Haha I finally hustled Citibank to raise the paldry limit on my Visa credit card.
I've had my Citibank card for nearly a full year now, and they never raised my $1,000 limit once...not once! I always paid on time, never went over my limit, almost always paid the full amount...even during the introductory "0% APR for the first 6months" offer they gave me, I STILL paid off my balance in full each month! But when you make a lotta money and spend a lot, a $1,000 limit just won't cut it. My spending needs were too big for my card's limit. Part of the reason why I paid off my balance in full, was because I needed to pay down the card to 0 before I could rack it up again.
So I called multiple times to ask them to raise my limit, and they refused to do this unless I agreed for them to run my credit report, which would result in a hard inquiry...which would esentially lower my credit score. I already had a number of inquiries on my credit...2 from when I applied for my car loan last October, and a number of inquiries from my poverty-stricken pre-dancing days, when I was desperately applying for bank loans for college because I didn't qualify for any financial aide loans(I got rejected because I had "insufficient income" back then, before I became a rich-girl dancer). The last thing I'd need would be more inquiries.
Then today, I was in a bad mood about my former landlord/slumlord STILL not mailing me my deposit as promised, so I took out my frustration on Citibank by threatening to close my account because I was "one of the best customers around" and they were "highly unaccomodating." So they nearly doubled my limit, lowered my interest, and kissed my butt! It worked! I guess hustling creditors is kinda like hustling customers for dances and champagne courts. Over the last month, furniture shopping has also taught me that I can hustle down prices and save a lotta money that way too. So happy I'm finally getting a raise! Now maybe my credit report will make me look a little more established?
How have your experiences been with credit cards? Anyone else experience this with Citibank?(I have 2 friends, both with good credit, who haven't gotten credit limit raises from Citibank in YEARS!)


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