Mist, I only have a $2,000 target visa at 15% with $200 balance. If i do get the default rate is there any chance to get the rate back down over time? I owe about $4,000 total on both CITI cards.
Tommyy, I think your big problem will be if you are near your credit limit on those CIT cards. If you are, you're going to learn a painful lesson about credit. Never run a balance and not have a place to transfer it if something goes wrong. Were I you, I'd pay off that Target and see about getting a cl increase just in case.
Keepmine, On my 1st Plat card w/ CITI I am at 40% of limit, the other 20% of the limit (about $3000 total). My Target Visa is a $1,500 limit and I have only had the card since 11/1/01 I owe $250 on it. Don't you have to wait 6 months before getting a CL increase? Do you know of any other cards that are easier to get if you do an immediate BT?
With those ratios, I'd say you're OK. I don't CITI is going to jack your rates based on one $80 derog. They'll be looking for serious problems with other creditors coupled with someoen maxing out their cards. It wouldn't hurt to save a little money and be in position to reduce your balance if something bad did happen.
I had a similar problem earlier this year. I had a bogus paid collection for $50 put on my reports by mistake. Citi picked up on it and jacked up my rates to 24.99%.. I got the problem resolved (the CA could not verify the collection because it was not mine). I called Citi and got my rate reduced to 10.49% this week. HERE IS WHAT THE REP SAID I SHOULD HAVE DONE. She said that if they pick up a negative on a AR and jack up your rate, you should call them immediately and they will reduce your rate to the previous APR. You then have four months to correct the mistake with the CA or CRA. If you do so, your rate remains at it's previous rate. If you don't corredt the mistake, your rate goes to 24.99%.
Tommy, Get it in dispute mode right away with the CRA's. Citi shouldn't use it against you if you already have it indispute. It will say "Customer disputes this item". I also think, perhaps the AR's that they do just pick up movement in your scores. They are probably going to look at anything that drops you quite a few points since the last AR so if the hit to your score wasn't too bad you may skate. I know with EQ that when you dispute an item it returns your score to what it would be if you didn't have that negative until the dispute is over so Citi might not have reason to take it into consideration. Dispute, dispute, dispute. I hope you can skate on this... Mist
The way citi works, is that if any new derogs appear, since the date of open of the account(citi), they will nab you. If you dispute a derog off, after you get your citi card, and its re-inserted, no fear. They know what was on you report the day they approved you, and they just look for new ones.
