$0 Annual Fee for Life on Citi Platinum/Signature CC Complimentary Insurance

[TheCityLane]

Application status has changed today from "conditionally approved" to "declined". Surely it's just a mistake in their system given the information that they've fed me the past 2 times they have called.

 

[TheCityLane]

So turns out they cancelled the Signature application and have put in an application for a Platinum card on my behalf instead as I wasn't approved for the minimum credit limit (which makes no sense as my income is well above the threshold and I've never been in debt or been late on any payments for anything in my life!).

How frustrating. Earn rate on Platinum is no where near as good as Signature. 0.625 Virgin points per $ spent. I suppose given that it's fee free it's good just to have and hopefully can upgrade to a Signature sometime next year.

Customer service representative was quite rude too.

 

[nonpop]

Stupidly had problems with the Citibank Plus Savings account though - hoping the card comes through before I head o/s next weekend...

Ok I too had an issue with the savings account.
I received a Visa debit card ... well ok ... I checked and they said it jut comes as part of the 'savings' account.
But what was strange ... the Visa Signature card had myself and wife (secondary card holder) but the 'savings' account / Visa debit card only had me.
After discussing with Citi ... they had to cancel my Savings account as they could not add a joint account holder to it.
I will need to re-apply for the savings account ... which I'll do another day.

 

[Plutonus]

So turns out they cancelled the Signature application and have put in an application for a Platinum card on my behalf instead as I wasn't approved for the minimum credit limit (which makes no sense as my income is well above the threshold and I've never been in debt or been late on any payments for anything in my life!).

How frustrating. Earn rate on Platinum is no where near as good as Signature. 0.625 Virgin points per $ spent. I suppose given that it's fee free it's good just to have and hopefully can upgrade to a Signature sometime next year.

Customer service representative was quite rude too.

The 'back office' team are much ruder than the front-line customer service representatives. They always have attitude (and the worst hold music ever)

 

[get me outta here]

(and the worst hold music ever)

Yes, I can agree w' that it is torturous and must make people on hold being even more 'short' w' the operators when they come back on.

 

[jj92]

I had nice guy call me today trying to sell purchase protection or something? As soon as I said I wasn't interested he changed his tune and became very rude. Same with when I signed up to the card, got some long talk about getting income protection for 10 minutes

 

[Cynicor]

I had nice guy call me today trying to sell purchase protection or something? As soon as I said I wasn't interested he changed his tune and became very rude. Same with when I signed up to the card, got some long talk about getting income protection for 10 minutes

Thats a pity. For some reason I got a call a few weeks before this about some sort of protection. They said I had indicated interest at some point and when I said I hadn't, they said sorry and bye. Very quick and polite.

 

[Deleted member 6404]

If I had the same run around as some of you guys here, I would have just closed the account and said good bye Citibank.
I'm the one making money for them not the other way round, look after me or its over, lots of other CC promotions out there, just need to search.
But as always be polite works for me.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Enquired and got the offer to transfer my CBGold without further ado. I declined as I wanted to keep the CBG. OK...so you will have to make a new separate application... which I did over the phone. I was declined as I am now self-employed; I see where they are coming from but if I can keep the existing card with a considerably higher credit limit then why not?

I thought about asking for a review but the more I think about it, current CBG fee of $149 for 1.25 points per $, or $49 (QFF Fee) for 1.00 point per $. Maybe it is not worth the change after all.

JV

 

[mini2]

With all these nightmare/declined stories, maybe I'm better off sticking with my fee free Plat and forgo applying for a Signature...

 

[anchew]

Wow that was easy. I just rang Citibank and asked whether I can get zero annual fee for life even though I was already a Citibank signature card holder. After being on hold for 2 min to check on my eligibility, the response was yes!

 

[mini2]

Wow that was easy. I just rang Citibank and asked whether I can get zero annual fee for life even though I was already a Citibank signature card holder. After being on hold for 2 min to check on my eligibility, the response was yes!

Yeah it's easy to get that but trying to get them to credit the annual fee which I've already paid was a little tougher.

