Citi Bank keeps lowering credit limit

[SUPERSQUID]

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@MN3 wrote:

I have the Citi Bank Double Cash and Citi Bank Costco cards. Both have now lowered my credit limit twice in the past 5 months (at the same time for both) with the reason being "high utilization". But if they'd stop lowering my CL, I wouldn't have high utilization..! I get the cards paid down to 50% and they then suddenly drop my CL to just over $100 of my unpaid balance, causing a waterfall to a drop in my credit score. I haven't even been using the cards because they keep dropping my limit. And I havent missed a payment, on any credit line, for more than 4 years now (these two cards never). Is this common, will they ever stop?! 

Maybe I'm just venting. But I'm getting so frustrated - especially since they are, in theory, causing the reason given 😒. 

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As others have already mentioned its classic balance chasing.

Perhaps the whole picture of your credit portfolio spooked them, your scores seem rather low.

[Anna]

They have done the same with me too. I called them to have them put it back up and they wouldn't do it. I have the preferred card and costco card with them. All of this started happening when I took advantage of the preferred cards 0% APR for balance transfers for 18 months. Of course I had a high balance on it but I was also making payments that were well over the minimum payment to get it paid off in 18 months! Citi bank is the only creditor I have ever had an issue with! How do they reduce your credit limit when you have excellent payment history and had good credit until they messed with it?! 

[Drifter73]

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@Anna wrote:

They have done the same with me too. I called them to have them put it back up and they wouldn't do it. I have the preferred card and costco card with them. All of this started happening when I took advantage of the preferred cards 0% APR for balance transfers for 18 months. Of course I had a high balance on it but I was also making payments that were well over the minimum payment to get it paid off in 18 months! Citi bank is the only creditor I have ever had an issue with! How do they reduce your credit limit when you have excellent payment history and had good credit until they messed with it?! 

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They did the same to me last year and I have x4 Citi cards. At the time, both my retail cards (Home Depot and Macys) were zero balances, but I used the 0% bt offers on both, my custom cash and diamond preferred for almost the max limits on both. 

After 3 months of payments they cld my custom cash. So to help stop chasing, the next month I paid my custom cash off completely and now PIF with that card (as its not really intended to be a bt card anyways), then payed 6x the minimum on the diamond and now always pay 2x+ min every month.

Haven't had anymore balance chasing from them since.

It's profile dependent though. I did have 3 other cards over 80% Utilization each out of 17 cards (the rest with 0% to 5% uti). So they may red flag once X amount of cards cross over the 80% line indicating potential hardships and default. For me, it was x5 cards over 80% out of 17 cards.

Now days I try not to have more than x2 BT cards with that high of a Utilization. So far, so good.

[ElvisCaprice]

Never carry a balance.  Don't be a slave to the banks system.  Turn it around on them and use and abuse.  Take advantage of being in the minority.

[longtimelurker]

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@ElvisCaprice wrote:

Never carry a balance.  Don't be a slave to the banks system.  Turn it around on them and use and abuse.  Take advantage of being in the minority.

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Some of the posters here are carrying balances in a 0% APR period, which is certainly "Turn it around on them and use and abuse" as much as most things.   It apparently turns out that not all banks appreciate that and have the tools (CLD) to make their displeasure known.

In the credit card game, it's the issuers who hold the upper hand.   Yes, we see here "they did you a favor" (closing a card) etc, but the reality is, in the main, once you have a card, you either want to keep it, or be the one who decides when it is closed.   The bank can decide otherwise

[ElvisCaprice]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@ElvisCaprice wrote:

Never carry a balance.  Don't be a slave to the banks system.  Turn it around on them and use and abuse.  Take advantage of being in the minority.

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Some of the posters here are carrying balances in a 0% APR period, which is certainly "Turn it around on them and use and abuse" as much as most things.   It apparently turns out that not all banks appreciate that and have the tools (CLD) to make their displeasure known.

