Citi is Rate Jacking Me

[Anonymous]

I think that they must be required to say that there is nothing they can do at first because when I got my rate reduced yesterday the girl first said "Sorry, there is nothing that I can do about the rate right now."  Then 30 seconds in to the call, she reduced it from the new 18.99% to 6.99% which was even lower than my original rate.  This same scenario has happened to too many people on this forum for it to simply be a coincidence ... it has to be scripted.  Accordingly, my suggestion is to keep their representative on the phone as long as possible and just keep asking them to reduce your rate over and over and over and over and over and over until they finally capitulate.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I think that they must be required to say that there is nothing they can do at first because when I got my rate reduced yesterday the girl first said "Sorry, there is nothing that I can do about the rate right now."  Then 30 seconds in to the call, she reduced it from the new 18.99% to 6.99% which was even lower than my original rate.  This same scenario has happened to too many people on this forum for it to simply be a coincidence ... it has to be scripted.  Accordingly, my suggestion is to keep their representative on the phone as long as possible and just keep asking them to reduce your rate over and over and over and over and over and over until they finally capitulate.

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LOL.  Very sound advice. That's what worked for me. I think it's the ol' squeaky wheel thing. . .

[oracles]

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@Anonymous wrote:

thanks, I am glad I found this forum, not only for this subject, but the forum in general is very resourceful! I will call again tonight and hope to get someone else. thanks for the welcome!

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No problem and keep us updated

[fused]

When I first called the retention dep't at CITI, they refused to lower my APR to it's original rate. I was nice to them, didn't fight them or threaten to close my card. Then after thinking about it for  a day, I called them back and I let em have it. I threw everything at them, including the kitchen sink. I told them to restore my APR, or will close the account and take all of my business elsewhere. The CITI rep placed me on hold, then got back on the line and said "please don't close the account" and offered an APR of 8.24%. This is lower than the APR I had prior to being rate jacked.

The key, I think, to getting your way, is to threaten to close the account and take your business elsewhere. Once I started saying I want to close the card, the conversation quickly changed. CITI quickly folded. This second conversation I had with CITI brought back old memories. I was always hard on CCCs. I guess some things never change.

[Anonymous]

They did lower my rate, in expense of converting my Citi Dividend to a Citi CashReturns. The CSR tricked me.

[Anonymous]

Fused, and those of you who threatened to close your accounts, do you currently have a balance on your card that you are paying off, or would closing your card be as simple as calling to cancel? Just wondering if they would treat me different if I threatened to close my account (since I have a running balance with them they may think I am bluffing).

My discover card has a nice looking balance transfer but after the fees, it is worse than my original 6 percent citibank(but better than my 14.99 percent citibank as of today...) 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Fused, and those of you who threatened to close your accounts, do you currently have a balance on your card that you are paying off, or would closing your card be as simple as calling to cancel? Just wondering if they would treat me different if I threatened to close my account (since I have a running balance with them they may think I am bluffing).

My discover card has a nice looking balance transfer but after the fees, it is worse than my original 6 percent citibank(but better than my 14.99 percent citibank as of today...) 

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Do you have other cards (other than Citi) with an available balance higher than the amount you owe Citi? If so, you might not look as if you're bluffing because a quick glance at your credit report would reveal that you have the ability to BT them into zero and cancel.

I didn't have to go so far as to threaten to cancel, but based on the tone of my conversation with the rep., I think she figured that was implied. Plus, even a quick glance at my report would have shown her that I had over $85,000 worth of available credit (aka: BT options). It's possible that while we experienced that 15 second lag in our conversation (kinda' like a stare down), she did a soft inquiry and got an idea of the situation. Don't know for a fact that this is what happened, but I have strong suspicion.

[fused]

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jdh0526 wrote:

Fused, and those of you who threatened to close your accounts, do you currently have a balance on your card that you are paying off, or would closing your card be as simple as calling to cancel? Just wondering if they would treat me different if I threatened to close my account (since I have a running balance with them they may think I am bluffing).

My discover card has a nice looking balance transfer but after the fees, it is worse than my original 6 percent citibank(but better than my 14.99 percent citibank as of today...) 

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I have a $0 balance on my CITI Dividends card. I don't recommend you threaten to close your CC account with any CCC if you have a balance and can't pay it off immediately.

[Anonymous]

Zero balance here as well ...

[itsjustmeibe]

Another Citibank success! I got my letter today, increase to 14.99% (prime +8.99%). This is for my CitiBusiness card I have had for 18 months. The first guy told me that there was no other rate available and to continue to make my payments for 6 months and call back. (I have always made my payments on time). I told him that I have no use for the card with this type of interest and to go ahead and close it. (Gutsy since I owe about $3800, even though I have some brand new Discover & BOA business credit available but not at a decent balance transfer rate). Anyhow, he said he would have to transfer me to an account specialist. The account specialist decreased my rate to 4.99% for 6 months, and kept my current rate of prime + 2.99% after that. This was the first thing he said to me, I didn't even have to fight!

What a Forum!!!!!!!!!!!!!