Citi partners with FICO and Equifax, one of the major credit reporting agencies, to be able to provide you with your FICO® Score.
Citi uses all three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
Experian is the most commonly used source that Citi will draw a report from, but there's no guarantee that they won't decide to pull a different or additional report from another reporting agency. If you're not certain your score is good enough to be approved, you can work on improving your credit.
Excellent credit (750 and up): You'll be eligible for all of Citi's cards with a score in this range, assuming your income and other information check out. Other requirements: It takes more than just a good enough credit score to get Citi credit card approval.
Capital One: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Chase: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Citi: Equifax and Experian. Wells Fargo: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
The credit bureau Chase uses for approval is mainly Experian, according to customer service. However, it's possible for Chase to use any of the three major credit bureaus to evaluate credit card applications for approval: Experian, TransUnion and/or Equifax.
Capital One is unlike other banks in that there isn't one credit bureau that it is most likely to use when looking at a credit card application. It uses Experian (36%), Equifax (32%) and TransUnion (32%) roughly equally. In some cases, it will check two or three credit bureaus when making a lending decision.
Unfortunately, Citi and Capital One are both incredibly sensitive to this. I've heard stories from plenty of friends with credit scores over 800 who both issuers have rejected for having too many recent inquiries on their credit report.
When requesting a credit limit increase, Citibank will consider several factors that determine whether a soft pull or a hard pull will be used. But you can rest assured that Citibank will always notify you before doing a hard pull on your credit report.
It could be a lot higher than that, depending on your overall creditworthiness, but Citi doesn't disclose a maximum. In general, though, the higher your credit score is and the more income you have relative to your existing debt obligations, the higher you can expect your credit limit to be.
The FICO® Score Citi provides is based on information from your Equifax credit report based on the “as of” date included with your score. This may differ from scores you obtain elsewhere that may have been calculated at a different time using information from a different credit bureau or even a different score model.
You need a credit score of at least 700 for a Citi credit card in most cases. That means applicants for Citi credit cards need at least good credit to be approved. But it really depends on which card you're after. Some Citi credit cards require higher scores, and one accepts applicants with limited credit history.
Unlike Chase, which has a similar 5/24 rule (only five new accounts in the last 24 months), Citi's limits on new cards only apply to other Citi cards.
You can ask Citi for a credit limit increase by using its website or app or by speaking with a Citi customer service representative over the phone. Citi typically does not carry out a hard credit inquiry unless you request a higher limit than what Citi initially grants.
Citibank reports to all three of the major bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. If you'd like to review your up-to-date credit score and TransUnion credit report, you can sign up for a free account on WalletHub.
For those who want to apply for Citi Simplicity, there's no specific credit score requirement to meet. But, like the Citi Double Cash Credit Card, it's best to expect that having a good to exceptional credit score — between 670 to 900 — will ensure approval.
The minimum Citibank credit card requirements include being at least 18 years old with a valid U.S. address and enough income to make credit card payments. Most Citi credit cards require good credit or better (a credit score of 700+), but there are options for lower credit scores as well.
The Citi Simplicity credit score requirement is good credit or better. That means a credit score of 700 or higher is needed to have good odds of getting approved for Citi Simplicity.
The “rule” seems to be as follows: You won't be approved for a credit card if you have six or more inquiries on the credit report that Citi pulls for your application. If they pull multiple credit bureaus, they'll judge this based on the report that has the least amount of inquiries.
A Citibank credit card application is always succeeded by a hard inquiry on your credit report. This will cause a slight dip in your credit score, but if you keep making the minimum monthly payments and you maintain a low credit utilization, it should bounce back in no time.
Citibank will then conduct a soft inquiry on your credit score, which won't hurt your credit in any way, before showing which cards you prequalify for.
Is TransUnion more important than Equifax? The short answer is no. Both TransUnion and Equifax are reliable credit reporting agencies that compile reports and calculate your credit scores using different scoring models.
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The most accurate credit scores are the latest versions of the FICO Score and VantageScore credit-scoring models: FICO Score 8 and VantageScore 3.0.
Amex primarily pulls Experian, though sometimes Equifax or TransUnion reports. Chase favors Experian, but may also buy Equifax or TransUnion reports.
The easiest Chase credit card to get is the Chase Freedom® Student credit card because applicants can get approved with limited credit. This means the odds of approval are good even for people who are new to credit, making the Chase Freedom® Student credit card much easier to get than other Chase credit cards.