Timing of Citi CLI vs new application

[Walt_K]

My wife is considering applying for a new card from Citi.  She currently has the Citi Forward card, but was given a toy limit of $500.  She's had the card for a little over 6 months. 

She has some credit blemishes from 4+ years ago.  Several late payments and one paid collection.  Since that time, no negative marks. 

Not sure what her current FICO score is.  We are going to check EQ in the next few days once some balances update to take her from about 20% to optimal utlization.  Not that this will help much, but currently her Transrisk FAKO scores are 737 TU, 761 EX, 705 EQ.   

With that background, we're trying to figure out whether it would be better to ask for a CLI on the Forward before applying for new Citi cards, or just app for new cards?  If the former, how much time would you wait between asking for the CLI before apping for new cards?  Part of the reason I am asking is that I just applied for some additional Citi cards and they gave me a much higher limit on my second cards than on my first card.  But I also received a reasonable limit of $7K on the first card, so my experience is not necessarily analogous.

[FloridaState12]

My experience has been that Citi pulls EQ for CLI's and EX for new accounts. So I don't really think it would matter what order you did it in...but it may vary by location. Citi pulled EX for my new account, then I went to apply for an additional CLI and it denied me (just got a CLI last month) citing EQ report, even though they never actually pulled it because my account wasn't eligible. 

[Open123]

I would guess apping for a new card would get a better result, if the initial CL was $500.

For me, my second Citi app resulted in a higher CL, but I waited 6 months.  With a higher score, the autmoated system may just assign a higher CL.  Either way, it's a hard inquiry, and I'd assume app and receive a sign up bonus along the way.

[Walt_K]

Didn't realize Citi CLIs were always HPs. Was thinking they were sometimes SPs. If that is the case, I am more inclined toward a new app rather than trying to first raise CL and then apply for a new card.

[Open123]

For a $500 CL requested to a higher one (I'd assume you'd want at least $5K), I'd imagine it would require an HP.  For some CLs, say from $5K to $7k, may only be a SP especially if automated.

You can ask them, but it isn't easy to get a definitive or accurate answer.  I'd allocate for a HP.

[FloridaState12]

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@Walt_K wrote:
Didn't realize Citi CLIs were always HPs. Was thinking they were sometimes SPs. If that is the case, I am more inclined toward a new app rather than trying to first raise CL and then apply for a new card.

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They're not always hard pulls. I had two soft pull CLI's...but you don't know they're going to be SP until you submit it. If it comes up you are approved for X amount without a HP, you can accept it or ask more. But you don't know whether it will be HP or SP until you submit it.

I got a SP CLI, took the amount, then got a new account. Later, I tried a CLI again (this time with a HP) to try and get more but it denied instantly, citing that they used my EQ report. But I have a monitoring service and they never even pulled my report because I had just had the SP CLI not too long ago. So they were going to pull EX for my CLI but didn't.

[chnceit]

My last baddie fell off finally in October then CITI finally gave me a CLI after one year.

They then approved me instantly for a Thank you Preferred for $6.5K

I wanted to combined my accounts, but they told me to wait 30 days - so I aint holding my breathe

But they are baddie sensative IMO

Good luck buddy!

[Walt_K]

Thanks all.  We'll probably wait at least until we check FICO score and then decide what to do.

[rudy0720]

Citi is always an HP if the customer requests. They usually pull EQ for CLI's and New Accounts

[chnceit]

Actually thats partly false because the rep does state it's a SP if a CLI is available and if approved and want more then it would be a HP.

I clicked the CLI button online every month till I got an increase with no HP

But this could be a true YMMV