Best CitiBank card?

[tpmlls]

I am wanting to acquire another credit card and I have heard very good things about the Citi cards. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? MyFico scores as of a this week are Equifax- 650  TU- 658.   Which card would I have the best shot at? I need to wait a few more months for some INQ's to fall off.

 Thanks,

Wes

[mikka1]

I have recently started a somewhat similar thread - http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Getting-Citi-card-Dividend-Platinum-Select/td-p/1769608 - as I basically have the same question now. 

With your scores I would say that you best shot might be at Forward, but from my personal experience Citi is quite a conservative lender - they have denied me twice in the past year, so I would be quite careful considering Citi in your shoes...

How does your current profile look like? How many cards do you have already? Any baddies (if so, how recent are they)? AAoA?

[tpmlls]

Thanks mikka1!

I actually applied for the Citi Forward twice in the last year and a half and was denied both times. Granted, at those times, I did not have as firm of a grasp of my credit as I do now, so I am a little apprehensive applying for it again. (The third times the charm need not apply to this case!!!)  I currently have a Crap One Platinum ($2,000) that I have had for a couple years, a Crap One Cash Rewards MC ($1,000) A Household Bank card ($600) which is my oldest active card from early 2010, a Credit Union card with my wife ($2,000), a recent Chase Freedom Visa ($1,500). I do have a handful of baddies, but some are being disputed (Medical bills) but the other two will fall off my reports in a year or so. My AAoA is about 3.5 years, and I have not had a late payment of any kind for about 4.5 years. I have a brand new 175,000 mortgage and my student loans which are slowing but surely getting knocked out (never a late payment). The reason that I want a Citi card is because I have heard they are a great lender to do business with and I want to get rid of my Household Bank card, which has been bought by Crap One, so I would now have THREE Crap One cards, which is out of control. I want to just have my Chase Freedom, my Credit Union card, and a CitiBank card of some sort. So, did that help?

Thanks,

Wes

[mikka1]

Have you ever looked at Discover? I applied for Discover More when I had less than a year of credit history and got approved. Unless you burned Discover in a past, I would rather go this path and start establishing relationship with them. 

I don't know if it can help you, but I would also try to get my foot into the door of GE Bank - lots of people here (and I'm not the exeption as well) have Walmart card even if they don't shop there regularly - it can grow nicely (mine has grown from $300 to $3500 in ~1 year and there were stories of even more impressive growth of GE cards here) and it can provide you with free TU score every month. 

Have you tried to check if any of these lenders mentioned (Citi, Discover etc) have any pre-screened offers for you? 

BTW, more I look into Citi cards description, more I get the feeling that there's actually nothing special about them :-( I also want to establish relationship with Citi for future, but it seems that none of those cards can replace Discover / AmexBCE in my wallet and become my first choice, unfortunately... (unless they unexpectedly grant me with ~$20k limit LOL)

[tpmlls]

Thanks for the info. I am not 100% do or die sold on just a Citi card, I just want another good card that I can have and stay with me for a long time. I want to get rid of my sub-prime cards and just "roll" with a couple. Discover is a card that I have not really looked into that much. Is it accepted almost everywhere? I really want to get in with AMEX, and I have been denied I think a grand total of 3 times in the last couple years. I applied for the BCE and the Clear and never thought about doing a recon with those apps... I just hate that you can destroy your credit in a matter of days, but that it can take YEARS to get it back on track.... 

[mikka1]

From my experience, Discover acceptance in the US is sufficient to use the card for everyday purposes. There might be some smaller places not accepting Discover, but similarly there are still places that don't accept any cards at all. In many other countries (especially in some European ones) Discover might be a disaster not being accepted almost anywhere. Look at it closely - I would really try to get in with them, their 5% rotating categories are really great IMO.