{"id":4902,"date":"2013-08-30T07:57:25","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T13:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=4902"},"modified":"2016-06-14T10:39:51","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T16:39:51","slug":"my-brawl-with-citi-a-credit-card-reconsideration-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=4902","title":{"rendered":"My Brawl with Citi- A Credit Card Reconsideration Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two months. \u00a0For two months we traded blows until I finally delivered the TKO punch on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>My faith did not wane, nor did my persistence slow. \u00a0I knew that I would win the fight. \u00a0You must have the same confidence when faced with a similar challenge. \u00a0When the decision pends, it is time to prepare for a fight like Bob Barker does.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"370\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hulu.com\/embed.html?eid=duTTbc1iMOkF_yKrRXIHgQ\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen> <\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here is how it worked for us.<\/p>\n<p>On July 23rd my wife applied for a Citi AAdvantage card, as well as three other cards in <a title=\"Shae\u2019s July App-O-Rama 145,000 Points And Miles\" href=\"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/2013\/08\/01\/shaes-july-app-o-rama-145000-points-and-miles\/\">her recent App-O-Rama<\/a> that scored her over 140,000 points and miles. \u00a0Two cards were approved immediately, as they all should have, and two were pending decisions.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t bother calling Barclaycard, because the experience that others have told me said they just need more time to make a decision. \u00a0I immediately called the Citi Credit Card Reconsideration Line, they responded by asking a few questions over the phone and told me they would get back with me. \u00a0Frustrated I hung up the phone.<\/p>\n<p>A letter showed up in the mail about a week later that requested:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A piece of mail showing that we lived at our address.<\/li>\n<li>Proof that we owned the phone number listed on the application<\/li>\n<li>A letter from our CPA confirming her income<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Picky, Picky, Picky. \u00a0Not to be discouraged I scrounged up their requirements and sent them off to Citi. \u00a0After giving them three or four days to approve me I called and got the answer that they had DENIED my wife. \u00a0What were they thinking? \u00a0Shae has a wonderful credit score, low debt to income, impeccable credit history, and everything else a creditor would want. \u00a0The person on the line explained that he couldn&#8217;t tell why.<\/p>\n<p>Here is where a little experience is so useful. \u00a0I hung up the phone and immediately <del>put on my boxing gloves<\/del>, dialed the number for the credit department instead of calling the application line. \u00a0You&#8217;ll see both numbers on our <a title=\"Reconsideration Numbers\" href=\"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/getting-started\/reconsideration-numbers\/\">Credit Card Reconsideration post.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I talk about fighting, but really when Andrew from South Dakota answered the phone I acted more like a gentleman. \u00a0We chatted about the weather, Sioux Falls, and other things to warm him up to the meat of our conversation. \u00a0I wanted him to be on my side, not against me thinking I&#8217;m some #$$ screaming at him. \u00a0Most of these people have some leeway whether they approve you or not, so play nice even if they aren&#8217;t being fair.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew explained that even though they had received the information from me answering all of their questions, they didn&#8217;t like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The credit card statement I sent was too old.<\/li>\n<li>The letter signed by my CPA wasn&#8217;t on letterhead.<\/li>\n<li>We had never answered the phone number on file.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Instead of asking for further information, they straight denied her the application. \u00a0Are you kidding me? \u00a0He was definitely inclined to help us get approved for the card, so I worked with him to ensure we would get the approval and go 4 for 4 on her App O Rama.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that our address wasn&#8217;t verifying (whatever that means), so I gave him my work address and he was able to verify that address. \u00a0A quick phone call to our home number (a Google Voice number) with Shae answering the phone and answering a couple of other questions and we were approved.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/30dXrUm3o6g?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yahoo! 100% Great Success. \u00a0More than a brawl, it was like a tea party with an old friend. \u00a0Andrew was more than happy to get us to the approval state in spite of our small barrier. The approach to take here is confidence, persistence, and kindness. \u00a0At the end you&#8217;ll feel like it has been a fight, but really it would all be worth it in the end.<\/p>\n<p>What experiences have you had with your reconsideration stories? \u00a0We would love to hear about yours!<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/?px\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=fc54775b-cf9a-4f5a-973d-89fe004d75b2\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two months. \u00a0For two months we traded blows until I finally delivered the TKO punch on Tuesday night. My faith did not wane, nor did my persistence slow. \u00a0I knew that I would win the fight. \u00a0You must have the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=4902\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1041,10,11,12,92],"tags":[31,1891,1378,301,1043,128,1376,1375,1377],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1DhXV-1h4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}