Originally Posted by
ryanw777
Im sorry, but I am a little confused as well. From that link it appears as though you cannot get any of the CC offers from CitiAA unless it has been 18-24 months. (Unless you apply for them at the exact same time).
1) Why is it 18-24 months? What is the difference between the 18 and the 24 month limits?
2) If you previously got an offer for the 75k, can you get the 50k without worrying since it should be a "different" offer? Likewise, could you get the business or amex offers since they should be different as well if you had a personal/visa offer previously?
3) From my understanding, it doesn't matter at all in ANY way if you currently have a card open, is this correct?
4) To rehash my personal situation. I applied for the 75K offer for both the CitiAA Visa and the CitiAA Amex last October. I received the CitiAA Visa, and was denied for the CitiAA Amex. Am I aloud for ANY offers that are available (ish) now or do I need to wait until 18/24 months after October?
Answered in the order that matters:
4. Last October was 9 months ago, if by last October you mean October 2011.
1. 9 months is virtually certain to not work. The reaon for 18-24 is because 24 is almost certain to work (from a standpoint of not rejecting you for the "first time customer" clause), while 18 has worked for some people but not for many others. So 20 is more likely to work than 18, 22 even much more likely, and 24 virtually certain.
So at this point you have to wait 18 to 24 months since October. Which puts you well into 2013.
(The only exception is a Business card. If you want to try for one of those -- you can't try for 2 of those AFAIK -- it's on a totally independent calendar of the personal 18-24 months that you're 9 months into.)
2. Citi doesn't care which offer you are applying to, relative to which offer you had before. They don't even care which network's (Visa, MC, Amex) card you're applying for, relative to which network's car you already have or had before. All they care about is 18-24 months from the last successful Citi AA personal card application before they'll consider you for another personal card (or two at the same time).
(The absurd but true illustration: Besides AA cards, Citi also issue Hilton HHonors Visa cards. Only HHonors Visa, not HHonors MC nor HHonors Amex. Yet they allow you to (a) apply for two HHonors Visas at the same time and get both bonuses, and (b) apply for another HHonors Visa while still holding a previous HHonors Visa, and get the bonus on the new card. And, btw, with the HHonors Visa card, there is no 18-24 months, there's just the standard Citi credit department rule of
65ish days between Citi personal credit apps of
any type, whether you were approved
or denied.)
3. No, they don't care whether your cards are open or closed. In fact, there's a theory that a recently-closed card may be a bit worse than a still-open one, in that it's avialable credit may not have "gone into the pool" yet but may not be avialable for "shifting" yet (if you need to grab available credit from some other card you have open in order to be able to open the new card you're applying for). I would therefore recommend that if you plan on closing AA cards in anticipation of applying for new ones, that you close them many months ahead of the new AA card apps you plan to do. Otherwise leave them open so that they'll be they're as an available-credit transfer source should Citi say "we could approve you but only if we can move some available credit from another one of your cards".