In my ongoing quest to never be out of 5/24 and and thereby never eligible for CSP card, I was approved tonight for Citi Diamond Preferred card with a $5,500 SL. In the interest of sharing stats and info, I wanted to share the below.
Received a "Preselected to Apply" mailer for Diamon Preferred last week Thursday/Friday. 0% for 18 months, then a fixed APR of 20-ish% (yeah, I know) thereafter. (If the fixed APR had been a range, there's a chance I would not have applied.)
Applied on my phone's browser using the invite code from the letter. Invite had been forwarded from my old address (move 7/7/16) and edited the app with my new address. Got an email Sunday morning titled "Notice of Incomplete Application" and said that they had stopped revieing my application, because "We could not verify the accuracy of the credit information on your application." and included a phone number to call in.
The phone number was both annoying and promising, as it was the Diamond Preferred phone number, and it kept trying to get me to give my card number, or my social and last 4 digits of my card. Had to call back and press 0, and work my way to an operator.
The operator connected me, after about 5 minutes on hold, with the application team. They had a computer call my home phone (was on the app) with a 5 digit code. I gave that code to the Application Team member, and she said she would give me a decision right away, if I could hold for a few minutes. At this point I figured it was going to come back with a big fat "Nope."
I was mistaken.
$5,500 SL, 0% for purchases and BT's for 18 months and she didn't mention the post-intro APR, or I was too busy being surprised at the approval amount to hear her. I was expecting $1k or maybe at a stretch $2k from what I've seen on line. I have no idea what CRs they pulled as nothing is showing up yet. Guessing it would be all three.
This is my first "real" Cit card. I got a BestBuy Visa Gold for a whopping $500 in mid-August 2016 from Citi Retail, and I've had a $500 Citi Secured card since October 25, 2015.
The Citi Online Preapproval tool was showing NO offers (probably because of the address change), when I apped for the Diamond Preffered.
MY STATS (which are, quite frankly, ridiculous)
Ficos: 651 Across the board (ouch), because of balances, inquiries, and probably new accounts (AAoA)
Balances: Carrying about $25k (20%) for the past couple months now with new house, furniture, tuition/fees (master's time!)
Current Open Credit Accounts: 32 (includes 2 CLOC's and 5 Store Cards. Doesn't include Auto Loan/Mortgage, etc)
Approved Accounts Past 20 Months: 47 (didn't have any for a few years before February 2015).
Inquiries: 180 total = EX - 65, TU - 42, EQ - 73 (includes a bunch from Auto Loan hunting, NFCU apps and CLI attempts, and a LOT of cards)
AAoA: EX - 3.9y, TU - 3.8y, EQ - 2.8y
Baddies/TimeSince: EX - 4/1.6y, TU - 3/2.3y, EQ - 3/1.3y (Paid/Settled Collections)
Payments: I ALWAYS pay 2x to 4x (or PIF) the minimum - and never less than $100 for those $25 min's.
Interesting Fact: This is my second-highest starting limit, and is exactly HALF my highest starting limit of $11,000 for an NFCU Flagship. It is my 7th highest CL overall.
I have to get back on track with Paying in Full though. I had 11 cards report with balances last month, and some of them were pretty small...
The good news is that I've only had three new accounts since June '16, so I'm still on track for CSP in June '18 - but for some reason, I don't think I'm going to make it.
The moral: call in if Citi sends the ol' verification issue email. It may just be worth your time.