And they know that, the banks, thus the carrying of a 0% APR balance wasn't a free lunch.  Don't give them this power, never carry a CC balance.  Churn and burn on your needs, not theirs.  Take the power out of their hands, you decide, nothing to lose.  If they won't play ball, then move on to another.  No loss.

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[longtimelurker]

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@ElvisCaprice wrote:

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.  Take the power out of their hands, you decide, nothing to lose.  If they won't play ball, then move on to another.  No loss.

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This is assuming that cards are more or less interchangeable.  It happens that some of us have a strong attachment to say the Altitude Reserve.   If the issuer closed that, while there are certainly other cards there, it WOULD be a loss.   As an ex-MSr, the solution is not to do it across the board, be nice with the cards that you really like, and be as risky as you like/can with the others.

[JT777]

Same thing happened to me. I have Citi Simplicity card. Had a $3,000 credit limit and just a few months ago, I had under $100 charged. I paid off the balance. Kept it dormant for 4 months. I just used my card and charged $1500 on it in under 7 days and was planning to pay it off in a couple of weeks. Citi Bank immediately lowered my credit limit from $3,000 to $1,600. They know what they are doing... lower your credit limit, the credit bureaus all see your credit utilization is elevated and appears to be high risk to other creditors, potential and otherwise. I called to inquire and had the same response. They told me that I can call back and request to increase it, I said no thanks. I had this done to me with cards I have left dormant for years and they lowered the credit limit or closed those accounts. I can understand that to a fault, but out of nowhere with little context is concerning. Not a missed payment in my 26+ year history of credit cards. Coincidentally, I also have a Citi Diamond Preferred card with $12,300 credit limit. They just literally dropped my credit limit to $10,310 as I was typing this out. I have credit cards with other merchants and have not had this occur as of yet. 

[IsambardPrince]

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@FicoMike0 wrote:

If it's of any comfort, chiti sucks pond scum and howls at the moon! They turned me down on preapproval.

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Don't use Citi even if you can get a card with a huge limit. The bank hates losing money and from what I've heard will almost always either rule against you if someone racks up fraud charges on your account, but also seems to make it appear you won and comes back like 10 months later and reinserts the charge on another statement and adds interest and hopes you won't notice. If you complain, what I've heard is that they tell you pay it or they report it to the bureaus and tough cookies.

When I filed bankruptcy they ignored my filing and discharge and reported six more late payments after the filing date and they were committing harrassment leading up to the bankruptcy by way of calling me dozens of times a day to annoy me and make my phone ring and ring while they filled my voicemail box until I had to change my phone number to make it stop.

I didn't give my new phone number to anyone who may report it to a credit bureau until after I had filed bankruptcy and was protected by the automatic stay. All the other creditors put together didn't call me as much as Citi alone.

It's my opinion that Citi may have called to "harass, annoy, and/or intimidate me" and the way I understand it this sounds suspiciously like Disorderly Conduct as a Business Offense as defined by the Illinois Compiled Statutes. But nobody is going to prosecute a huge bank, I suppose, so they have little to fear even if the fine should be $3,000 every time they do it.

Calling repeatedly, with no expectation I would answer, and filling up my voicemail, which definitely made me "annoyed". Hmm...

I didn't notice their violation of the bankruptcy on my credit report for three years. I disputed it with the bureaus and they removed the late payments, and my FICO 8 score went up about 6 points if I recall correctly. That was at 3 years, even with all the other bankruptcy carnage.

It's my opinion that Citi was furious and likely just wanted to cause me as much harm as they could.

Citi was not the only bank that I feel did something to harm me as much as possible and petty.

Chase, who didn't report to Innovis when the cards were in good standing, reported them as bankruptcy charge-offs later. Almost nobody looks at Innovis. At least Chase didn't break the law.

[ElvisCaprice]

I like Citi.  I never allow the bank to set the credit limit.  Always take it to the minimum allowed or twice what I anticipate my utilization could ever be.  Citi also allows for elimination of cash advance capabilities, a plus in my mind.

  I've used and abused them over the years and they keep coming back for more.  Love em