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CITI cards...

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crunching_numbers
Valued Contributor

Re: CITI cards...


@CS800 wrote:

@maiden_girl wrote:

Citi is horrible. They deny you for stupid reasons then if you try to RECON with them...they pretend they arent looking directly at your credit report and tell you to send them a copy of it with the denial letter attached..reallly CITI? Really?


I share your frustration and that's the reason why I don't even have a CITI card. I have tried to get in with them for the longest time and finally gave up recently. ALways denied for the silliest reason.

I remember calling to recon and they told me that I had 4 inqs on EX (only 2 were about 1 year old, the rest were over 3) tha'ts why they denied it.

 

Another time was that My accounts were too new. I had 3 new accounts (new as in they were over 1 year old with low limits back then). Right after I gave up, I applied for the BOA privileges card and they also check EX just like citi and they gave me a $15000 CL; go figure

 

So as much as I wanted to add CITI to my portfolio, I just gave up on them.

 

But as usual YMMV


CS I hear you. They approved me, but look at the CL in relation to my others. And they are not increasing it. The APR they gave me is 21.99%. (high against most of my prime cards). There are no rewards on the card I have. I am waiting to see if they come out with something new this summer to do a PC. The only thing I do with it since I paid off the BT I used it for is to buy CitiPass  Preferred concert tickets. 

It surprises me because although I have a good ( but not stellar) FICO, and pretty high income, high spending across all cards, I am aparently not the demographic they want. 


Starting Score: 693 TU FICO, 679 EQ FICO
Current Score: FICO 8 = 844(9/15) EQ, 827 TU, 811 EX (7/15); mortgage FICO= 758 (9/15)EQ5, 797 TU4, 748 EX2 (7/15)
Goal Score: 750+, but shooting for the 800's
Hyatt Visa Sig ($23K), Amex BCP (24.8K), BofA Travel Rew Sig (22.5K), B&N World MC (22.3K), Amex RP Gold (NPSL w/ S&T), Cash+ Sig (20K),United Mil+ExpSig (16.3K), FNBO Visa (13.1K), Hilton Surpass (10K), Freedom Visa Sig (8.6K), Disc It (16.4K), Citi Dia Pref MC (3.7K),Sam's MC (10K), Wally (7.5K), JCP(5.3K), Costco (2K)
Message 21 of 43
enharu
Super Contributor

Re: CITI cards...

Hey CS: I PM'ed you a number to call. Next time if you have problems with Citi, call this number. 

 

I think I get what you guys are complaining about Citi now.

I called regular CSR this morning 3 times to find out what kind of MC I got (Platinum, World, or World Elite), and if I can switch it to world elite or world MC if it's just a platinum, whether they could rush the card out, and some other questions regarding my account. I literally got the dumbest replies regarding what kind of Mastercard it is. One CSR told me it's a regular mastercard, not an American Express or Visa Mastercard, and I can't switch. She was obviously clueless so I didn't bother to ask her any other questions, and I called again right after. Still couldn't get any answer as to what kind of MC I got. Was just told I got a regular Mastercard. None of them could rush the cards too - they said Citi stopped rushing cards out.

 

So I got a little frustrated with calling customer service because of the time it takes to reach one as well, and I just called the direct line of the person in Citi's Executive Department who's been helping me all along. Was given the answers I asked almost right away, and he said he'll get back to me by Monday on whether I can have my card changed to world elite (It's world MC right now). Even got the card rushed out for free and he said it should be here tomorrow! Smiley Very Happy He told me to call him anytime I have any questions regarding my account, and I'm tempted to really just call him rather than the CS number in the future, but it just sounds wrong to make someone in his position do everything for me lol....

So yea........their executive department works like magic. The level of service there easily surpasses many other banks and I would say they're better than Chase CSP CSRs only because they have the authority to make decisions for many things as well. If anyone needs the number please send me a PM. 

JPMorgan Palladium (100k), AmEx Platinum (NPSL), AmEx SPG (46k), AmEx BCP (42k), Chase Sapphire Preferred (47k), Citi Prestige (31k), Citi Thank You Preferred (27k), Citi Executive AAdvantage (25k), JPMorgan Ritz-Carlton (21k), Merrill+ (15k), US Bank Cash+ (22.5k), Wells Fargo (12k), Bloomingdale’s (12.4k), Chase Freedom (5k), Discover IT (5k).
Message 22 of 43
jsucool76
Super Contributor

Re: CITI cards...

Sounds kind of like cap1s customer service.

When i got approved for my cap1 plat and then pc'd to cash rewards, i asked if i was eligible for the sign up bonus, and their response was "you earn 1% cash back with an annual 50% bonus."
Message 23 of 43
scottwagnon
Valued Contributor

Re: CITI cards...


