Citibank - The PASH Wedding Forums and Message Boards

justnmary · #1 03-10-2007, 04:58 PM

I was just on the Citibank website looking for a different credit card. They have so many to choose from! How do you decide what is most beneficial to you? I want something with no annual fee, low APR, but can still build rewards points. They have like 50 different plans/offers? It's unreal! I want to get rid of my Capital One card....they were ok, but I really want a different company where I don't get charged $19 a year in a 'membership fee'. Any suggestions? I was also thinking of looking into Chase but not sure.

Heather · #2 03-10-2007, 05:11 PM

I love Citibank.... They're fantastic.

The cards/programs they offer are of such a variety so I understand how it would be hard to choose one.

Think of what you need the card for. If you're just going to use it once in a while, I would just get their standard credit card. If you're going to use it a lot, then I would get the card that offers reward points. You pretty much have to read through each type to see what the offer is and if there's an annual fee, etc. I have the standard card (no reward points, etc.) and I have no annual fee.

The base APR is set by the federal government (I think it's at 8.5% right now) and then whatever the amount is above that, is based on your credit rating. However if you're doing a balance transfer, find a card/program that offers you 0% interest on that transfer. It will only apply to the amount transferred however, and not to any purchases you make with that card.

Kim&Bob2004 · #3 03-10-2007, 11:53 PM

I think our Citi card has like a 9 something interest.... We like it I think we get points but we don't use it much so....

Our Capital ones (I have one and so does DH) don't have annual fees, and again Bob's has a very low interest and mine is still under 15% so not too bad (course I have a zero balance so I don't know how long they will let me keep it....)

Heather, the zero cards we have gotten to transfer balances also offered zero on purchases for the intro period. Also someone told us that most zero interest cards go up to 25% after the intro period, we have never noticed that, it is always what they say it will be in their paperwork...... Can this happen though? Also I was sent about 4 months ago a card with a rather high limit, have never even used it yet, should I make a small purchase on it to keep it? (in June I decided I needed to start building my own credit history --never used credit before except for student loans).

Oh Mary, we have been VERY happy with Bank of America too...... and their choice privileges (we have it just for motel rooms) has a higher interest rate but you can really rack up the points when you use the card at choice hotels.... (we have a choice card and a regular card).

Heather · #4 03-11-2007, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kim&Bob2004

Our Capital ones (I have one and so does DH) don't have annual fees, and again Bob's has a very low interest and mine is still under 15% so not too bad (course I have a zero balance so I don't know how long they will let me keep it....)

I just want to say that I used to have a Capital One card before I switched to Citi. I was late on one payment b/c of the surgery I had in Sept. 05 and my interest shot up from 10% to just over 25%. I paid it off immediately (no balance transfer) after arguing for TWO hours and closed the account. They suck, lol.

Quote:

Heather, the zero cards we have gotten to transfer balances also offered zero on purchases for the intro period. Also someone told us that most zero interest cards go up to 25% after the intro period, we have never noticed that, it is always what they say it will be in their paperwork...... Can this happen though?

It really depends on the company. Before you do any balance transfers, check to see what the base interest rate will be once that time period is over. MOST cards will revert to the normal 8.5% plus whatever is on top based on your credit. I don't know of any card that will shoot up to that high of a percentage simply at the end of the time period, unless a payment is missed. During the time period of 0%, if you miss a payment, it can very well shoot up to a very high percentage.

Quote:

Also I was sent about 4 months ago a card with a rather high limit, have never even used it yet, should I make a small purchase on it to keep it? (in June I decided I needed to start building my own credit history --never used credit before except for student loans).

It's not necessary to make a purchase at all, however check the fine print to see if your account will go 'inactive' if it's not used within a year. This is something that also varies from company to company and it isn't a huge deal, but it will show up on your credit report as 'inactive'. Shouldn't affect your score though because it will also show up as you having a certain amount of available credit in the account, which is a good thing. If you purchase something with it, your amount of available credit goes down, which is a bad thing. Of course if you're talking about something small and pay it off immediately, it really won't make much of a difference at all.

Does all this mumbo jumbo help? (I'm having an extremely bad "pain" day and have taken some pain meds to help. Not working, but I'm certainly feeling a bit loopy.)