Question
I included a Citi Bank Visa in a BK that discharged 9 years ago. I've been denied twice by Citi Bank for the AAdvantage Card despite a credit score of well over 700. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the AAdvantage Card?
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I included a Citi Bank Visa in a BK that discharged 9 years ago. I've been denied twice by Citi Bank for the AAdvantage Card despite a credit score of well over 700. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the AAdvantage Card?
I'd be asking Citibank what the specific reasons for the denial are. Do you have a lot of credit cards? Is there something in your credit report that is incorrect?
Ask for a supervisor and get into a dialog.
Rita
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how much $ did they not get 9yrs ago when you filed Bk
you were red flagged
you need to talk to them and see if they would allow you to work around the issue
sometimes you are able to put it in your wife's namE
BK are horible to any future credit even after the time limits are up
you are a high risk to them
they see it you did it once you might do it again
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goto creditnet.com.
There is a lit of creditors who never forget and will never issue you a card again if you go Bankrupt and dont pay them back.
They are Amex, Bank of America , Citibank, Chase, and US Bank. Some people have gotten cards issued from the above list when they had a very small amount discharged normally under $1K or bankruptcy was over 25 years ago before all the above banks keep everything on computer.
Some people have gotten letters from the above creditor basically saying if you want a credit card issued from us please pay X amount which included the interest owned till today. These are people who had there BK over 20 years ago. Legally after you file BK you are not required to pay them back. But legally also there are not required to issue you credit either. The fact you filed BK and had a balance with them discharge is legal reason not to extend you credit.
If you were a bank and got beat out of money would lend the same person money 10 years later hoping they dont do same thing again to you?
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plus a lot more stringent requirements to file bankruptcy.
Credit card companies seem to offer lots of incentives and easy credit AFTER the new bankruptcy law passed, as now they can get their money back one way or the other, though the cost associated to getting a deadbeat to pay is probably high and not worth it.
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plus a lot more stringent requirements to file bankruptcy.
Credit card companies seem to offer lots of incentives and easy credit AFTER the new bankruptcy law passed, as now they can get their money back one way or the other, though the cost associated to getting a deadbeat to pay is probably high and not worth it.
While I appreciate people taking the time to respond to my original question, I must admit that I feel somewhat "scolded" by the tone of a couple of responses. Using terms like "deadbeat" may apply in some circumstance, but choosing between medical treatments for a 4 year old that is dying of cancer and paying a credit card bill is a decision that no "dead beat" should ever have to make. Having a credit score of 760 before a BK and a score of 738 after a BK doesn't seem to qualify as the actions of a "deadbeat".
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While I appreciate people taking the time to respond to my original question, I must admit that I feel somewhat "scolded" by the tone of a couple of responses. Using terms like "deadbeat" may apply in some circumstance, but choosing between medical treatments for a 4 year old that is dying of cancer and paying a credit card bill is a decision that no "dead beat" should ever have to make. Having a credit score of 760 before a BK and a score of 738 after a BK doesn't seem to qualify as the actions of a "deadbeat".
I did not call you a deadbeat. I said clearly banks who have had people file BK for large amount dont forget about it. Creditnet.com this issue has been talked about extensivly. Many people have deciede to either pay off the balance complete or agree to a reduced amount. Either way it is ultimately your choice how you want to handle this issue. Either try to make ammends with Citibank which legally you are not obilgated to do so. On the same token they dont have to issue you credit again even if you credit score was 850.
While I fell bad for your position I also can understand the banks position. If you were bank I am sure you would fell and act the same way.
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While I appreciate people taking the time to respond to my original question, I must admit that I feel somewhat "scolded" by the tone of a couple of responses. Using terms like "deadbeat" may apply in some circumstance, but choosing between medical treatments for a 4 year old that is dying of cancer and paying a credit card bill is a decision that no "dead beat" should ever have to make. Having a credit score of 760 before a BK and a score of 738 after a BK doesn't seem to qualify as the actions of a "deadbeat".
Sorry about your situation. However, in general cases, many who filed bankruptcy are those who did not handle their financial situations properly, and have no sense of responsibility to pay back their debts when they are eventually able to.
