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I'm concerned about my credit score, so concerned about how to move forward right now. I just got one of those APR hikes to 29.9% (or opt out and close acct) letters. I have a high ($12000) balance and paying barely above the minimum--I must have been flagged).
I can opt out and close acct (but I will still have a fairly high APR until paid in full). Then I will lose a card with decent credit limit and my longest credit history! My oldest card.
OR
I can transfer my balance but fear that Citi will just close my card as a result, ending up in a similar result. This way, however, I will have a lower APR for sure for at least a while.
Any advice or experience with this? TIA!
i got the RJ letter too, several of us have... so i pif the1k balance, and so far no CLD or closure by grantor.
it is not really possible to know with any degree of certainty how they will respond but so long as you don't owe a balance then you have done what you can to minimize any damage they can do going forward.
when carrying a significant balance with the imminent threat of a 29.99 RJ, can't worry too much about what citi will do in response --just have to pif or BT asap and go from there.
They really want the exposure off their books, so BT'ing the balance fulfills their goal. Assuming BT's an option, here's what I would do:
BT to another card. Use the Citi card normally for a few months and PIF. It would be fine to PIF before or after the statement drops, all you're trying to do is show some activity. Then at some point in time when the balance is zeroed out I would call and ask for a APR reduction. Normailly Citi loves use (not necessarily balances and they hate minimum payments). I would be very surprised if this approach did not yield results.
BTW - One of the things Citi evaluates account preformance on is strength of payment. Averaging 6% of balance payments over a six month period is considered excellent and you can scale down from there. Minimum payments get you bad marks in this area. Citi are the wrong fellas to make consistent min payments to over an extended period of time.