Maintaining fee free for life when changing card details

[theblank]

Everyone naturally assumes it's their own life, but I'll bet it's not.

How much?

 

[little brown dog]

So I have recently been required to reduce my CC limit from $15K to $10K due to a home loan application and have spoken to Citibank regarding this. I have the Signature card on a Free for Life Annual fee. They have advised me that the Signature cannot be reduced below $15K and that my only option is to change to one of the lower cards and therefore losing my Free for Life status. Unfortunately I will not be retaining a Citibank card for the forseable future due to losing the free annual fee. Well I will hold on to it for my trip next month to use up my 2 Priority Pass entries. Shame they are so inflexible.

 

[DeKa]

So I have recently been required to reduce my CC limit from $15K to $10K due to a home loan application and have spoken to Citibank regarding this. I have the Signature card on a Free for Life Annual fee. They have advised me that the Signature cannot be reduced below $15K and that my only option is to change to one of the lower cards and therefore losing my Free for Life status. Unfortunately I will not be retaining a Citibank card for the forseable future due to losing the free annual fee. Well I will hold on to it for my trip next month to use up my 2 Priority Pass entries. Shame they are so inflexible.

This probably isn’t Citi’s doing.
Visa have different offerings based on limit bands. I’d say Signature starts at $15k limit
I’m pretty sure Platinum starts at $6k limit.

 

[Cynicor]

Yeah, all sig card minimum limits are 15k, cannot change this. It's really your bank that has the inflexibility issue- they have discretion that Citi do not in this case.

 

[Glider_]

Yeah, all sig card minimum limits are 15k.

Data point: Original conditions state the min is $15k. However, my FFFL signature card limit is $14.5k.

Backstory: when I applied for the FFFL Signature card they sent me a Platinum instead saying I didn't qualify. I wrote them a letter refusing the platinum and insisting they cancel it as they was not the product I applied for or wanted. They cancelled the platinum and sent me a signature instead with $14.5k limit.

Going forward, with the major points devaluations in recent years and my spending habits I'm strongly considering getting rid of this card in favor of churning others.

 

[Cynicor]

That is interesting as every other sig card also has a 15k min limit. I've never seen or had any that allowed lower.

 

[theblank]

Shame they are so inflexible.

Your lender is being inflexible. You can easily (?) demonstrate to them that you repay the Signature credit card in full every month for X years.

You can thank the RCWHTH for the stricter lender affordability assessments, HOWEVER, that only ever sets it all up for the initial loan decision as qualified by the numbers. Every lender can submit the application to the next higher authority to override the policy assessment (of which there are up to 5 layers) if there are justifiable reasons to do so AND they really want to approve the loan.

There are many factors that would be considered for the justifiable reasons, not limited to the financial data, including whether you are a good bloke, your profession, your network. Your contact in the bank just needs to put forward a good case. If that person is just being inflexible on this point, then they are not interested at all for many possible reasons.

 

[coolstepslg]

alex101 so what did you end up doing?

wife got same letter saying they would be charging $395 in January when annual fee was due. she got a signature card and fee was waived annually when she was a citigold member but hasnt been a current member for a a few years. we wrote a secure email stating that we had requested to have it converted over to the ffl during the promo a few years ago but only generic reply received. i called a complaints manager . she said that the account had a ffl status and couldnt find such a letter posted out on file. so we ignored it and still havent been charged the annual fee. for me i had to cancel my 2 signature cards and made the mistake telling them the reason was to be approved for a home loan and they made a note on my file and refused to reinstate both accounts within 30 days even though stating i could on the phone . so after being approved for the home loan they approved an app for platinum card with only 6k limit with an annual fee and 100k promo. so ive been in dispute with them for nearly a year now trying to get my ffl signature card back. they told me to do 3 credit limit increases to 15k so upgrade from platinum to signature could be done but all applications were declined, very frustrating wrecking my credit history . i have one more trump up my sleeve is to transfer part of a large credit limit from another bank credit card which is issued by citi to my platinum card to meet the 15k rule and then trying one final time to get upgraded and ffl applied its been a long hard road so far.

 

[FL360]

Some of my experience, with Citi signature.

I had the citi signature card for over 6 years now - always fee free.

in the past 2 years, I had been putting the spending to amex explorer, however this will be the last year with them as they have devaluated their points and stuff up my asiamiles transfer before the deadline - resulting a lost of over 40,000 asiamiles. and I don't want to spend time trying to spend $400 on their travel site just to make the card fee free every year. I always have QF lounge access anyway.

I would consider the Citi $49 QFF fee, only if they can make sure that I will still be fee free for life of the card.

I have found citi quite good, I was judged wrong in one of the car rental dispute some while ago - stopped used their card for a while - unless they don't take amex. and then 18 months later citi have reviewed the case and credit me the money back.

I think the OP's fee free was tagged to the citigold account - and the account manager. if you leave, you lose it all. personally I have found citigold / HSBC premier and the like useless as previously they are just another sales person - however since the royal commission, these practises has been weeded out, and you left with someone who don't care anymore.

Citibank's service is minimal in Australia - I won't consider banking with them, as they don't have teller service and their ATMs is rare to find now.

 

[pauly]

I started with the platinum card in 2011 and was upgraded to the signature after a year, keeping the same 12k limit and no fee.

I recently tried to reduce the limit back to 12k but had no luck so it would seem you can start below 15k but can't go back to it.

 

[Chicken]

they don't have teller service and their ATMs is rare to find now.

I have my loans with them (and this free for life signature). They don't have tellers because you do cash transactions at the post office, free. They don't do ATM because they used to have an agreement with Westpac group for free ATM access (now all mayor ATMs are free).

I recently tried to reduce the limit back to 12k but had no luck so it would seem you can start below 15k but can't go back to it.

Minimum limit for signature is $15k that's why.

 

[pauly]

Minimum limit for signature is $15k that's why.

My post didn't have a question, but you know.. thanks for looking

 

[mokuni]

I would consider the Citi $49 QFF fee, only if they can make sure that I will still be fee free for life of the card.

Few years back, I switched from Citi pts to QF. 3 years later I swapped back to Citi. I am still on the fee free Signature.