makeinu said:Maybe Santa will bring me one of these goody offers too.

I wonder what would happen if, after paying off a card completely, you reallocated almost all of the credit line to another citi card before the 4 months was up. I suppose they would either:
1. Disqualify you from the promo.
2. Reduce the CL on the card you reallocated to.
3. Reduce the CL on the card enrolled in the promo to a negative number.

#3 would be ideal.

Would it really be ideal? You'd have to have a credit balance to avoid an overlimit fee.

I got offer in mail todat too. I guess being greedy w/ near 100% BT utilization paid off! The rep said okay to make 2,750 extra payment in last month in lieu of spreading over 4 months.

dodgeman007 said:maybe not dead beats but people with problem credit, and many large CC balances look bad, plain and simple, they only offer this to get some money because they think you may not pay at all. thats why most of us wont qualify.

Interesting. I got such offers too recently. My FICO score are 772 728 695. I really won't call this deadbeat. Plus I've been paying this minimum payment for 2 years now with no late payment.

Another thought of how to negate the credit line reduction clause:

Since the amount of credit line reduction equals to the amount I pay + bonus - new debit and returned payment.

Can I do this:

1. charge $4000 to my card using paypal before I take the offer.
2. take offer, card frozen
3. refund using paypal, now there's $4000 returned payment.

So technically I won't be losing credit line. The catch is whether the $4000 returned payment applies to my $4000 charge first or to lower APR balances.

asdf9876 said:dudetheobscure said:I'll be thinking of the "gurus" who rail against minimum payment, 100% utilization B/T's while I'm waiting for my $100's in gift cards.

I'll be thinking about the people who max out their BTs to 100% and incredibly sporadic deals like this while I am daily peppered with attractive 0%, prime cards with very good rewards, for life deals, massive credit line increases, new card application acceptance, etc. While the "maxers" found a bone on this deal they tend to suffer very few generous promo rates, the promos they do receive (I was once maxer) tend to be for 6 months instead of 12 months, $30-$50 AF instead of no AF, and credit limits of $300-500 instead of $10,000-$25,000.

I did not get credit line increases while I was a "maxer". I've gotten enough in credit line increases since not being a maxer that I'm more than making up for $500 deal you got once.

If Citi is so desperate to lose you as customer that they'll throw 20% of the balance back at you just to get rid of you I'd bet you've missed out on a lot of the hot Citi deals I've gotten over the past year. Also in their computers it is going to show up that your credit line was reduced due to extreme risk. Good luck getting more juicy Citi deals in the upcoming year. I'm sure they'll trush you with a fat credit line after buying you out of this one.

LOL you must be ... dreaming. Let me tell you what I got being a maxer.

1. 40K in 1.9% for life and 0% for 12 month, that's about 1.2K a year in difference of interest.
2. Just earned 1K from citi bank's credit protector. If you don't have balance, you can't earn that.
3. Now got two such offers, so another 1.1K, although I'm not quite sure if I want to use this since I'm buying a house and don't like the idea of credit line reduction.

So, that's about 3.3K of being a maxer this year. How much you got being clear? Plus I could easily clear by paying it off. I have $$ to do so, it's just not worthy enough.

And for the "good deals" you got, I got almost all those good reward cards that appeared in this forum.

XxXxX said:So, that's about 3.3K of being a maxer this year. How much you got being clear? Plus I could easily clear by paying it off. I have $$ to do so, it's just not worthy enough.


We have different credit histories and different income levels so a direct comparison wouldn't mean anything. I've earned just over $3,000 this year with an income of <$25,000 (full time grad student).

What I can tell you is that my CLIs, 0% for life offers, 0% for 12 months, no BT fee, no AF increased at least FIVEFOLD since I went from being a "maxer" to being a "moderation" person. The unsolicited deals I started receiving after no longer being a maxer have more than made up for the lost interest of not having my credit cards at 100%.

asdf9876 said:XxXxX said:So, that's about 3.3K of being a maxer this year. How much you got being clear? Plus I could easily clear by paying it off. I have $$ to do so, it's just not worthy enough.


We have different credit histories and different income levels so a direct comparison wouldn't mean anything. I've earned just over $3,000 this year with an income of <$25,000 (full time grad student).

What I can tell you is that my CLIs, 0% for life offers, 0% for 12 months, no BT fee, no AF increased at least FIVEFOLD since I went from being a "maxer" to being a "moderation" person. The unsolicited deals I started receiving after no longer being a maxer have more than made up for the lost interest of not having my credit cards at 100%.Are these "unsolicited deals" 0% BT, no BT fees on existing cards or new card solicitations?

tooshy said:Are these "unsolicited deals" 0% BT, no BT fees on existing cards or new card solicitations?

Both.

Also because I know you love your conspiracies Tooshy. This all happened while Fed rates were rising.

makeinu said:XxXxX said:
2. Just earned 1K from citi bank's credit protector. If you don't have balance, you can't earn that.


How did you earn 1k from the credit protector program?

They cancel 2 of your minimum payment in case of marriage/relocation/having a child.

XxXxX said:They cancel 2 of your minimum payment in case of marriage/relocation/having a child.

What?! I always though that "canceling the minimum payment" meant that your minimum payment for that month would be 0% of the principle. I didn't know they would effectively pay the regular minimum payment for you. I didn't know they would reduce the principle.

I'll have to read the terms more closely next time I get one of those offers. Thanks.

XxXxX said:Now I see what you are talking about. I'd suggest you maxing NOW. When you have only 5k CL, it's easy to get higher. Now you have 60K, even if you dont max, do you think another ten fold increase is likely next year?

All I want to say is you are a special case, not many people here could reasonably believe their CL would increase TEN FOLDS in a year, no matter what they do.

Yeah, I agree with this. The popular wisdom that not maxing will pay for itself with CL increases doesn't seem to make sense. For people starting out with good credit (not students with no history), I find it unlikely that they will be able to achieve a 10-fold increase in a lifetime. I mean, one million dollars of available credit seems like the high mark around here.

However, there is something to be said about adverse action.

XxXxX said:
They cancel 2 of your minimum payment in case of marriage/relocation/having a child.

Obviously if you have done this then you are more experienced then I am. However, they actually pay down your principle for you? I thought they just dropped your minimum payment to $0 and your APR to 0%. I thought your balance stayed exactly the same.

I didn't know they actually pay down your debt on your behalf.

Also Holy snikeys man! $1K! You must have some HUGE minimum payments.