Log into your account on citi online, and go to "manage my account" and then "credit line increase request." It will either grant you an automatic CL increase, and tell you that no CR is pulled. Or it will give you an online form to fill out, and tell you that a CR must be pulled. I've been successful getting my Citi CL increased twice in the past 5 months. My $4000 secured (for 18 months) account became unsecured in Jan. In Feb. I went online and did requested a CL increase, and was granted a $1200 increase, to $5200, without inquiry. I continued to try for a number of months, and always received the long form to fill out, which would mean that a CR would be pulled. I spoke to a customer service rep about an unrelated matter and he said it would be at least a year before I'd be able to get another increase without an inquiry. But I continued to try every so often, and today, was granted another $1500 without inquiry. Again, they did not ask me to fill out a form, they just did this automatically. So I've gone from $4000 to $6700 in 5 months without having to beg customer service or have any inquiries pulled. Good luck!
OK. That was not true. I just requested like you said and it said no because of a high cash usage? They said that they used Equifax. Great.....
I was just about to say something. Guess I was too late. It use to be that if you didn't qualify for an immediate increase, it took you to a form to fill out. They have since changed that to either an approval screen (w/ no inquiry) or a denial screen (which will cost you an inquiry).
Sorry it didn't work for you, I was just sharing what was successful for me. It doesn't always work for me, either, although I like it because it gives you the choice to check your CR or not. When it doesn't work, however, I don't receive the same msg it sounds like you receive. I receive a form to fill out....it never mentions equifax but does say it will check credit history. I don't know if usage and balance has anything to do with it, but I usually charge $1500-$3000 a month and almost always pay in full.
Not me AS SOON as I hit the credit increase tab in card member central I got the denial. So much for no inq for 6 months before my mortgage. That is what I get I guess.
For some odd reason some people get the automatic approval or request form and some people get an automatic request. I don't really understand it but I fortunately either get the increase without inquiry or the option to apply. -0m
Maybe it has to do with your credit report and score when they do account reviews. Maybe people with high scores and good reports get automatic. Maybe the people with o.k. scores and reports get a form to fill out (just in case something has changed like income, etc.) and maybe the ones at the bottom of the barrel get automatic credit pull (just to confirm what was on the account review) and automatic denial??? Just trying to offer an explanation here...
MP- I am not sure what bottom of the barrel would be, but I just checked my EQ and after the INQ it was 669. I dont think that is that bad. There is NOTHING bad on the report. I have 19,800 in credit available and 3109 used (as of today). I have paid 3-4 thousand a month and left some revolving on the 1.9 balance transfer.
Re: Citi CL increase w/out inquirie There was a time that whenever I tried the online credit increase, it would decline based on a TU credit report. What I later learned was that no TU hard INQs were pulled. They mentioned TU in the sense that they were using the last AR (soft) TU INQ pulled, to process my request. So in my case, there was no harm done. Saar
Re: Citi CL increase w/out inquirie Saar, I was just scratching my head today over this very thing. I pulled a TU report earlier this afternoon to see WHEN Citi pulled an inquiry(soft or hard), & saw that they last report pulled was 6/2001. I will assume that they will pull annual reviews vs quarterly reviews(which is unusual when comparing to other creditors). Sister Girl
Re: Citi CL increase w/out inquirie Heavens! They review one or the other of my reports regularly - not necessarily TU. Sometimes I get the form to fill out - I don't! every two or three months I get the automatic increase. No automatic denial. They definitely have it set up so some people can't possibly get an increase.
Re: Citi CL increase w/out inquirie O.k. so maybe my theory was right to an extent. Say they do AR and determine that this person will NOT get an increase until we do another AR. Meanwhile, when you click on the button, they tell you no and that whoever (in my case TU) was used but they don't actually pull a hard one. See...I just assumed that they were. I never checked my TU report to actually find out. O.k. I get it now...
That´s not true!. If you ever filled out the form and was denied an inquire will be pulled. But if you continue to click on the link to increase your limit The same denial message will be showed for a couple of months and no aditional inquires will be pulled.
I just keep getting the form. No inquiries though...just a quick "no". I keep a medium balance on my Citi Plat card though and do not usually pay it completely off, so that may be the reason. Citi does pull an AR every month as Breeze said....but I get an AR from "Citi Cards CBDSNA" on EQ (monthly) and TU (once or twice so far). -Peace, Dave
Re: Citi CL increase w/out inquirie Not sure if anyone else has noticed this but ever since Citibank started to put supposedly personalized "just for you"messages on the account online summary page, the system seems to give you a hint that it might be a good time to ask for an increase. The "just for you messages" I get always include a link and info on getting CL increases whenever they are going to grant the increase. If the messages do not include a link for CL increases I get the request form. Possibly a coincidence but my last three increases followed this pattern. BTW I either get the automatic increase or am asked to complete the request form, have never got an instant denial or any inquires.
Re: Citi CL increase w/out inquirie Some people do not get the form or the automatic increase - they get an instant denial. So, three possibilities when you click in the increase link: 1. the form - "we like you but you can't have an increase right now" 2. An increase - "we like you right now" 3. an automatic denial, no form no nothing, maybe an inquiry - "we don't like you that much yet"
Re: Citi CL increase w/out inquirie At some point, even if your FICO is 800 and Citi's M2 score is the highest, you'd start getting the form simply because your "income to available credit" ratio is too high. Saar
