Citi Denials: Stop being DENIED. How to beat "Your credit report shows a high amount of unused credit compared to your available credit lines", among others

Discussion / Conversation Forum
1

I’ve seen a lot of posts, blogs, and videos outlining their Citi denials with reasons along the lines of “low utilization” of their existing credit lines. These applications often have high FICO scores above 750, good income and strong credit history… so what gives?
As someone who has no more than 2% utilization, and has acquired multiple Citi cards in a short time frame (4 in 90 days, 2 of which I got approved 10 days from each other, pulling same bureau).
Here’s my theory on how to beat Citi denials.

Observe the 1/8, 2/65, 1/90 application rules:
Must wait 8 days after first Citi application before applying for another Citi card. I say 8 “business” days to be conservative.
No more than 2 Citi applications within 65 days.
Must wait 90 days between each business card applications. 1/90
See more info: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citis-application-rule-explained-865-rule/

Report balances on your existing revolving tradelines:

I autopay my statement balances off each month, but lately I haven’t prioritized paying the TOTAL balance before the end of billing statement cycle. Therefore I have a bunch of cards showing small balances, but my utilization is still very low. I don’t have firm data points, but I do believe Citi’s internal scoring model favors seeing balances on your cards, rather than just high utilization.
Next time before you apply, allow your cards to show some balances (pay statement balances in full always of course)

Opening a Citi personal bank account, with an account bonus.

See Doctor of Credit for current offers and eligible methods to get a bank bonus:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi-300-checking-bonus/
I opened a checking account, shortly before I applied and was approved for a new Citi card. I had applied for two Chase cards a week before my Citi approval, and again had those recent inquiries on the same Experian report that Citi pulled.

Anecdotally, I have seen folks who have had a hard time getting approved for Citi cards in the past or even getting a CL increase on their existing Citi cards, start accumulating new approvals quickly after they opened a bank account.

I’d go as far as to say you should open a bank account with any major lending issuer to get the bonus and increase chances of future credit approvals.

Recent inquiries aren’t as important as total inquiries in previous months.
I have been approved with an separate inquiry as recent as 1-2 weeks on Equifax from Citi. I think Citi looks at total recent inquiries in the last 6 months. I’d say no more than 3 in 6 months to be on the safe side. I was 3/6 on Experian when I got approved for my last personal Citi card.
Citi doesn’t appear to be sensitive to new accounts as people assume they are, unless you have a thin credit file, no reporting balances, or no history with Citi.

Check the Citi "Prescreen offer: https://online.citi.com/US/ag/cards/pre-screen
Not a golden ticket, but a safe bet. I got 2 of my current Citi cards by seeing them on the “prequalified” screen. Also was able to verify what bureau they were going to pull, since I only had one unlocked. My Equifax had no inquiries so I know that wouldn’t be a concern.
That said when I was approved for my Strata Premier and Citi Business AA, I didn’t any offers available before I applied. See previous points.

Bonus: Read the “48 month” in the terms and conditions on the application page, to make sure you are eligible for the welcome bonus.

2

> I autopay my statement balances off each month, but lately I haven’t prioritized paying the TOTAL balance before the end of billing statement cycle. Therefore I have a bunch of cards showing small balances, but my utilization is still very low. I don’t have firm data points, but I do believe Citi’s internal scoring model favors seeing balances on your cards, rather than just high utilization.

If lucrative CLI results are your goal, you want to generate HIGH statement balances that are then paid in full monthly. This is an exhibition of strong responsible revolving credit use and shows a greater need for a larger limit. Those that micromanage their reported balances or try to “keep utilization low” are just shooting themselves in the foot and often don’t even realize it.

3

@Rafe
Is the goal here letting a balance post every Month or just on the month you want to apply?

4

Jason said:
@Rafe
Is the goal here letting a balance post every Month or just on the month you want to apply?

All the time. You want to show your lender constant strong responsible revolving credit use, not just one and done or once in a while.

5

@Rafe
Disagree here. I’ve seen you post this on other threads, but that is certainly a case of “Your Mileage May Vary.” In the case of Citi I’ve brought up my Custom Cash to a 15K credit limit with CL increase requests, even though I only spend up to $500 dollars. With US Bank, I got a $500 CL card to go up to $5000 in one request, with minimal spend. Only lender where higher usage made a difference was with Capital One, but I don’t use them anymore. Chase also may favor high usage, but then again I can just keep on applying for more of their cards until they put the brakes on it.

