inquiry sensitive if you apply for certain products (Premier TY or Double Cash). Thoughts?

[OmarGB9]

I think they're inquiry sensitive period, BUT in certain circumstances, they're willing to overlook them if the rest of your file looks good.

[ddemari]

Ive applied for a few Citi cards since my EX has been clean except inqs. always come back as denied due to inq's. 

Someone posted about a recon with them that did not go anywhere because they had 5 inqs in the past 6-12 months. 

[TURNERHOOVER]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@I have a love/hate relationship wih Citi. In November I opened up a Citi Aadvantage Platinum Select mastercard. Received an instant approval @11k limit. In late December I app'd for the Citi Premier TY card. I was instantly denied for "too many recent inquires". I have a solid credit score (around 750) and maybe 2-4% utilization, but I have opened a lot of new cards and have a ton of inquires on EX (seriously 25...j mostly from a house purchase). I recon'd and they refused to open the account or move credit from one of my other two Citi accounts. It was a flat out no.

In early Feb I app'd for the Citi Prestige and recevied the dreaded pending/call in message with the app id. Gosh, I hate calling. So, I called in and after a 2-3 minute wait was approved at a $21k credit line (in addition to my other cards). I have way more than 6 inquiries in the last 6 months. My new theory is that Citi is only inquiry sensitive if you apply for certain products (Premier TY or Double Cash). Thoughts?

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IMO, yes.

[CreditMagic7]

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@OmarGB9 wrote:
I think they're inquiry sensitive period, BUT in certain circumstances, they're willing to overlook them if the rest of your file looks good.

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And they watch for any NEW accounts that pop up too. They seem to want to be in your mainstream lineup flow if you have their card(s) and IMO look very seriously at competition that might draw you further away from them.

On the other hand, i've found that their Credit Analysts DEPT. can be the difference in pushing a denial thru whether CLI or new account.

[OmarGB9]

Didn't know that. Interesting data point. Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Incredibly. As a datapoint, I was approved for the Citi DC a year ago when my score was about 25 points LOWER than it currently is... but I had no new accounts or recent inquiries. Fast foward to present where my file is thicker and I have more accounts and recent inquiries albeit a higher score... I was denied for the Citi Simplicity I applied for a few weeks ago. Sole reason, inquiries.

[Discover2016]

With Citi it's a YMMV situation, I got approved for both the Premier and DC as the last apps in my spree in September and was approved for both with quite a few inquiries.