I've been wondering about this, since all of my new mailers are 50K + 10K offers. Essentially that's a 60K offer, so if you ask for a courtesy of 65K, all you get is 5K extra miles, and that's assuming you do the full $6K spend. So it seems I should ask for a courtesy bonus to 75K. I have no problem with doing the $6K spend, which only costs me $42 in extra fees for the 10K miles. But I would like to get the 15K extra free miles, since as others have said "this (gravy train) could end at any time". ;)

If only there were some resource we could go to in order to find out what patterns work and don't work with different card issuers. That would be one fine resource indeed.

I have 3 Citi AA Plats as of now. Should I cancel or PC?

I got 1 AA card in June (large CL) - bonus received
1 AA in July 2018 (lowered CL to $2k) - bonus received
1 AA last month, Dec 2018 - working on MSR

Should I cancel my first 2 other cards?
- if so, when?
- can I cancel the cards within 30 days of the AF posting?

Just got my denial letter. Was correct, too much credit extended. As soon as I pay my card off, I'll lower it and apply for the next.

Applied and approved today with a biz mailer for 75k AA miles after spending $5,000 in 3 months.

FYI, I was chatting with the Chat Agent about my match, and at first he tried to push me to calling into the special department to inquire, but I pressed him and said other Chat Agents have processed the requests and I don't have time to call and he did it after that.

I just received a 60K/$3K email offer despite recently getting the card. Any experience in getting Citi to lower the minimum spend (I used a 60K/$4K code) to the latest offer? Or should I just focus on getting matched to 75K (haven't received a response to my SM, so may repeat the request in chat soon)?

You got the offer in question mixed up. I am not talking about the 50K+10K. It is the 40K offer if you read the initial conversation about the other poster and I have gotten the crummy 40K mailer - the best outcome would only be 40+15 = 55K with the match due to the offer is 40+20.

The poster said he would not mind to spend the extra $6K in the next couple months to get the additional 20K... That I think the $6K could be better used for a better offer, hopefully the 50K mailer would come our ways! Why spend $6K to get 20K when additional, and hopefully better mailers will come later, that the same $6K spend could be used to meet the minimum spend of 2 new cards and 2 new bonuses?

Are you guys doing the 2nd half of the bonus? 13,000 AA miles for $3K spend seems borderline -- when you have a huge balance from this church, the value of a marginal mile is pretty low. Meanwhile, opportunity costs (basic cash-back cards) have risen now that BoA's at 2.625%.

No way.

It's all personal preference. Some people cancel shortly after receiving the bonus. Some people keep the cards open for a year and then cancel. Neither course of action has had any benefits or drawbacks with Citi, provided Citi sees you as being well below whatever total credit limit they think you can handle. So if you keep cards open, you should always reduce the CL to the minimum on any card you don't intend to use going forward.

I've never seen a post on that, but I think there is zero chance of success with trying to lower the spend. CSRs can't change the terms of an offer. They can grant additional points as a courtesy to match a higher offer.

What is the consensus on whether Business CLs count towards total CL exposure or not?
The reason I ask is because I opened a business account recently and I received an unusually large (for me) credit limit.

That probably very well be the reason last time Citi tried this and eventually reverted back to the 60K/$3K and 65K/$4K offer after sending out the worse offers for a couple months.
This is the 2nd round of such test if not the 3rd round, that would meet the same failure. :)

In that case, it's our duty to close the card after the initial bonus, never even attempting to make that spend!

Yep. If I haven't done MS by now, I am not gonna suddenly ramp it up just for this.

Figured as much. I just did a chat request for an additional 15K and the guy I talked to put in the request, so we'll see what happens. ^

Please update your results. I'm curious if you end up with 65K miles without doing the extra spend. Likewise, anyone who does the extra spend and also requests the courtesy bonus, let us know if you end up with 75K miles.

TIA

My expectation is that I'll need to spend all $4K to get 60-75K; my initial offer wasn't split into two parts as what others have gotten and I didn't ask for a reduction in minimum spend. I'll update when I get the bonus in any case.

I would at least call recon and ask whether they would overturn the decision if they moved credit from that other card.

My first tendency is to keep the account alive as a no AF card and with a lower CL. You will have to keep it for a year before Citi allows that. You could already lower the limit on your oldest card now to cushion the impact of reduced credit on your score. PC requires calling them. If the fee posts before the downgrade is complete it doesn't hurt to tell them about removing it. While the typical rep will offer downgrade to MileUp card you can convert to something actually useful. My first choice would be Dividend. Second is DoubleCash. For TYP ATT Access would be useful. If you keep churning Plats you probably will prefer cancelling them which can be done before the first year is up.

They will not change the offer you signed up under. They only add miles as a courtesy to match a better offer. This is like waiving the annual fee, they give you a credit instead.

Also note that the email offer is probably subject to the 24-month rule, in case you were planning on using it.

Chatted in to reduce cash advance line, the rep asked "would you also like to decrease the credit access line?" :D

I have the exact opposite. Chatted to lower credit line to 2K and the rep said would you also like to lower your cash advance line right now is at 4K? I dont think the 4K cash advance would work if the CL is down to 2K! Goes to tell you chat reps (most likely located overseas) are very mechanical when going about their jobs...