The deadbeat name may not apply to you, but the credit card companies would not know your situation unless you talk to them and explain to them with all the facts - someone in the level where he or she can make a difference may listen to your plea. Have you ever tried that ?
I dont know how you would run up credit card bills and not paying it - or you were using your credit cards to pay the medical expenses of your kid - in any case, there probably were other avenues to take care of your kid and not to have to run up credit card bills then get out of it by filing bankruptcy.
Filing Bankruptcy is a very serious matter that one should really consider the consequences which may haunt people for many many years as you now see, before taking that step.
You could have seeked help from "non-profit" organizations (they are actually sponsored by card industry) to try to restructure your debt - in many cases where there were worthy reasons, the card companies were willing to work with people in genuine difficulties and even forgive some of the debts, and greatly reduce the interest rate to let people pay back the debts in a prolonged, extended time. Credit card companies are more kind to people who are willing to shoulder the responsibilities and restructure their debts. Had you ever tried this approach before you filed BK? Have you ever thought about paying back the debts that are forgiven by the BK WHEN you are back on your feet ? Let the whole story be told.
After all, credit card companies are not in charitable business - they are in a buisness which is notorious for being cold-blooded. One bankruptcy filing would wipe out profits they would make out of thousands cardholders who pay their balances on time and in full. Why would they take the risk after they have been defaulted once ?
That is why now with the new bankruptcy law, credit card companies are actually more loose on handing out credits as now in theory the debts will not be forgiven and they have means to collect the debts.
I dont care for what the FICO says - it is a mechanism that its influence is way overblown. Personally I have NEVER checked my FICO score and have NEVER been turned down a credit card that I ever applied. On the contrary, I judged my credit worthyness by the daily junk mails. Every other day I would have to throw away yet another solicitation from banks like Chase, HSBC, Bank of America, US Bank is the latest one received last week - they want me more than I want them, LOL.
The mere fact you talked about your FICO before BK and after BK, proves to me FICO does not really prevent bad debts from occuring - hence it is not the "holy gail" lenders used to determine a loan.
In my opinion, it is a tool used by lenders for scare tactic to make people not to switch cards, to make good payment history, to not file BK, etc In a nutshell, it is another tool to try to make people fulfil their obligations because of the FICO fear factor.
As another person posted, if you were the bank, you probably would have the same policy - if a FICO of 760 did not prevent a BK from happening, why would they trust a FICO of 738, or whatever ? After all, it is just a point system which can be manipulated, especially certain events can be washed out of record as time passed. Unfortunately, some stuff would stay there for much longer in the creditor's file, if he has been defaulted once.
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I included a Citi Bank Visa in a BK that discharged 9 years ago. I've been denied twice by Citi Bank for the AAdvantage Card despite a credit score of well over 700. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the AAdvantage Card?
If you really need the card, talk to a supervisor and explain your situation.
I know, that something like this will work too:
Ask for a credit card with lets say $3,000 credit limit. Buy a CD for $3,000 and "deposit" the CD at Citi Bank for collateral. This has worked out for others.
Tell us about "your 4 years old" - I hope he/she is doing well.
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I see that you list Starwood as one of your affiliations. Do you already have the Starwood American Express credit card? This is can be a better source of AAdvantage miles than the Citibank card.
dennis
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[QUOTE=USAFAN]If you really need the card, talk to a supervisor and explain your situation.
I know, that something like this will work too:
Ask for a credit card with lets say $3,000 credit limit. Buy a CD for $3,000 and "deposit" the CD at Citi Bank for collateral. This has worked out for others.[QUOTE]
That idea has been discussed on Creditnet.com. Citibank, American Express, Chase, B of A and US bank seem not to care. They wont even issue you a secured card if you had a large balance with them discharge in BK. They want to get paid back some if not all the money you had discharged before they will even consider open any accounts for you.
Alot of thoses same banks wont even open a checking account for you as they seem to act like they want nothing to do with you. As for mortgages the same holds true so even with a secured asset they just dont want to lend you money or get involed with people who think it ok to file BK get balance discharged and not even bother to pay back the balances owned once they can afford to pay it back.
Again legally you dont have to pay back a balance discharged in BK court. But on the same token banks are not required to extend credit to people who they dont want too as long as they have a valid reason. Previous BK filing is considered a valid reason.
