Wanting a Citi Credit Card

roxy72 · ‎03-22-2026

Hi,

I've held a Citi savings account for over 5 years now and I'd love to apply for a credit card but I'm scared of them denying me credit. I only have about 20k in the account. Can I use that as leverage when I apply? I'm in the process of rebuilding my credit and TransUnion is my only score over 800. Experian is 670 and Equifax is 645. I have a BOA CO set to fall off my EX report in June which will give me a big boost. Does Citi pull from TransUnion or should I wait till the CO falls off Ex?

Seedling till 5/15/19

Snow-Leopard · ‎03-22-2026

@roxy72 wrote:
Hi,

I've held a Citi savings account for over 5 years now and I'd love to apply for a credit card but I'm scared of them denying me credit. I only have about 20k in the account. Can I use that as leverage when I apply? I'm in the process of rebuilding my credit and TransUnion is my only score over 800. Experian is 670 and Equifax is 645. I have a BOA CO set to fall off my EX report in June which will give me a big boost. Does Citi pull from TransUnion or should I wait till the CO falls off Ex?

Is that Bank of America CO paid or settled?

You might want to wait until after that Bank of America CO is excluded by EQ in June, since Citibank likes to hard pull EQ in some states! Be patient, or you might end up with hard inquiries and credit application denials.

Patient957 · ‎03-22-2026

@roxy72 wrote:
Hi,

I've held a Citi savings account for over 5 years now and I'd love to apply for a credit card but I'm scared of them denying me credit. I only have about 20k in the account. Can I use that as leverage when I apply? I'm in the process of rebuilding my credit and TransUnion is my only score over 800. Experian is 670 and Equifax is 645. I have a BOA CO set to fall off my EX report in June which will give me a big boost. Does Citi pull from TransUnion or should I wait till the CO falls off Ex?

I would wait until all your reports are clean. Citi can pull any of them. For me, it's Experian. For others, Equifax.

A little patience and then you can have whatever you want come June.

roxy72 · ‎03-23-2026

The BOA CO has not been paid.

Seedling till 5/15/19

AndySoCal · ‎03-23-2026

Credit report time limits is 7 years from the date of first delinquency. That does not mean you do not owe the debt after it falls off the credit report. If you were to want to use Bank of America products again banking loans etc they may want that debt paid .

FICO Scores XPN v8 805 V2 831 (SDFCU) TUC V 8 800 07/25 EFX Bankcard v8 822 EFX FIC0 v8 808 Vantage score 4.0 817 via JC Penney
JC Penney 10/2008 4,700 US Bank Cash 08/2010 12,000 Citibank Custom Cash 5/2015 14,100, State Dept. FCU 06/2023 30,000 02/2024 Redstone FCU Signature VISA 10,000 08/23/2024 Commonwealth Credit Union 15000 07/25 Walmart One 5000 12/04/25
Banks and Credit Unions: Lafayette FCU Fortera FCU State Department FCU Redstone FCU Hughes FCU Commonwealth FCU Veridian Credit Union Utah Community Credit Union
My personal blacklist Axos Bank, Bank of America, Synchrony Bank Capital One TD Bank BMO Langley FCU Paypal Barclays

TrapLine · ‎03-23-2026

A reminder, because the credit bureau may end up clean does not mean the financial purged their files. The financial has every legal right to retain your performance record and utlize it where appropriate.

So the account history follows us internally to the financial.

DeeBee78 · ‎03-23-2026

In Nevada, Citi has pulled Experian for me every time. So has every other lender, but that's another story...

Snow-Leopard · ‎03-23-2026

@roxy72 wrote:
Hi,

I've held a Citi savings account for over 5 years now and I'd love to apply for a credit card but I'm scared of them denying me credit. I only have about 20k in the account. Can I use that as leverage when I apply? I'm in the process of rebuilding my credit and TransUnion is my only score over 800. Experian is 670 and Equifax is 645. I have a BOA CO set to fall off my EX report in June which will give me a big boost. Does Citi pull from TransUnion or should I wait till the CO falls off Ex?

One more thing: make sure to check and dispute inaccuracies in your other consumer reports, not just the "big three" EQ, EX, and TU. I caught Citi running promotional soft inquiries against my NCTUE file which contained "unpaid" Comcast collections accounts that were in fact paid.

TrapLine · ‎03-24-2026

Great "heads up" as I had no idea! Did "freeze" mine several years back so I do not know what they would do?

DeeBee78 · ‎03-31-2026

Citi will also hold a missed payment against you, even with another lender, for the entirety of it being reported on your credit report.

I haven't had a CLI in years because of a reported late with another lender.