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Will Citi close my card if I transfer my balance? Just got rate hike to 29.99% OR opt-out.

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Will Citi close my card if I transfer my balance? Just got rate hike to 29.99% OR opt-out.

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! 

Message 1 of 5
4 REPLIES 4
pattycake
Established Contributor

Re: Will Citi close my card if I transfer my balance? Just got rate hike to 29.99% OR opt-out.

Welcome to the forums!

I also got that letter, and I only have an $1100 balance. I'm going to transfer it to Chase, with a 0% offer through July, so I won't pay the interest on it.

My advice is to transfer the balance to a lower rate card. Citi is acting really weird lately, so I'm not sure that there is anything else you can do at this point. If they cut my CL, then so be it, I have plenty of available credit as it is.
pattycake's FICOs: 6/2/10 - TU: 708; EX: ???; EQ: 749
Message 2 of 5
score_building
Senior Contributor

Re: Will Citi close my card if I transfer my balance? Just got rate hike to 29.99% OR opt-out.

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. 

DCU EQ 5.0, Citi EQ 08 Bankcard, PenFed EX NG2
EX 08: AFCU, Amex, Chase, PSECU EX 98(?)
TU 08: Barclays, Discover
Message 3 of 5
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Will Citi close my card if I transfer my balance? Just got rate hike to 29.99% OR opt-out.

You'll go crazy trying to predict what they'll do if you BT away.

I'd do what makes financial sense to you. Sounds like even if you opted-out and stayed with the current APR, it was pretty bad, so it sounds like the BT would be better. Don't forget to factor in the BT fee (usually an uncapped percentage of the balance) when figuring how much it will really cost you.
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 4 of 5
creditwherecreditisdue
Senior Contributor

Re: Will Citi close my card if I transfer my balance? Just got rate hike to 29.99% OR opt-out.

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.

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