 

[Deleted member 6404]

You could have up graded to platinum fee free instead, I may be wrong but I believe there is no free travel insurance on the CBG card anymore

 

[tim374]

With all these nightmare/declined stories, maybe I'm better off sticking with my fee free Plat and forgo applying for a Signature...

If you have $15,000 or more credit limit you can ask to be upgraded under the current promotion. I did so and now have a fee free Signature. They did have to make a request and it took a few days however.

 

[wind_]

Yeah it's easy to get that but trying to get them to credit the annual fee which I've already paid was a little tougher.

I actually had the opposite problem. Got credited the annual fee paid without even asking but got put through a headache-inducing rigmarole in getting the new $0 offer.

Citi's always been a bit strange with its inconsistency.

 

[mini2]

You could have up graded to platinum fee free instead, I may be wrong but I believe there is no free travel insurance on the CBG card anymore

Yeah got that done already which is a breeze.

If you have $15,000 or more credit limit you can ask to be upgraded under the current promotion. I did so and now have a fee free Signature. They did have to make a request and it took a few days however.

Can't be bothered if I'm honest as this is just a backup card when the merchant won't accept my Amex.

Citi's always been a bit strange with its inconsistency.

That's another reason why I don't want to further complicate things by getting my annual fee credited and fee free for life applied to the account.

 

[b_adger]

I'm interested in all these tales of bad customer service and rudeness. I've been with Citi for about 10 years now and I am frequently amazed at how polite, pleasant and helpful the CSRs are on the phone. They have always called me back when they said they would and while there have been a few times things have got messed up they have always sorted things out.

 

[Liski]

Below is the written response I got after requesting a further re-asseemnt to be made. I'm earning over 85K + supplementary income, with hardly any monthly expenses (apart from mobile, fuel and general going out money) as I live home and don't pay rent/board.

NAB have been able to give me a $18K limit 2 years ago and Westpac a $25K limit in 2006. The NAB one has been closed 2 weeks ago and the Westpac one is pending on the outcome of SIGNATURE vs PLATINUM issue.

I have tried calling Mr Platt and have emailed him a few times but haven't heard back from him in over a week. Is it worth the hassle to keep pushing for the SIGNATURE?

You contacted us in relation to your recent application for a Citi Select card being declined and instead you were offered a platinum card with a credit limit of $12,500.

You requested that we approve this, however, after we reassessed your application our original decision stands and we will not be increasing the credit limit of the card or approving the transfer to a Citi Select card.

In relation to the reason why we have made this decision we are not obligated to disclose the reason for your application being declined as our credit criteria is confidential. A number of factors are taken into consideration when assessing an application, based on the information provided by you.

However in your circumstance, we can confirm that the reason for the decline included but was not limited to, your capacity to service the account, i.e. the amount of your declared income versus your declared expenses.

I advise that after 6 months you are welcome to apply for a credit limit increase and transfer to a select card provided you meet the minimum product criteria. Please be aware that as always applications and limit increases are subject to approval criteria.

I hope this helps to resolve your issue. Should you have any further concerns or wish to discuss the issue further please contact myself on 02 xx_X xx_X between Monday to Friday 9am till 5pm AEDST.

If you are unsatisfied with our handling of this complaint our external dispute resolution service is the Financial Ombudsman Service, who can be contacted at GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001.

Yours sincerely

 

[TheCityLane]

I wouldn't bother. I doubt you will get anywhere. Wait the 6 months and try again. I'm guessing you're in the same boat as me, whereby the fact that you have a card that you were planning to cancel after the Signature was approved counted against you.

 

[Liski]

I'm guessing you're in the same boat as me, whereby the fact that you have a card that you were planning to cancel after the Signature was approved counted against you.

It's stupid as the application does state NOT to mention any credit card that you will be cancelling upon receiving the CitiBank credit card. I didn't mention any credit card during the application and only brought it up with statements and letters that the cards have been cancelled. It's just all too funny as 2 weeks prior to applying I got a cold call from them offering the Singature card and I declined due to the high annual fee compared to my current Westpac SQ Platinum.