Citi classic maturing - next steps

[Ddub]

So I started my credit journey with this Citi classic secured card I got about 18 months ago.  I noticed recently that I had a hard pull from Citi but I hadn't applied for a card.  I wanted to call Citi anyway as I wasn't clear on what was going to happen after the 18 months were up.

The rep told me that their current policy was to automatically review at the end to see if the card would be cancelled, remain secured, or be upgraded to an unsecured card.  The last option was not available at the time I applied for the card, but the agent told me that I would be upgraded to unsecured and receive my deposit back.  Sweet!

I'm glad I get to keep that history but the card I'm being offered I can't find any info about.  She told me it is the "Citi Silver Mastercard".  At any rate, it doesn't seem likely I'll be getting any special deals with it.  I had just applied for Chase Freedom and Amex Every Day preferred after being preapproved, but was denied (lack of credit history and low income).  So not sure what best strategy is at this point.

I also have a Discover It student card and Capital One Journey, both for 6 months that I got at the 1 yr anniversary of the Citi secured, and a Macy's charge ($200) and VS ($500).  The last two I buy something like once a year to keep it active.

[coldnmn]

It may be worth trying to PC  your Cap1 journey to Quicksilver. I would try through chat to see if it's available. After your Citi unsecures try for a CLI and PC they are good for CLI every 3 months so worth a shot. Always recon denials back door numbers are in helpful threads at the top of the page. The answer maybe the same but you already took the hit. Good Luck with your credit journey!

[Anonymous]

Upgrade the journey to the Quicksilver. Unlike my Orchard bank Quicksilver, that one will grow with use. After another 6 months apply for an additional Quicksilver it will probably be in 3000cl or more. You then can either cancel your journey Quicksilver or wait another 6 months and combine them into one.

I don't know Citibank keeps account of all recon attempts maybe others can chime in I would press again and at least try to get advice from an analyst on upgrades in the coming months.

[Ddub]

Hey what does PC mean?  My Cap One already has $3500 CL (started with $3k then automatic increase after 5 months per original agreement).  Not sure what is benefit to upgrading the Journey- can you detail?  I already get 1.5% if I pay it in full each month,and that's same as the Quicksilver.  Getting a new QS offers possibility of sign-up bonus which is something I AM interested in.

Right now what would be most useful to me is cards with a bonus, but low spend needed for the bonus.  But I don't know that I qualify for many of those yet.

Yeah, I did recon and they told me the same thing.  I actually had applied for the Chase Freedom 6 months ago and they had told me the same, and to wait 6 months.  I pointed that out to the guy, and he was like, well, I don't know, but you need a longer history.  But couldn't tell me how long.  That was the biggest thing they said though also the income is low.  He said if it was just low income but long history it wouldn't have been a problem.  That's despite applying as a student.

[kdong1996]

PC means product change, for example convert the Journey to a Quicksilver. I'm pretty sure the Journey gets 1.25%? Atleast that was the rate I got before I PCed mine.

The main benefit is that in my opinion the Qucksilver has a higher chance of growing into a larger limit. I think that CCC like to categorize their products into tiers. The higher the tier the better chance of getting a higher CL to go with it. The Journey IMO would be a lower tier so you might not be able to grow it as much vs after PC it to a Quciksilver.

Personally speaking I wouldn't take the 3 HPs for the Quicksilver. The bonus isn't very appealing, there are many other cards that offer the same bonus that won't require 3 HPs. You could try the pre-quals for other CCC. Amex could be a possible candidate, they like thin clean files. I'm not exactly sure what your income is so they may deny you based off of that.

[Ddub]

I think I'll hold off on QS for a bit...also considering diversifying with BoA...when I go to prequal site it gives me a few "recommends" where a couple months ago it said it couldn't find any cards, but I "might like".  It offers me BoA Cash Rewards $100/$500 spend, Travel Rewards 20k pts/$1000 spend, Better Balance $25/quarter, Bank Americard no bonus.  I'd consider something like Chase amazon or something too if that would help get my foot in the door there.  Would that actually help though, and which one would I be likely to be approved for?

What I'd super like is a card from a new bank (ie not Discover or CapOne) that has a bonus of $1-200 for $500 spend. Chase Freedom denied me and also AmEx.  I was prequal for the AmEx card I applied for (Everyday pref) but i guess that was too ambitious even with the prequal.  When I log into AmEx now it only offers me the Delta card instead of the other offers from before (I also saw the gold and platinum cards with 50k/100k points respectively)

Income is low low low since i recently graduated and am travelling the world for a year.  I'm using my last year tax form's income which is 20k, still super low.  Next year I will continue to travel too, hiking a long distance trail, but in the US so opportunity to garden/MS as opposed to where I've been the last few months.

I'm interested in buildng credit for credit's sake, among different lenders, but also for travel hacking.  That needs good credit before the big bonuses unfortunately ;P

According to CapOne my score is 669 and from Discover it's 685.  CS is 684, CK TU is 684 and Experian 716 (for some reason my experian is only posting 4 HP as opposed to 7 on TU)

[Ddub]

Actually, I checked again and you're right about journey getting 1.25 instead of 1.5.  My bad.

So if I PC then it's a SP?  Confused on this.  I guess I'll contact them also.

[kdong1996]

BoA prequals aren't accurate. Unless it has an actual APR rate I would take it with a bucket of doubt. They might SP for the PC, but usually won't. Just hit them in live chat and ask if you're eligible for a rewards change or product upgrade. 20k isn't too bad. Chase accepted me with 17k back when I just turned 18.

What concerns me most are your scores. Is there any negative info on it? High utilization or anything similar? They seem a bit low compared to what I expected.

[Ddub]

I have low utilization, maybe that's the problem?  

As for report, there are still 3 false collections (medical ones that my insurance covered) still on my TU.  Having a heck of a time getting them removed (it's been a year and a half).  I got them off of Experian a few months ago though.  7 pulls (one I'm contesting) on TU and 4 on Exp.

The BoA offers only give me a range for APR.

Any options besides through Chase (they keep denying me), CapOne, Discover, or the Citi classic I have?

[kdong1996]

If that's the case then you definitely want a CCC that pulls Experian and maybe Equifax if that's clean. CapO, CK TU, are both FAKO scores so you can go ahead and ignore those. The Discover score is an actual Fico score. The 3 collections would hurt significantly more than low utilization. Barclay almost always pull TU so that's a no go. US Bank would depend on where you live.

The BoA prequals aren't reliable at all since you can basically put any name onto there. IMO if you want to try for a BoA card you should probably check the "Credit Pull Database" and see who they pull in your state. I would just apply if they pull Experian since even if they deny you for some reason, there's a chance that you'll be offered a secured card with the same HP. 

You should probably try to get the TU collections removed first. Those will significantly hinder you when you apply for credit in the future. If you're able to get those removed and garden for 6 months to a year you should have no problem getting in with Amex and Chase later on.