MikeR397's AOR 2.0 - Stage 3 of 4 Complete - Over $400k thus far

So far so good. You mentioned you have over 20 lines accross your family. If you got the letter in the mail there may be others on the way. It might be worthwhile to wait a week or two before calling the rep and asking for all 20+ lines to be opened... If that's not a red flag I don't know what is! In cases like this trying to keep a low profile is sometimes best, however, being a "big" customer with lots of action on their lines (which Citi likes - or at least used to like) you might have a bit more pull than most. You already have all your lines closed anyways so I suppose there's nothing to lose. If it were me I would consider waiting another two weeks to see if you get any more letters before pressing the issue, and be selective when you do.

MikeR397 said: MASSIVE MASSIVE MASSIVE CITI ADVERSE ACTION. LET ME REPEAT, MASSIVE.

CITI HAS CLOSED EVERY CREDIT CARD FOR EVERY PERSON IN MY ENTIRE FAMILY. ALL OLD CARDS (SOME LIKE 8 YEARS OLD) TO ALL NEW CARDS. OVER 20 CARDS CLOSED, PERSONAL AND BUSINESS, ALL ASSOCIATED CARDS (KEY AND ASSOCIATED BANK ALSO CLOSED).

None of the cards were AU cards, some of them were used for daily spenders. No one has ever missed a payment, and everyone's credit scores were 700+. My mom, dad, sister, and myself have had every Citi card closed. We each got letters in the mail stating all the accounts were closed. My sister and I have done a recent AOR, but my mom and dad have not applied for any credit for 13 months. Mom has $0 balances reporting also. There is no reason given on their closure letters. It says "Specifically, your credit report indicates." No reason at all.

I'm going to fight this but it does not spell good news at all, especially since mom and dad have not applied for any credit and mom's credit reports indicate $0 balances right now.

It appears basically what happened is that they noticed that my family has individually borrowed a lot of credit with them, and then closed all my mom and dad's credit cards at a random time, depsite them not having applied recently. To make matters worse, they have locked some (keybank) of the online logins so I can't even view my balances to make a payment without calling.

Pretty good data point (in addition to the previous thread on Citi AA), about thier new postion on risk management.

Mike:

Looks like you got the same AA that I got back in December. Citi closed both mine and my wife's accounts... all of them at the same time. Granted both me and my wife did AORs... but they came down hard. F-Citi.

Hopefully they will reopen it. But remember that I even got a Citi credit manager to re-open my accounts, and Citi promptly closed them again a month later.

thanks, that's exactly what i was asking. it seems like AA might not be so bad if you've already got the BT, though i guess it could be painful if they take away a 5% card.

Update on the Citi situation...

For my sister, who had no reason for her cards being closed, the rep said the reason was "Excess open available credit." So their solution was to close every single one of her 6 personal, professional, and business accounts and maker her credit $0. She asked them what was thier rational in this, and he said honestly it made no sense at all (and she agreed). She asked for only her Cash Rewards card to be reopened at this time ($25k line), and he said he was almost certain that it would be, and they would call by tomorrow.

I can understand if they want to reduce credit lines, but closing every account to $0 available credit is pretty crappy, even as far as AOR adverse action goes. At least it seems that with a little bit of patience and work, I can still get a good AOR run with Citi this year.

ADVICE SOUGHT.....

It is time for my mom-o-rama. Citi also closed all her accounts. Also, she has had 16 TU inquiries PUT BACK ON HER CREDIT REPORT AFTER BUMPAGE LAST YEAR.
Questions:

1) Can she re-bump those inquiries off? I'm going to give this a try. I still haven't bumped any of my inquiries, using 3 services for around 3 weeks now.

2) Should she try to reopen one Citi card before applying for more, or just apply for the new ones? She has a few good lines with them around $15-$20k already, but it may not matter too much if I just get her new cards. I'm just concerned that after the AA without a re-open, she may not get approved for a new card on her app.

Agree,

1) TU probably still bumpable via non-TrueCredit source

2) Re-opening is worth at least trying, unless it turns out it's basically a "new account process" again.

lhendricks92 said: any non-TU based service should work. CreditSecure, CreditKarma, ChaseIDProtection, to name a few.Thanks, I've got them all. But we are sure that TrueCredit no longer works for bumpage? I'd love to stop wasting my time with that crappy system (unfortunately I just signed up for 3 new/renew memberships, at least for $9.99).

If the inquiries are older than 12 months, they probably don't hurt (much? at all?). I had a successful AOR 2.0 in April and never bumped. (Inquiries at start: 12, 31, 18.) It might have been even better with no TU or EQ inquiries -- but hard to pinpoint since the credit environment is much different now vs. AOR 1.0.

I've gotta agree with Vance on this one Mike.

