2023 TALLY:
Citi Premier 80,000 Bonus points (Moi) - DENIED
Citi Premier 80,000 Bonus points (MH) - DENIED
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We haven't done these Citi rewards in a long time. Because the rewards are mostly gift cards, and so not as enticing. But I was enticed today.
Was thinking recently that we should be fair and do a credit card reward to pay for DL(17)'s college laptop (same as we did for MM). & then I saw a good credit card reward bonus and was denied. I tried again for MH but was also denied. He had opened more cards more recently, so I thought it would make more sense for me to do this deal.
I think it's fair enough. We both maybe already did this bonus 4 times. I am just confused because I am hearing about this deal from people who have already done this 10 times. For that, I am confused. But I can't be too mad about it.
I did check our credit scores, after that. & double checked I hadn't closed a Citi card in the past 24 months, as per rules. Yeah, I haven't opened a new card in years and certainly no Citi cards for the past 3+ years.
I wanted to document here. Because I won't have any record of this otherwise. I want to remind myself not to bother applying for this card again (in the near future).
Edited: Official reasons for denial. 1 - Utilizing too little of our credit. (That's a new one). & 2 - Too many open credit lines. I thought #2 might be a possibility. We have 4 credit cards we use regularly for rewards, and then we each have a credit card we share with the kids. So I was wondering if that 5th credit card might be pushing us over. I never got around to decreasing the credit limit on DL's credit card. I will make sure that is still on my to do list. & it's also on my list to close the credit card I shared with MM(19). He has his own credit cards now.
I don't know if #2 is a real/legit thing, or is just code for "You already did this bonus 4 times already, so we don't want you." We don't have high credit limits on most of our cards. Just $1K on the retail credit card and just $5K on the card I share with MM(19).