Ok, some folks on here may know my background, but here's the lead-in. Filed for and got a Ch 11 BK, six years ago this month. Currently, my FICOs are 699, 700 and 701. Have a few cards with reasonable balances that will be paid off this summer and just got a new MasterCard with a CL of $1500 and a new Discover with a CL of $7000.
So I see this little blurp on one of the site I frequent saying that if you open Citi banks "Ultimate Savings Account" online and keep it for three months, they will put $100 into your account. Sweet deal right? I thought so. I sign up and decide to put $50 in to start even though there was no minimum deposit or requirement for more deposits. This deal appeared to be very open ended, to the customers advantage.
First of all, I wasn't very happy with their online account setup. It was nowhere near as intuitive as my ING account. Citi seems to be cutting their teeth in the online banking market to compete with the likes of ING and Emmigrant Bank. They even required me to sign a signature form and fax it back to them which is VERY old-school.Their system also leaves you wondering "what's next?". I have had to call them a couple of times now.
So I was away Friday through Monday, so I thought I would call to see what the status of my account was. I wanted to start putting $50 a pay into this new account. I called them and gave my information that I did have. They came back and said my account request was REJECTED. I was dumbfounded. They couldn't even tell me why, but said it would be covered in the letter on its way to me. Now maybe there is more to this account than what i read, but I sure didn't see where they were going to extend any credit to me. I laughingly said to the lady on the phone "I think I know why I was rejected. I had a bankruptcy a few years back, but let me just get this straight, I am being rejected for a SAVINGS account?" Of course, she couldn't answer me with anything more than what she had already told me. I wasn't mean to her or anything, because it's not her fault, but I know one bank/credit card company that will NEVER get my business EVER. So now I'm going to take that $50 a pay (and much, much more once my car is paid off) and put it into either my ING account or a new Emmigrant account. They both have better interest rates anyway. Citi needs to get a clue if they want to compete in this market. JMHO.
