Citibank's Refusal To Reconsider My Loan Application = Poor Customer Service

I just wanted to reply to the Original poster because I do not fully
agree with some of the replies. I have a great deal of experience
with dealing with all types of credit issues. I want to give you some
encouragement. A well written letter to Citi or any other potential
creditor asking for reconsideration is not a complete waste of time in
all cases. To the person who said that "a credit company would not
change their mind just because you plead your case and ask them for
reconsideration" " Or that if your credit was worthy you would not
have been denied in the first place." This is just NOT true in many
cases. I have seen several successful attempts at reconsideration
especially with Citi. Many people have been successful by writing
here at PFB as well as sending a nicely worded letter by mail,
especially when sent to the "Office Of The President".

It is not completely hopeless and is worth your time to try.
Sometimes when you call and speak to a rep they are not helpful at all
and most do not have the authority to over turn your denial. If you
are serious about wanting your application reconsidered I would work
on a letter to send to the president along with a copy of your credit
reports. I have seen that sending another report besides the one they
used to deny your application ( if the report is better) can help.
Also point out all of your strong points, employment stability,
income, etc. You will at least receive a response with more exact
reasons of your denial. This will help you to know when you would
have a better shot at approval.

Citi is really good at approving people with some negatives on your
credit. If you applied online a computer is deciding if you were
approved or not by a scoring system set up which is very basic and
sometimes random. This is why it is best to write someone with
authority and ask for a manual review.

I can speak from personal experience ( well my spouse) that
reconsideration works with many creditors including Citi. My spouse
applied for the Citi Premier Pass card back in December. Was not
given an auto decision and got the " Don't call us we"ll call you"
notice online. Well, once she received notice of denial, but a reason
was not exactly given. The notice just said you did not score enough
points on our scoring system. A reconsideration letter was sent to
the " Office Of the Presient" and basically we just forgot about it
after days went by without any response. After 2 weeks went by we
received a phone call from someone in the presidents office. The
application was approved after manual review with a 8K limit. The
card was in our mail box about 10 days later.

This same method has work with several others that I know of
personally and it has worked with other creditors. Since you already
have taken the hard inquiry you might as well give reconsideration a
shot when denied credit. All they can do is say NO again and if you
can explain your past mistakes with a good explanation and have
improved things you may have a good shot with them. You might try
asking for them to just give you a chance to prove yourself with a
lower limit card. Your credit cannot be hopeless or they would not
have approved your application for the checking account. They do pull
a report for that as well.

Hope this helps you somewhat! Good Luck!

Citybank customer since 2005? You realize 2005 was just 58 short days
ago, don't you? When was the last time you checked your credit
report? You mention your 'greatly improved creditworthiness.' For
what reason did it have to be 'greatly improved?' That, IMHO, is
something which probably raised a red flag for Citybank. I'd check
that credit report. It's available at no charge. Just this past w/e
I ran off a copy of mine. It may help you to understand their denial.

I completely understand Citi's decision from a credit standpoint. The
issue actually isn't A = I didn't get approved, and therefore,
logically, B = Citi has poor customer service. As an established
Citibank customer, I expected a further explanation for my denial than
simply "I can't really say". Many creditors will, in fact, discuss
your report and identify areas in need of improvement. The particular
customer service representative with whom I spoke treated me more as a
nuisance, which may well be his imperative given the nature of his job
and the fact that I was declined, but he demonstrated a certain
deafness in terms of overall client maintance. If after reviewing my
file, or at least discussing it with me, the decision to deny remained
unchanged, I would have understood.

Yes, it is disappointing to be denied credit. However, you have to
understand that the bank is not playing favorites. They WANT you to
have another credit card - it's how they make their money. Banks have
very strict guidelines on approving credit cards. If your credit
rating does meet certain criteria, they will deny you, simple as that.
And no matter how much you complain, or plead your case, they simply
will not change their minds.

you may have "vastly improved your financial circumstances" but have
you vastly improved your credit report?

If they thought you had greatly improved your creditworthiness, they
would have approved your request. The only reason this is poor
customer service is because they didn't give you what you wanted.