Comments on: Consolidating Citi Credit Card Accounts

By: fivecentnickel.com

fivecentnickel.com — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:39:38 +0000

Do you know if you can do this for cards with different primary cardholders? I have a Div Plat with my wife listed as an authorized user and she has a Driver’s Edge with me as authorized user. We want to drop down to one card, but I’m not sure we can consolidate the credit lines because of the two different primary users. I just called Citi, but the CSR was totally clueless, and actually told me it’s impossible for people to consolidate cards under any circumstance (which I know isn’t true).

By: Mase

Mase — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:46:59 +0000

I have 3 cards with Amex (2 personal cards — Starwood and Blue Cash — and 1 business card — Starwood). As I will not need/want the business card (or want to pay the annual fee when it is due after my free year), I looked into moving my credit lines. The best part was that I could move all but $1K (as lulugal11 noted) to my other cards. However, FIRST, I was able to increase my credit limit on my Amex Business and then transfer all but $1K over to my two personal cards. As I did not want a hard pull on my credit, I kept my increase request low (just $4K — anticipating putting $2K each over to my personal cards along with 1/2 of the remaining credit limit minues the $1K necessary). Thus, now my 2 personal cards have limits over $40K. Looks like I can do this again in about 30 days (increase my business limit, then transfer the increase over to my personal cards). As my business anniversary date is not ’til June, hope to ‘pump’ my personal limits up quite a bit before I get rid of the bidness card (as % of credit used is part of credit score).

By: Cody

Cody — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:46:39 +0000

While you’re on the horn with the credit card company anyway, and about to consolidate the cards, try a couple things first.

One, mention that you want to close one of the accounts to see if they offer you a deal to stay. If they do, accept it, and then wait a couple weeks before consolidating. You can sometimes get a lower APR or promotional deal this way. Then a couple weeks later, consolidate the other card(s) to that one to keep the deal. If they don’t have a stay-on deal, say “How about instead of closing it, I just consolidate?”

Two, just ask for a lower APR or fee waiver (if applicable) before saying you want to consolidate. CapitalOne often gave me something every 6 months, whether it be a limit increase, fee waiver, or lower APR. If they give it to you, wait a couple weeks and then conolidate to the better card.

By: lulugal11

lulugal11 — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:06:57 +0000

I was trying to do this with my American Express card but they would not allow me to transfer all of the limit of one card over. They said I had to keep a limit of $1000 on each card so I would lose that amount when consolidating my cards and I would have to close out that one card.

I decided to keep the card open for now even though it is unused because I want to show available credit since I plan on applying for a 0% card soon and I do not want the big hit of closing a card off now.

By: Mia

Mia — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:33:26 +0000

Thanks very much, I’ve been wanting to do this.