2tall4economy

I've had 2 citi AA cards for a few months now, got approved for the citi biz 75k and citi exec card recently.

In between them approving ("instant") for the new cards and the cards arriving at my doorstep, they cancelled them. I called to activate and was xferred to the credit department who gave me the news.

Apparently, they cancelled *all* my accounts. Didn't bother to let me know though (they claim they mailed something, but I haven't received it and it doesn't show up on my online account as cancelled).

Apparently they got nervous about the number of apps I had recently (which I will admit is a bit eye-watering; I've got 27 new credit cards in the past 5 months)

In any event, not a big loss because I've got all the miles already (other than the 75k on the biz ) but thought it was interesting. In fact I was in such an uproar that they cancelled the new ones I asked to be transferred to cancellations on the old ones out of spite - only to find out they had cancelled those too. lol.

Anyone ever hear of that? I've heard of not approved for a card due to inquiries, but cancelling approved accounts in good standing (only 1 outstanding balance of $2000 on 1 card and less than 30 days on the charge so it hasn't even been billed yet)? That takes the cake.

I have a few hundred thou in credit lines between all the cards so that might have been something... maybe they thought I was going to buy a Ferrari

I must have raised quite the flag and put some raw fear into 'em

(tho the little devil on my shoulder is saying it's because they didn't want to give me the extra 100k miles from the other 2 cards!)

thehawk75

Given Citibank's 'only 2 cards (applications) every 60 days rule', I'm rather skeptical of this claim:

Care to explain how?


EDIT: Perhaps I've misread, you mean those 27 new cards are not all Citi credit cards I take it? If so, disregard my question and skepticism. 27 among various institutions is quite plausible.

alexb133

27? Twenty seven??? I don't think I've had 27 credit accounts (from my 3 regular charge cards to mortgage to car loans) in my entire life.

Lol

mosu84

lol pretty impressive. how did you even manage to get approved 27 times in 5 months?

TennisPro

This hasn't happened to me, but I have heard of "adverse action" (aka. closing the account or lowering the credit line) being taken for certain red flags such as this.

TennisPro

And, holy cow, 27! Wow!

philemer

OP, you better "lay low" for a number of months. CITI's action 'could' be a black mark on your credit report.

Happy

Yup. Account closed by lender is always a red flag on one's credit report and Citi's might just be the beginning... Wait till Chase or AMEX do their Account Review...

If it is Chase who pulled this, OP would have near 0 chance to get another Chase card for a very long time to come.

Oh, didn't OP posted before that AMEX wanted to do an FR on him and he decided not to submit his 4056-T and closed all his AMEX cards himself? (and has to pay back some MR pts advanced to him before...)

2tall4economy

Nope. Not sure if you're remembering the story differently or have me confused with someone else; my situation was that my wife got FR'd due to a charge larger than her normal charges.

FR resolved once we faxed in a bank statement. Took a couple days.

Also, I do have to repay some MRs I advanced, but only because I thought they'd honor a bonus code but they didn't.

2tall4economy

Yepper, this is my exact thought.

However, I'm not all that concerned. With 27 cards (I'll post a pic up here when I'm finished with my little hacking adventure), I've got pretty much everything I wanted already. The latest batch was the distinctly tier 2 cards: Hawaiian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Wyndham rewards, etc...

Only thing from Tier 1 that I don't have are the Citi Hilton (kissing that one goodbye ), the Citi Exec (for the addition miles towards lifetime which I'll miss but not that much), the Chase Marriott, and the Amex Reserve (which I might yet upgrade to as it's what I actually would prefer to use daily).

Luckily, even in a worst case scenario, I'd wager I'll still have a card through my investment bank, which I'm sure will never be closed since they see my assets and will want to keep collecting their investment management fees...

But yeah, I feel I have succeeded in pushing the envelope as far as possible

2tall4economy

Up until I found flyertalk I've had exactly 5 credit card accounts my entire life, only 2 of which were at the same time and due to the fact they came with my investment bank account...

Um, thank you flyertalk?

will2288

Hard to argue with what Citi did here. Based on what Citi can see it is clear you are either:

- trying to use/get a lot of credit in a short amount of time out of financial trouble (judging by your posts probably not the case)

- just trying to get sign-up bonuses (probably the case)

From Citi's perspective I can certainly see them not wanting to deal with you.


I am not judging what you did, but I don't see how Citi can be seen as the bad guy in this case.

I would be curious to know how your credit scored has been affected.

LETTERBOY

^ to this. I don't mean to sound like a jackass, but 27 credit cards in 5 months (even considering points/sign up bonuses) is absolutely insane.

alexb133

Haha you sure did!
I gotta say - while its not something that I'd do or encourage others - I applaud you for doing it. You have to have guts to get 27 new credit cards in 5 months.

Often1

All great unless to decide you want a mortgage or refi an existing one. In the post Dodd-Frank world, banks will be a lot more cautious and that means beginning to worry at 4 cards. At 27, we're not talking black mark, we're talking indelible ink stain.