@navigatethis12 wrote:

If you are looking for cashback, look elsewhere. The Thank You Preferred with 5% on groceries, gasoline, and drugstores for 12 months is the only good thing they were offering. They make it difficult to redeem for 1 cent per point, but that deal makes it worth it. Other than that, they are pretty lame. The Dividend always has categories that no one uses, making it worthless.


5 points per dollar spent on groceries, fuel, and drugstores? that is news to me, i have never heard of this with citi.

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Message 24 of 43
scottwagnon
Valued Contributor

Re: CITI cards...


@maiden_girl wrote:

Citi is very picky. When I applied, I had a 714 FICO score and it was denied due to too many inquires but I notice many college students here end up getting a card with little or no history so I have no idea.


completely false. you can have between fair and good credit and still with citi and become approved. having too many inquiries is an understandable reason for denial. if you had said iberia, or penfed i would have agreed.

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Message 25 of 43
dddewdrop
Valued Contributor

Re: CITI cards...

    I had similar customer service issues with DCU. Some I talked to had it together, others new far less then the average person on this forum. One person who was supposedly a loan officer was incorrectly describing a credit builder loan. This person had it confused with a secured loan and was saying I had to deposit the full amount to secure it ahead of time. When I emailed customer service, someone emailed back that I didn't need to deposit anything and understood a creditbuilder loan correctly as a loan where the money that is loan to a person is deposited in an account and frozen til the loan is paid with no initial payment. I think the people hired for customer service by these companies are taught in some training program by the banks and dont have the motivation or thirst for knowledge and detail that those of us who seek out credit knowledge online and want to improve our scores possess. The moral of the story is if you get A CSR who doesn't know their stuff, just politely end the conversation and call back at another time and try again and hopefully you will get a better CSR. 

Message 26 of 43
MonkeyBelly
Regular Contributor

Re: CITI cards...

I've had a Citi card for 12+ years. It's really nothing special.
Starting myFICOs 2013
TU:664 March --> 726 May 25
EQ: 687 on March 6 --> 772 May 25
USAA EX (FAKO): 701 March 27 --> 768 May 26
Original goal (720+ across the board) achieved!
Message 27 of 43
dddewdrop
Valued Contributor

Re: CITI cards...

I have one still on one report from almost 10 years ago. It is still reporting as always paid on time but will fall off soon probably unfortunately...

Message 28 of 43
longtimelurker
Epic Contributor

Re: CITI cards...


@MonkeyBelly wrote:
I've had a Citi card for 12+ years. It's really nothing special.

 

It's often not all that meaningful to make general statements about big banks.   Chase, Citi, BoA, Barclays etc, have a fairly large set of cards that change over time.   Some (entry level) probably are fairly useless for the majority of people, others might be much more tailored to a particular spending pattern, and so offer great value to some and little to others.  This is true of nearly all banks, Chase, Barclays, Amex etc have cards that make little sense if you cannot make use of the benefits.

 

Offerings also evolve as issuers compete with each other, so a 12 year old probably doesn't seem good compared to what is offered today.   As others have said, Citi does have some good cards.  The Forward card (sadly now only in a student version) is great value, for AA miles, the Citi cards with bonuses is the way to go, and, for now, the TYP 5% is really hard to beat.  With reasonable care, you can get several hundred $s a month in cash back, or more for travel when used with Premier/Prestige.

 

This doesn't mean that Citi has a card that is good for you, but then Chase/Amex/BoA etc don't have cards that are good for everyone either.

Message 29 of 43
dddewdrop
Valued Contributor

Re: CITI cards...


@longtimelurker wrote:

@MonkeyBelly wrote:
I've had a Citi card for 12+ years. It's really nothing special.

 

It's often not all that meaningful to make general statements about big banks.   Chase, Citi, BoA, Barclays etc, have a fairly large set of cards that change over time.   Some (entry level) probably are fairly useless for the majority of people, others might be much more tailored to a particular spending pattern, and so offer great value to some and little to others.  This is true of nearly all banks, Chase, Barclays, Amex etc have cards that make little sense if you cannot make use of the benefits.

 

Offerings also evolve as issuers compete with each other, so a 12 year old probably doesn't seem good compared to what is offered today.   As others have said, Citi does have some good cards.  The Forward card (sadly now only in a student version) is great value, for AA miles, the Citi cards with bonuses is the way to go, and, for now, the TYP 5% is really hard to beat.  With reasonable care, you can get several hundred $s a month in cash back, or more for travel when used with Premier/Prestige.

 

This doesn't mean that Citi has a card that is good for you, but then Chase/Amex/BoA etc don't have cards that are good for everyone either.

+1

Message 30 of 43
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