6

@Zia
> Disagree here. I’ve seen you post this on other threads, but that is certainly a case of “Your Mileage May Vary.”

No, it’s not. I’ve said many times if you go back and read any of those threads that for the most lucrative CLI results, the approach I illustrated is best. No where can you ever find a single time where I’ve said that you “CAN’T” get a CLI or even a good CLI with smaller reported balances. What I say all the time and I’m very consistent on is that all other things being equal, higher statement balances equate to more lucrative CLI results. You have no basis to disagree with that, because you haven’t personally tried it. If you HAD gone with greater balances paid in full, you would have either seen stronger CLIs, or your ceiling/potential would have been greater.

7

My experience has been that as long you’re not showing signs of a churner with a decent profile then it’s not too hard to get Citi. They really like utilization on opened cards.

8

Leo said:
My experience has been that as long you’re not showing signs of a churner with a decent profile then it’s not too hard to get Citi. They really like utilization on opened cards.

I think you’re exactly right. There are people that come on here with a couple credit cards and no spend that are clearly churners with a 800+ credit score. I have that score now but I had a barely 700 credit score with over 20 cards. That was including five Citi cards and six Capital One cards for reference which seem to be the two that most people complain about.

I’m pretty sure the only significant difference between myself and them was that I actually put decent spend on my cards every month, from the same banks.

These banks aren’t completely ignorant and people come on here every day to try to abuse the SUBs with literally little to no spend at all and complain about how crappy the banks are for keeping their guard up.

9

@Lael
The point of SUB is enticing people to apply the cards. If people are applying the cards according to the banks’ rules, then it is not “abuse”.

10

Farley said:
@Lael
The point of SUB is enticing people to apply the cards. If people are applying the cards according to the banks’ rules, then it is not “abuse”.

You need to finish your first sentence. The point of a sub is to entice people to apply to the card so they can make money off of them. This primarily happens in two ways one is the interest in the other is usage. If you don’t put spend on your cards and you don’t carry a balance, then it’s worth much less of them.

Banks don’t do this out of the goodness of their hearts they just see you as another way of making money.

11

@Lael
You need to understand there is a difference between what the banks want to achieve and what the SUB does. Putting spending on the cards is not part of the requirements or it will be part of the terms and conditions. Of course banks don’t do this out of the goodness of the hearts, they dangle the SUB enticing people applying for the cards and hope they will put the spending on it (and some do). The keyword here is “hope” as there is no obligation. If there is no obligation, there is no “abuse”. Just like the banks very much want you to carry a balance and pay 18% interest to them. If you pay your credit card balance off every month, are you “abusing” your credit cards because you are not doing what the banks hope you would do? Of course not, because there is no obligation for you to carry the balance.

12

@Farley
The banks want to earn profit. If they don’t think that will happen with you then they won’t approve you. It really is as simple as that. Banks have access to your previous spend to verify that.

Also, your last example doesn’t make sense because they still make money, even if you don’t carry a balance, as long as you put spend on it.

13

@Lael
I am not talking about banks approving or not approving a new application. I am talking about it is not a SUB “abuse” when one decides not to spend on the card because the applicant never committed to keep spending on the card. There is no obligation for the card holder to make bank money. One can hold many credit cards and choose not to spend on any one of them, and it is not an abuse.

14

Does the pre-screen do a hard pull?

15

Mark said:
Does the pre-screen do a hard pull?

No. Soft pull. Also soft pull for credit limit increase requests

16

I detected that your post may be about utilization and its impact on credit score. Please read the info below:

Ignore the 10/20/30 utilization %. It’s only applicable when you need to apply for a new line of credit, 1-2 months out.

Utilization is supposed to fluctuate, can be easily manipulated, and holds no memory. It doesn’t build credit–think of it as a finishing touch when you need to optimize your score.

Feel free to safely and organically use 100% of your credit limit within a month and let whatever utilization report, provided you pay off your statement balance in full before due date. Every month. Every time.

For more info, please read this post:

I can be summoned to comment by using command(s):

!utilization

Sometimes my comment may not pertain to your post. If this is the case, please ignore this and downvote it. I am constantly improving my detection algorithm.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.