What does it take to get approved for Citibank?

[Anonymous]

oh okay. i need to quit spreading my spend too much. i need to focus on 2 cards really. after meeting venture spend i may just use sallie mae and NFCU cashRewards

[taxi818]

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@Anonymous wrote:
oh okay. i need to quit spreading my spend too much. i need to focus on 2 cards really. after meeting venture spend i may just use sallie mae and NFCU cashRewards

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I agree. Im currently on a pay down for the next 5 months. Then i will mainly use my Credit union card with the low apr.

[elim]

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@CreditCuriousity wrote:

Citi iif they send you a pre-qual with a solid apr via snail mail they want you for whatever reason even if you have a 650ish score and a few baddies.  Otherwise your credit better be clean and above a 700 before attempting to try citi from my experience and the ton of reading I have done about them.

Out of the following lenders CITI is the toughest IMO.

Citi

BofA

Chase

Amex

Barclay's

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   hrmmm i got the DC and the DP mailers this week with solid APR's but i just tacked on EX HP number 10.    i'll see if they keep spamming me.    i don't get prequal online.

[taxi818]

E. You should have invitation code. That ho won't hold you back. It's golden the mailers from citi. I say go for double cash.

[Anonymous]

lol. bad influence over here!

[CreditDunce]

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@taxi818 wrote:

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@slund5499 wrote:

I know I need to work on my utilization and get it down to 10% or less.

When my FICo was 670 with 9% utilization, 4 new accounts, 1 baddie and 7 inquiries, I got approved for the shell card with a $500 SL. Denied on every other app including Sears.

No pre-qualifer on the website. Denied for all citibank bank cards.

Any help would be appreciated. Maybe I have to go 3 years with no new accounts, 1% Utility, no inquiries, 1 baddie and $1 million dollar income.

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Honestly from my own observation. and ymmv. i think it is 6 months of no applications and i will explain why i think that.

Last november i tried for any citi card and no go. but i had a lot of apps. Finally in July this year when i finally made it 6 months without applying for anything although i had 13 new accounts. They sent me a mailer. i was in shock. online i was pre approved for all of their cards. My scores were right around 700 Eq and Boom approved after so many denials. Not a great limit but 2k on the double cash. i took it. now im just waiting for the sp cli.

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I think it is 6 months, too.  But for INQ/HPs.  Last year, I was pre-approved for several Citi CC's.  However, I app'd for just about everything except a Citi card.  The pre-approval went away a month or two after my app spree (before all of the new cards were reporting).   I waited 6 months, still no pre-approval (it could be the SP was lagging).   I app'd for the DC and was approved for a 5900, but not at the best APR. 

[Anonymous]

I did a mini app spree in August. For the past month, I have gotten a couple mailers a week from Citi. One is the diamond preferred and the other is the thank you preferred.  I did notice that the mailer I received a couple days ago had a lower rate than previous mailers.  The rate was 22.99 which is why I trashed them.  Now it is 19.99 and to the trash it went.

I want the double cash so I am holding off.  The mailers started coming after I checked the pre-qualifier on their site. 

[taxi818]

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@CreditDunce wrote:

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@taxi818 wrote:

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@slund5499 wrote:

I know I need to work on my utilization and get it down to 10% or less.

When my FICo was 670 with 9% utilization, 4 new accounts, 1 baddie and 7 inquiries, I got approved for the shell card with a $500 SL. Denied on every other app including Sears.

No pre-qualifer on the website. Denied for all citibank bank cards.

Any help would be appreciated. Maybe I have to go 3 years with no new accounts, 1% Utility, no inquiries, 1 baddie and $1 million dollar income.

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Honestly from my own observation. and ymmv. i think it is 6 months of no applications and i will explain why i think that.

Last november i tried for any citi card and no go. but i had a lot of apps. Finally in July this year when i finally made it 6 months without applying for anything although i had 13 new accounts. They sent me a mailer. i was in shock. online i was pre approved for all of their cards. My scores were right around 700 Eq and Boom approved after so many denials. Not a great limit but 2k on the double cash. i took it. now im just waiting for the sp cli.

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I think it is 6 months, too.  But for INQ/HPs.  Last year, I was pre-approved for several Citi CC's.  However, I app'd for just about everything except a Citi card.  The pre-approval went away a month or two after my app spree (before all of the new cards were reporting).   I waited 6 months, still no pre-approval (it could be the SP was lagging).   I app'd for the DC and was approved for a 5900, but not at the best APR. 

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Exactly for inquiries. also soon after i applied the pre approval disappeared. But i did not mine since the doulbe case offer came first of all the cards. So i just took it at a high Apr. 18.99% Still under the promo period so 0% for now. But  glad to be in with them never the less.

[merlinflex]

I got a pre-selected mailer in late Oct for the Citi Diamond, went ahead and applied online, forgot to unfreeze my CRs and got -7-10 day message and then an email later saying that I needed to unfreeze my TU, which I did. Called and in gave the app# and told them go ahead.

30 mins later, I got email approval for $13.7K (odd number).

My TU was 804 at that time.

[Anonymous]

I had a pre-qual letter from Citi for their basic card without rewards.  I really wasn't interested in another card with zero rewards.  I was looking for something with rewards that I could pay in full each month.

But it did get my interest, so I went to Citi's website to check out all their cards.  I saw the ThankYou Preferred was offering 20,000 bonus points if you spent $1500 in the first three months. 

So I applied for the ThankYou Preferred instead of the pre-qual card.  Instant approval of $5300 CL.  With a FICO of 750 and fair utilization of about 40% (I'm working on paying off my existing cards so this will go down over time).

It's been about three weeks of using the card and I'm loving it so far.