CITI pulled my CR without informing me?

[CBTS]

I checked my CR Monitoring Service (CITI Identity Monitor) yesterday and saw there was an inquiry by CBNA (CITI Bank) for 07/03/13. I have a secured MasterCard with CITI that I got in February 2012. It was an agreement for 18 months, so my contract is supposed to end sometime next month, after which I was supposed to have been offered a regular credit card with them. I logged into my CITI online account as soon as I saw the inquiry and the following message popped up:

"We have reissued a new Citi® MasterCard® with the same account number as your current card. You should receive it by 7/24/2013.

If it has already arrived, activate it now.

This replacement card may have been requested by an authorized user(s) on the account or is a new card being issued to you by Citi.

If you have not received your new card(s) by 7/24/2013 please contact Customer Service at 1-800-950-5114."

I called the customer service a couple of times as soon as I saw the inquiry, and it was a painful experience. Both the representatives told me different things and it seemed like they had no idea what they were talking about. First one said it was a replacement for my current secured card because the one that I have is going to expire next month. But when I asked her why CITI pulled my report if it only was just a replacement, these were her exact words "Then why did you (me) request a replacement?" I was about to say "Are you effing serious?" but held myself back and told her nevermind and ended the call. The second representative at first said it really was a regular credit card, but then also said it could very well be a replacement for the secured card. Is it really possible that there's no way to find out what card it really is? More importantly, can CITI pull my credit report WITHOUT my authorization?

Is there anyone who's ever had a CITI secured card (or similar secured card) that went through the same thing?

(EDIT FOR TYPOS)

[Creditaddict]

I would hope this means you are getting a regular Citi card and I would wait for it to come... if it's secured then I might have more choice words for the lack of knowledge and or hard pull!

[enharu]

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@Anonymous- wrote:

I checked my CR Monitoring Service (CITI Identity Monitor) yesterday and saw there was an inquiry by CBNA (CITI Bank) for 07/03/13. I have a secured MasterCard with CITI that I got in February 2012. It was an agreement for 18 months, so my contract is supposed to end sometime next month, after which I was supposed to have been offered a regular credit card with them. I logged into my CITI online account as soon as I saw the inquiry and the following message popped up:

"We have reissued a new Citi® MasterCard® with the same account number as your current card. You should receive it by 7/24/2013.

If it has already arrived, activate it now.

This replacement card may have been requested by an authorized user(s) on the account or is a new card being issued to you by Citi.

If you have not received your new card(s) by 7/24/2013 please contact Customer Service at 1-800-950-5114."

I called the customer service a couple of times as soon as I saw the inquiry, and it was a painful experience. Both the representatives told me different things and it seemed like they had no idea what they were talking about. First one said it was a replacement for my current secured card because the one that I have is going to expire next month. But when I asked her why CITI pulled my report if it only was just a replacement, these were her exact words "Then why did you (me) request a replacement?" I was about to say "Are you effing serious?" but held myself back and told her nevermind and ended the call. The second representative at first said it really was a regular credit card, but then also said it could very well be a replacement for the secured card. Is it really possible that there's no way to find out what card it really is? More importantly, can CITI pull my credit report WITHOUT my authorization?

Is there anyone who's ever had a CITI secured card (or similar secured card) that went through the same thing?

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check your original contract and T&C when you signed up for the secured card.

There might have been a clause in the T&C where you authorized them to do hard inquiries whenever necessary.

[mxp114]

I'm guessing they HP to check eligibility for an unsecured product and that's what you're getting. If so, a worthy HP for that achievement. Congrats.

[09Lexie]

I agree with the others. Congrats on your upgrade!

[CBTS]

I'm hoping it really is an unsecured card. Although it would've been nice if they'd informed me beforehand which cards I'm qualified for. But the "[R]eissued a card with the same account number" message is still making me worried. And the customer service has already left a bad taste in my mouth (it wasn't exaclty about the representative not knowing what was going on, but she got rude by the end of the call.)

Oh well, let's hope for the best!

[enharu]

If it is indeed an unsecured card, you should be able to get a product change to another card within the same tier.

I am guessing "reissued with the same account number" means the tradeline is continued the way it is, rather than a new tradeline being reported and dropping your AAoA during the process.

Best of luck!

[CBTS]

I didn't know if I should make another thread or not, but now there's another issue. I did get a letter in the mail, saying CITI renewed my account without requiring a deposit, and that my initial deposit will be refunded to me, so I guess it really is an unsecured card. But I just refreshed my CR from Identity Monitor for this month, and I see there's TWO inquiries by CBNA, one on 07-02-13, and the other on 07-06-13. Now I could've lived with only one inquiry, but TWO!!?? I don't think it's really worth it for just a CITI Classic MasterCard.

What do you guys think I should do now, dispute it with them? If so, how do I go about doing that?

ETA: If it was a double-pull, it would've been understandable, but both inquiries are on TU!

[Gharlane]

You keep saying "inquiry", but that could mean either a Soft ('Inquiries Shared Only With You' on my Experian-provided report) or a Hard ('Inquiries Shared With Others'). Soft pulls are harmless - they're just checking your history etc.  It's the Hard pulls that other creditors see, and will count against you.

You probably already know that; I'm just trying to get clarity here.

[CBTS]

I get my credit reports through CITI Identity Monitor. I'm under the impression that SPs don't show up if you don't get the CR directly through the CRAs. From what I've read, reports from third party credit monitoring services only show HPs. Did I get it all wrong? (I apologize for my ignorance on this matter.)