For those that open a new card every 33 days or so, how many do you keep open? I was approved for another, with 4 prior all at $2000 CL each. When I go for a 6th next month should I cancel the oldest one first? I've seen DP of people with 6 cards open at once, but not sure how common that is.

On my 50k/10k card I missed the full $6k spend on my first statement by a few days. Received 50k plus miles for the $5800 in spend as well as the 15k bonus match I requested through chat. My second statement just closed and it shows the remaining 10k miles plus miles for the ~$200 in spend that posted late.

Usually we have three, sometimes four, sometimes two. It depends on how long it takes to make spend.

My process is: lower CL to $5K, make spend, pay off card, lower CL to $2K, close. So as soon as the card is paid off, it will generally be closed within a week.

I just got a no-language email offer. Was sent by AA.com not citi and provides a 9 digit code, which you enter the same way as mailers. I checked both the email and the application landing page and it only says "for new accounts only", just like mailers.

Also, was asked to send in a 4506-t form for a December application, and as far as I understand the IRS doesn't process these forms during the shutdown. Is there a time limit for citi to close the app if they get no response from the IRS?

DP:

Got the 50k/3k/10k/3k offer, card just arrived. Asked via chat to give the courtesy match using the exact verbage given above. No dice. Said due to limited capabilities via chat couldn't process, but gave me a number to call. Did offer me 1,000 points as a "service gesture" though? About to HUCA with chat...

Wife applied using final 60k/3k mailer dated 11/15. Instant approval with 19k CL. My last 60k offer was matched to 75 via backdoor SM routing.
May take a breather until the better offers start again.

Taking a breather too. For a full 33 days since my last Citi app. ;-)

Way past 5/24, had every AMEX worth having, definitely MAC for B/A and Barclays. 50K AA miles with no AF is pretty much the only game in town for me now. Would I like another one? YES, please ! :)

I used to keep them open for a year (or as close to it as possible), so that they would look better on my credit report in case I had to go through manual recon with another issuer. Now, like most people in this thread, I'm pretty much 100% locked out of cards from anybody else (way too many recent apps), so there's no longer any point to that. I've had as many as 6 per person open before, but now I'm always at half that or less.

The only exception is cards that may have a refund coming. It's easier (and more under the radar) to keep those open and get the refund than to get a refund on a closed card, request a check for it, etc.

One important thing that didn't make that list (probably because it naturally falls within those other steps for you): receive the bonus. Do not close a card until you've received the signup bonus and any additional match that you've requested. Most cards (and I believe this is one of them) requires the card to be open for you to get the bonus. Plus, if there are any problems (bonus not received, match not received, etc.), good luck getting much help out of Citi on a card you've already closed.

You obviously know this, but clarifying for others.

I got an interesting letter today. Curious if anybody else got one similar. First of all, it's dated 1/15/19 (time travel, obviously). Apparently there was some confusing wording at some point about earning 2X miles with the plat card at restaurants and gas stations. They just wanted to clarify. Simple enough.

Here's the confusing thing: it's addressed to one of my relatives who gets mailers but has never applied for their own card. It's regarding a Plat card for this person (complete with the last 4 digits of the card and everything). No one in my family has ever had a card with those last 4. Those digits also don't match any mailers we've received within the past 3 years, or an AA account, or anything else I can think of.

The obvious first thoughts are: 1. identity theft and 2. Citi's attempt to get rid of confusion led to them creating even more. But it can't be ID theft, because it would be impossible for this person to get a credit card. So all I can think is that Citi's IT messed up somewhere. Just curious if anybody else got a similar letter, and if it was as confusing/impossible as mine.

Wrong thread

Refund goes to closed card would eventually be a check mailed to you automatically after it is there for 2 months - seems it is the regulation when credit is not touched for 2 billing cycles the credit balance would be auto-refunded by check. It probably would be too much a hassle for the banks to program different treatments for active and closed cards. There is no need to request a refund check if you dont need the money immediately. It would come after 2 billing cycles the refund is posted.

Clearly its a open and shut case of non-identity theft. :p

TWO of my brothers received the same postal mail today. One of my wife's sisters also appears to have received one (I don't open her mail but the exterior looks identical, and she doesn't get much mail except from Citi and AA). It's odd.

Those addressed to my brothers do name them ("Dear My Brother's Name...") and references the last 4 digits of cards that were not opened by anyone who lives here.

Now, it's true that there have been some Citi cards opened by folks in my house, but none that match the numbers on the letters. I'm left scratching my head wondering where those 4 digit numbers came from.

As an aside, I'm guessing that Citi is finding that their new 2X (at restaurants and gas stations) card benefit is not being used as much as they expected, and they think that by being more clear that should bump up those results. I'm not sure I would draw the same conclusion, but wish them luck. Now, if they offered 5X at office supply stores or grocery stores, I bet that would move the needle significantly.

Same thing happened to me. Just usual Citi IT nonsense.