(of course I'm more of a cautious girl than a hell-bent-for-leather* one

*thanks to lhendricks for introducing me to this expression

In case you're interested, I vote for being aggressive. Whatever you're not willing to try, I'm happy to in my next A0R (release date circa Sept/Oct 2008).

lhendricks92 said: the credit really belongs to Judas Priest

Yup. I saw JP when I googled it-- but you're the first person I ever *heard* use it.

(and I was curious enough to research it's etymology-- it's a fusion of the American expression "hell-bent" and the British
expression (used as far back as Rudyard Kipling) "bent for leather")

(sorry Mike--for the OT)

MikeR397 said: ADVICE SOUGHT.....

It is time for my mom-o-rama. Citi also closed all her accounts. Also, she has had 16 TU inquiries PUT BACK ON HER CREDIT REPORT AFTER BUMPAGE LAST YEAR.
Questions:

1) Can she re-bump those inquiries off? I'm going to give this a try. I still haven't bumped any of my inquiries, using 3 services for around 3 weeks now.

2) Should she try to reopen one Citi card before applying for more, or just apply for the new ones? She has a few good lines with them around $15-$20k already, but it may not matter too much if I just get her new cards. I'm just concerned that after the AA without a re-open, she may not get approved for a new card on her app.

Mike, to get rid of those 16 inquiries pronto, sign up and diligently do daily bumps using these:

1. chaseidprotection.com,
2. creditkarma.com,
3. AmericanExpress.com/creditsecure,
4. creditchecktotal.com

it is possible that www.myprivacymatters.com would also work.

3 and 4 above are "delayed action", i.e., need to wait for 30 days until daily pull feature is granted. you can sign-up, cancel immediately, and sign up again to save some days.

I think you should be able to bump those inquiries off within 15-20 days. I would hurry up, as, for me at least, most of the CITI ARs are on TU.

MikeR397 said: Sisters $25k Citi Cash Returns has now been reopened. .

MikeR, I just want to say, you're the man. You took this pretty much in stride and went on vacation. LMAO. I on the otherhand needed new drywall and to hit the emergency room for broken bones in both hands (exaggerating!) after my experiences

tolamapS said: it is possible that www.myprivacymatters.com would also work.

Privacy Matters will not work to bump TU.

Yes. They can verify that PM123 soft pulls were their own, so they are removing them, thus eliminating bumpage.

kkerty89 said: MikeR397 said: Sisters $25k Citi Cash Returns has now been reopened. .

MikeR, I just want to say, you're the man. You took this pretty much in stride and went on vacation. LMAO. I on the otherhand needed new drywall and to hit the emergency room for broken bones in both hands (exaggerating!) after my experiencesSometimes I find the best way to deal with Citi is to not deal with them. They are pretty random, like their consolidating practices.

Mike, does it really matter that they closed the cards? I've found adverse action is really sort of meaningless. Its not like you can't open another account with citibank. Though obviously if they make you forfeit reward points that is a problem.

UnixLab said: Does anyone able to bump EQ out for the last 3 months ?
I only sign up one daily pull service and have tried to pull almost everyday since Mar. and not able to bump any EQ out.

I am having problems too, with the last round of b*.

I have been using 5-6 a day, though not every day, and EQ keeps chopping every 10 days or so. Rate of soft accrual is not enough over 10 days.

I think EQ might have a program which chops off once enough softs accrue to cause a b*.

DavidScubadiver said: Mike, does it really matter that they closed the cards? I've found adverse action is really sort of meaningless. Its not like you can't open another account with citibank. Though obviously if they make you forfeit reward points that is a problem.So far I have not noticed anything negative with respect to my credit score changing. In my opinion, the adverse action is just a hassel, and part of the risk I have definately assumed in doing what I'm doing. I have no regrets and will handle things as they come up.

Also, Citi's official position on closing accounts (or so I've been told twice) is that if they deem it necessary to close one of your accounts, they will close ALL of them. So if you have "too much available credit with them" as they seem to hate lately, they will reduce your credit to $0. Hardly seems reasonable obviously, which is why I think its been so easy for me to ask for just one old card to be reopened.

Just remember, like I said in the other post, if you do get this AA from citi, they put a "credit hold" on your SSN and it appears you can't apply for any new cards with them until you get an old card reopened (I have not found a way to remove the hold except having it happen automatically when a closed card is reopened).

Venturion said: I b*ed two EQ inquiries in July. It took four months of b* on four services sporadically (3 out of 5 days) while softs would be consolidated AND then a focused effort of two months of daily b*, usually 9 out of 10 days.I'm not even messing with bumping EQ. I've only got one EQ hit and my sister 2. In another year when I need to apply, it won't have any effect. Even with 7 EX inquiries showing from last year, I've experienced no problems with issers denying becuase of 7 inquiries from exactly 12 months ago. By the time the second year rolls around, the first 7 EX inquiries will get knocked off automatically (its 2 years right?).