OC offering to re-open acct, good/bad idea?

[Anonymous]

Hello, this is my first post but I have been lurking a while.

I have been working hard to pay off my credit card debt, about $7k since Dec 2007.  I'm making at least $2k credit card payments (moved back in with parents to do this, bless them), scrimping every penny, second jobs, etc.

Citibank sent me a letter last week offering to open an account that they closed.  They are offering to reopen with no fees whatsoever.  After 6 months of on-time payments plus at least $150 dollars worth of purchases they will lower my interest rate to the prime interest rate + about 10% (totalling something between 15-20?%).  This is still better than my current 30% interest rate.  The only thing fishy is that they can't send me the terms until I consent to open the account (bizarre!)

Benefits:  Open revolving account good for CR, help me rebuild credit

Cons:  No terms until after opening it, interest rate still not great, but better than before

My CS FICO right now with Equifax (haven't bought the other FICOS) is 627. 

Thanks for your feedback!

[shawnette]

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birdbite wrote:

Hello, this is my first post but I have been lurking a while.

I have been working hard to pay off my credit card debt, about $7k since Dec 2007.  I'm making at least $2k credit card payments (moved back in with parents to do this, bless them), scrimping every penny, second jobs, etc.

Citibank sent me a letter last week offering to open an account that they closed.  They are offering to reopen with no fees whatsoever.  After 6 months of on-time payments plus at least $150 dollars worth of purchases they will lower my interest rate to the prime interest rate + about 10% (totalling something between 15-20?%).  This is still better than my current 30% interest rate.  The only thing fishy is that they can't send me the terms until I consent to open the account (bizarre!)

Benefits:  Open revolving account good for CR, help me rebuild credit

Cons:  No terms until after opening it, interest rate still not great, but better than before

My CS FICO right now with Equifax (haven't bought the other FICOS) is 627. 

Thanks for your feedback!

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I'd do it, but that's just me.  Citibank is a good relationship to have.

[Anonymous]

Do you have other revolving credit? What is your current util?

Are they willing to remove the late notations after you are all caught up?

What is the age?

[jmbfl]

I did this with Macy's, which is now Citi, but at the time I think was Federated Dept Store Bank. It was one of the best moves I ever made. Account was returned to good standing, I have no lates reporting (they may have aged off) and my credit line went from $700 to $500 (my fault). This was 5+ years ago. I recently made a few purchases after a period of inactivity and was surprised to see I had been auto-CLI'ed to $1,500!

I turned a borderline CO into a good account - all I had to do was pay off a balance over three months! It is a nice TL for a retail card now.

See if you can ditch the lates, but otherwise retain the history. If you cannot ditch the lates time will heal that wound. It is a very good idea to avoid being blacklisted by a lender/CCC because of a CO. No amount of time will heal that problem. Most CCC's have infinite memories for CO/BK.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. 

Citibank is a good relationship to have.  Completely curious as to why Citibank is a good relationship to have? 

Do you have other revolving credit? No  What is your current util?  0%

Are they willing to remove the late notations after you are all caught up?  Didn't ask but will definitely find out - thanks

What is the age? 8 yrs.

It is a very good idea to avoid being blacklisted by a lender/CCC because of a CO.    Luckily they never did a CO on this one even though lots of lates, guess I'm lucky there. 

Thanks again!

[llecs]

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birdbite wrote:

Thanks everyone for the feedback. 

Citibank is a good relationship to have.  Completely curious as to why Citibank is a good relationship to have? 

Do you have other revolving credit? No  What is your current util?  0%

Are they willing to remove the late notations after you are all caught up?  Didn't ask but will definitely find out - thanks

What is the age? 8 yrs.

It is a very good idea to avoid being blacklisted by a lender/CCC because of a CO.    Luckily they never did a CO on this one even though lots of lates, guess I'm lucky there. 

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You'll likely get a large score bump too.

Even if you can't remove the lates, I would take it. Exception would be if the lates were within the past year.

Citibank is a generous CC. They are good with CLIs too and offer cards at lower rates compared to most.

[techgirl]

I'd take it too - the history is good... Would ask re lates... but history would win 8 yrs...

[jmbfl]

You need to do this with or without the removal of the lates. With removal of the lates under some set of circumstances would be a nice sweetner. Don't toss an 8 year-old TL. Re-opening this CC even without ditching the lates should be a nice score bump. (If you do re-open, please let us know what happens.) Citi seems to have a heart for rehab'ed credit and why not be the benefactor. They actually would APR decrease it the future, too, unlike some of the other heartless bloodsucker CCC's like Providian/WAMU. Also, as I said before, in the last several months they did auto-CLI my rehab'ed Macy's account by $1,000.

There is something to be said about the carrot approach. To bad so many CCC's seem to prefer the stick!

[nmorton79]

I had a Citibank card, but I made silly mistakes and let it go into collections.  I'm working on paying it off now.  Does anyone think that it would be ok for me to ask them to re open my account? I do think that it would be an excellent way to improve my credit.

[Anonymous]

Hi Birdbite.  I got the exact same offer on my citibank visa about 2 years ago.  I went for it because I didn't have any "prime" cards at the time.  I am happy I did it and they removed all of my lates but I was able to keep the history of the account ( I have had the account since 1997).