Citi Credit Limit Moving Experience: No Hard Pulls (yet)

[yfan]

I finally took the plunge yesterday and decided that I wanted to essentially move all my credit limit from the Diamond Preferred to my other Citi cards, and close the DP. I was aware that this would have likely required a hard pull, and I was fine with that. Here's how it went:

1. Yesterday, I called the line for the DP card and asked to speak to a Credit analyst. This confused the hell out of the front line CSR (who first said Citi does not do credit line transfers at all), who eventually transferred me to a 'supervisor.'
2. Once I got the supervisor, it was smooth sailing. She informed me that I could not move limits to my Costco Visa (she couldn't say why, but my guess is because it has been transferred to Citi less than a year ago), but that I could move all but $500 of my DP limit to my Double Cash. I agreed. She informed me there would be a "credit inquiry", to which I also agreed. She then asked me my income and mortgage/rent payment, and submitted it. She said it would take up to 24 hours to update, and that she'd call me back.
3. Within about 5 hours, I could see the limit was moved over, bringing my Double Cash to a nice, round $17,000. As the supervisor said, they had not yet closed the DP.
4. She called this morning and asked if I still wanted the DP closed. I opted to leave it open at $500, because occasionally I do benefit from some coupons on Citi Easy Deals.
5. As of now (well over 24 hours after the initial call), no HP has appeared on any of my credit reports.

[Anonymous]

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@yfan wrote:

I finally took the plunge yesterday and decided that I wanted to essentially move all my credit limit from the Diamond Preferred to my other Citi cards, and close the DP. I was aware that this would have likely required a hard pull, and I was fine with that. Here's how it went:

1. Yesterday, I called the line for the DP card and asked to speak to a Credit analyst. This confused the hell out of the front line CSR (who first said Citi does not do credit line transfers at all), who eventually transferred me to a 'supervisor.'
2. Once I got the supervisor, it was smooth sailing. She informed me that I could not move limits to my Costco Visa (she couldn't say why, but my guess is because it has been transferred to Citi less than a year ago), but that I could move all but $500 of my DP limit to my Double Cash. I agreed. She informed me there would be a "credit inquiry", to which I also agreed. She then asked me my income and mortgage/rent payment, and submitted it. She said it would take up to 24 hours to update, and that she'd call me back.
3. Within about 5 hours, I could see the limit was moved over, bringing my Double Cash to a nice, round $17,000. As the supervisor said, they had not yet closed the DP.
4. She called this morning and asked if I still wanted the DP closed. I opted to leave it open at $500, because occasionally I do benefit from some coupons on Citi Easy Deals.
5. As of now (well over 24 hours after the initial call), no HP has appeared on any of my credit reports.

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Thanks for the data points and congrats on getting the limit transferred.  i need to get off my butt and move my personal Citi AA liimt over to one of my other cards (Prestige, AA Executive) as I currenty have 4 AA cards which really is ridiculous.  Hopefully my experience will be as pain free as yours.

[yfan]

^^ Yeah, hopefully mine wasn't just luck. It also didn't take that long to get to talk to a live person for me, less than 2 mins I'd say.

[Anonymous]

Is Citi known to HP customers when moving a credit limit from one card to another?  If so, that's kind of BS as HPs are supposed to be used for applications for new/more/additional credit and simply moving a limit from one card to another doesn't fall into any of those categories.  I had not heard of this prior, but from the sound of the original post it seemed the OP felt not receiving a HP was sort of abnormal in this situation?

[Berk]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Is Citi known to HP customers when moving a credit limit from one card to another?  If so, that's kind of BS as HPs are supposed to be used for applications for new/more/additional credit and simply moving a limit from one card to another doesn't fall into any of those categories.  I had not heard of this prior, but from the sound of the original post it seemed the OP felt not receiving a HP was sort of abnormal in this situation?

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Citi does not "move" limits from 1 card to another. Citi does a credit limit decrease on 1 card and then a credit limit increase on the other - hence the HP for the "transfer."

[Anonymous]

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@Berk wrote:

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Citi does not "move" limits from 1 card to another. Citi does a credit limit decrease on 1 card and then a credit limit increase on the other - hence the HP for the "transfer."

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So, that seems like a BS policy to me.  Am I wrong in this line of thought?  If you are decreasing one credit line by X and adding X to another credit line, thus your overall limits are remaining the same, you aren't asking for any additional credit so IMO a HP shouldn't be taken.  If someone is going to take the HP regardless in this situation, why ask for the CLD on the one card to begin with?  Just ask for the CLI on the one you want the greater limit on, no?

[Berk]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Berk wrote:

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Citi does not "move" limits from 1 card to another. Citi does a credit limit decrease on 1 card and then a credit limit increase on the other - hence the HP for the "transfer."

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So, that seems like a BS policy to me.  Am I wrong in this line of thought?  If you are decreasing one credit line by X and adding X to another credit line, thus your overall limits are remaining the same, you aren't asking for any additional credit so IMO a HP shouldn't be taken.  If someone is going to take the HP regardless in this situation, why ask for the CLD on the one card to begin with?  Just ask for the CLI on the one you want the greater limit on, no?

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I agree that it sounds like BS but it is their policy. As far as just asking for a CLI on one card goes - that works well until you reach your max limit across all Citi cards. I have a Best Buy, Home Depot, Thank You, and Simplicity with Citi. The only way they would let me increase the limit on my TY card was by me reducing the limit on my Simplicity, which I never use and then asking for a CLI on my TY card. My total exposure with Citi is about 40K.

[yfan]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So, that seems like a BS policy to me.  Am I wrong in this line of thought?  If you are decreasing one credit line by X and adding X to another credit line, thus your overall limits are remaining the same, you aren't asking for any additional credit so IMO a HP shouldn't be taken.  If someone is going to take the HP regardless in this situation, why ask for the CLD on the one card to begin with?  Just ask for the CLI on the one you want the greater limit on, no?

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Well, there's both merits and demerits to what you said. Do you like SP CLI's? If you do (like most of us), then you agree - even like - that additional credit can be granted (and asked for) without an HP. Then it stands to reason that under certain circumstances, it is possible that a request can merit an HP without increasing your total lines.

But really, the way Citi looks at it, you are asking for new credit on one of the cards, and less credit on another. So for that new credit, they do a HP.

It does appear I lucked out though. Not complaining about that.

[Anonymous]

Oh I get it, I just think it's a BS policy.  Compared to the competition it is for sure.

It's one thing to have a policy to always do HPs for requested CLIs (like Chase) or have a policy to always to SPs for CLIs.  I don't take issue with either.  But, to move/transfer limits to me is not a request for additional credit as the net exposure remains constant.  I don't see what purpose the HP in this case serves.

[yfan]

Each issuer has its ... Well, issues. Chase will move limits without a hard pull, but will not give you SP CLIs. Citi is the reverse. Amex is the only one that does both I think.