I'm off the BL, approved for $11.5k!
So, I've had some recent approvals and CLI's that I haven't reported here or added to my signature. It's still very nice to get some great approvals, but it's kind of second nature at this point. There are a few lenders that I have been waiting to get back in with. Towards the end of the financial crisis I was out of work and around 2010 was finally forced to default and charge off my accounts. I ended up burning Citi, Chase & BofA for about $5k each. A few years later I ended up settling the chargeoffs, but until this year, none of those three had let me back in yet (see below for more extended Citi story for those interested). Earlier this year I was able to get a secured card from BofA unsecured, and talked an analyst into converting it into a BBR - not exactly an approval but happy I got what I was looking for.
Still, I had submitted applications to Chase, Citi and BofA for new cards a couple of times each over the past two years as I've been rebuilding and been turned down each time. I tried to recon and in each case, the analysts told me that I needed to wait for the baddies with their bank to fall off before they could get me approved. My defaults were back in 2010 and pretty much everything falls off in March/April next year. My plan was to hang tight and apply then.
Then, today I received a letter in the mail for the Citi Honors card. It's definitely a card that I'm interested in (I stay with Hilton often when I travel and have a stay coming up next month with them actually)...but it's Citi and I was resigned to the fact that they wouldn't approve me until next year when my reports were clear. Still, I read the over and the disclosures had the one key thing that I was looking for, a defined interest rate (rather than a range). It was there at 15.49% so I logged into the Citi website and saw that it was the lowest rate they offer on this card. All good signs! I stared at it for a while and decided to give it a go, filled out the application, clicked submit and stared at the screen for what seems like quite a while before...shockingly...APPROVED for $11.5k! I'm back in with Citi! I pondered whether I should give Chase and BofA a try but decided I'm quite pleased to work with this new Citi card for now. SO HAPPY!
BTW, for those of you staring at my signature, you can see that one of my oldest cars is actually a Citi Business card. I got it back early in the last decade and originally it had a much higher limit as I had significant business expenses. I kept it as I returned to school in 2007 and eventually they balance chased me down to $1k. For quite a few years, it was my only credit card. They never ended up closing it, but they also were never willing to give me a CLI on the card and they haven't been willing to approve me for a personal card. So it's definitely awesome that they kept that card open for years and years when I had no other cards, but I still felt blacklisted from getting a personal card, but now I'm off!
Congrats! I had a CO with Citi in 2005. How long do I need to wait? I can never get prequalified for anything on their site.
@MugenCivicSi83 wrote:Congrats! I had a CO with Citi in 2005. How long do I need to wait? I can never get prequalified for anything on their site.
So, I had to wait about 6.5 years since date of first default for Citi to let me back in. Negative items are supposed to fall off your report 7 years after DOFD. My original plan (based on what I learned from recon analysts) was to apply next spring after the derogs fell off. I should also mention that about 4 years ago I did pay a settlement for about 50% of the original amount owed. My sense is, they might not let you back in if a CO remains unpaid, even if the item falls off your report (just my gut feeling, no evidence to back that up).
One thing I would point out is, I have never been prequalified for anything with any of the reliable prequal sites. Before receiving this offer in the mail, I checked the Citi prequal as recently as this past weekend and had nothing. I'm wondering if my status with Hilton perhaps played a small part in this approval, but probably not because I was turned down for the card when I apped for it about a year ago. But as far as online prequal, I get nothing and expect it might stay that way forever because as Fordguy pointed out above, each lender keeps their internal records even after the items fall of your report.
If it has been 10+ years since you had your DOFD with Citi and your reports have been clean for some period of time, it might be worth giving it a shot. You might have to recon but you'll never know until you try. I've never even received a pre-approval from Cap One online but sometimes you need to bite the bullet and just give it a shot - for me that resulted in a $30k Venture about a year ago.
@happypill wrote:
@MugenCivicSi83 wrote:Congrats! I had a CO with Citi in 2005. How long do I need to wait? I can never get prequalified for anything on their site.
So, I had to wait about 6.5 years since date of first default for Citi to let me back in. Negative items are supposed to fall off your report 7 years after DOFD. My original plan (based on what I learned from recon analysts) was to apply next spring after the derogs fell off. I should also mention that about 4 years ago I did pay a settlement for about 50% of the original amount owed. My sense is, they might not let you back in if a CO remains unpaid, even if the item falls off your report (just my gut feeling, no evidence to back that up). That is my sense too since I didn't pay it off.
One thing I would point out is, I have never been prequalified for anything with any of the reliable prequal sites. Before receiving this offer in the mail, I checked the Citi prequal as recently as this past weekend and had nothing. I'm wondering if my status with Hilton perhaps played a small part in this approval, but probably not because I was turned down for the card when I apped for it about a year ago. But as far as online prequal, I get nothing and expect it might stay that way forever because as Fordguy pointed out above, each lender keeps their internal records even after the items fall of your report.
If it has been 10+ years since you had your DOFD with Citi and your reports have been clean for some period of time, it might be worth giving it a shot. You might have to recon but you'll never know until you try. I've never even received a pre-approval from Cap One online but sometimes you need to bite the bullet and just give it a shot - for me that resulted in a $30k Venture about a year ago.