Question
Back in September me bride was planning a trip to Spain. She dutifly called Citi to inform them that overseas charges would be appearing. They said, "Only the principal cardholder can humbly request an entry." As time was short, I made the humble request from my office. "No dice, you need the security code on the back of the card," was the reply. (Me bride and I carry different cards when we travel, so that if one gets robbed, the other will have a working card.)
Citi said no to a customer, TWICE. AT&T VISA said "No problem." AT&T now occupies Citi's wallet space, and garners a couple thou a month in business. I cleaned out my accumulated Citi VISA rewards. Is there any reason I should keep this card?
Answer
Call them and tell them you want to close the account. They will transfer you to an "account specialist", who will ask you "Why?". Tell them why. They will most likely try to persuade you not to close it by offering some incentive - lower interest rate, some ff miles, waiver of one years annual fee - something like that. Whatever they offer, tell them it's not enough to make you change your mind. See if they up the ante. Keep saying no till they've reached the end of their rope. Then decide if what they've offered is enough to satisfy you; if not, close the account. ;)
Answer
I've made this kind of request by logging in at citicards.com. It's much better than waiting on a phone, getting your security code, and so on. Plus your wife could have done it for you.
Answer
Citi said no to a customer, TWICE. AT&T VISA said "No problem." AT&T now occupies Citi's wallet space, and garners a couple thou a month in business. I cleaned out my accumulated Citi VISA rewards. Is there any reason I should keep this card?
Umm, the AT&T cards are issued by Citi unless you're talking about a different card I'm not aware of.
And I don't see why it's such a big deal that "Citi said no to a customer, TWICE." What if I called them up and asked them for $1 million? They say no. I ask again. They say no again. I'm aghast. :eek:
Obviously I'm being a bit facetious here, but really, they have security procedures in place for a reason: they want to verify that you're the actual cardholder. A simple way to do this would have been to call up your bride and have her give you the security code. Then armed with that information, you call Citi back.
Oh, and a good reason to keep the card is that credit lines which you've had for a while are very beneficial to your credit score.