Read this with a humorous background music playing in your mind as it is a comedy. If any item in here is not clear, I apologize and mean no disrespect and will immediately revise the wording upon notification.
I have been a citibank customer for nearly 20 years and I HAD 20 cards with them with various lines of credit and balances on them. I felt like no more than 30% debt to credit available ratio. I never had a late payment count and paid full each month with over 100000$ in purchases each year.
So why did they close almost all of these 20 accounts with no warning and no phone call???
Well, because I decided I want the perks of a few other cards from Bank of America, Bank of hawaii and Citibank and in a 3 month period I got all of the cards I asked for and got the perks and then did not use the cards that much. So where's the problem you ask, well I guess SOME banks use the "Number of Inquires" on your credit report to decide that you are in trouble and seeking more credit to bail yourself out and they just whack your open accounts instead of checking to see you don't use all your credit and have for the most part a spotless long term record.
I called them and they looked into the account and basically gave the sensation that it really should not have been done the way it was and I told them that they are upsetting me. Banks want my business but is treating me like I am a criminal that has been found out and closing the cards before I get the chance to use the available credit (there for like years) the right message to send?
They have not called me back yet to tell me if they will reopen the accounts.
The irony is that 3 or 4 of the inquires in the last year were from CITIBANK. Sometimes in back to back months. All they had to do was call me and say your credit available is too high and I would have told them which cards to reduce or elmimate (some from 2006 were not used in a long time) and all would have been ok, but to not call is highly iritating.
I hope to get resolution to this as I think Citi has done well by me in the past, but I think their (probably in the last 1. X year) policy of close accounts automatically when the inquire number comes back from agency is just wrong. Each case should be taken on its merits and not lump a good customer in with the other idiots that can't manage their affairs/credit.
P.S. The last time they closed one of my accounts and it was wrong, they reopened and gave me 7500 AA miles to shut me up. Since they closed 20 this time, they are in for a shock as to how much it will take to shut me up. Not to mention the annual fees I expect to be prorated back to me since I didnt have the benefit of the card for the full period.
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