Lot of other companys most non prime lenders love people who file BK as thoses are same people who in general carry balance and dont mind paying rates of 15%+ but major prime lenders do not want thoses type of accounts.
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[QUOTE=USAFAN]
Alot of thoses same banks wont even open a checking account for you as they seem to act like they want nothing to do with you. As for mortgages the same holds true so even with a secured asset they just dont want to lend you money or get involed with people who think it ok to file BK get balance discharged and not even bother to pay back the balances owned once they can afford to pay it back.
Who can blame the financial institutions for protecting themselves from the potential future losses (in case history repeats itself) ? Yet people blame banks dont extend credit despite their high FICO, while at the same time, they dont want to pay back the debt they walked away, no matter due to what reasons. If they can build back their FICO, they sure can pay back their debts, over time (even by installments). It is unfair to the banks, as well as unfair to those of us who handle personal finance responsibly - as all the costs will ultimately be borne by all cardholders in the forms of higher fees of all kinds.
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I must say that I am extremely disappointed in the heartless responses to my original post. After losing our 401k, life savings and family home in paying for medical bills trying to give our son every chance for survival, we unfortunately lost him to cancer almost 8 years ago. People seem to have more compasion for the lending institutions than the tragedy that a family faces when a loved one dies. If you have never lost a child there is no way to understand the feelings of desperation you have. We have never failed to pay a bill before this happened, or after for that matter. When you have to choose between a credit card bill and a prescription, the health of your child always takes priority. It's so easy to say what you would do until it happens to you. No one has shown any compassion for the devastation a family faces in the loss of a child. I wouldn't wish the experience on anyone.
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I must say that I am extremely disappointed in the heartless responses to my original post. After losing our 401k, life savings and family home in paying for medical bills trying to give our son every chance for survival, we unfortunately lost him to cancer almost 8 years ago. People seem to have more compasion for the lending institutions than the tragedy that a family faces when a loved one dies. If you have never lost a child there is no way to understand the feelings of desperation you have. We have never failed to pay a bill before this happened, or after for that matter. When you have to choose between a credit card bill and a prescription, the health of your child always takes priority. It's so easy to say what you would do until it happens to you. No one has shown any compassion for the devastation a family faces in the loss of a child. I wouldn't wish the experience on anyone.
I fell sorry for you after you posted that your child was sick. Sorry to hear you child died. But sorry you keep skirting the issue and question asked by many of us.
Bankruptcy laws where created so people who really could never afford to pay back the money could have the balances discharged. Not so people who have a short term problem can file BK have all debt discharged and forget about it. People who can pay back the balances later should file chaper 11 and not chapter 13. It seems back in the late 80's a whole bunch of bankruptcy lawyers thought it would be a good idea for everyone to just file for chapter 13 and have all dect discharged because filing for chapter 11 still ruined your credit so why bother even trying to pay back dect. And back in the late 80's bankruptcy laws were changed so that basically anyone could file for either chapter 13 or chapter 11.
What would have happend if you wanted to file Bankruptcy back in the late 70's or early 80's? Gee chances are you would have had to make a deal with all your creditors to pay something back depending on a means test. Maybe it would have been 10 cents on dollar over 10 years or maybe it would have been 50 cents on a dollar over 10 years. That would have been dependent on your household income. But unless you were making barely above proverty line it would not have been discharged 100%. I dont think many poor people really want mileage credit cards as poor people dont charge enough a year to make the annual fee make sense.
It sounds like you are in the middle class + as you claim to have a 401K you liquidated, a house and savings you spent. Most poor people dont have those things. If you are making good money you have no one but yourself to blame for not buying health insurance for your kids. If you where truely poor then medical or medicad would have covered your sons medical bills. And the hospital and doctors would have given you a discount. But you claim no one offered to discount anything. More than likely you where making close to or over $100K a year in your household. So why should the bank have to eat the loss when you could have prevented it all by simply buying medical insurance for your child before he got sick. That would have cost you no more than maybe $500-1K a year.
You could have filed for chapter 11 why did you choose chapter 13? Are you telling us you lost your job over the next 10 years and you made barely above the poverty line? You know after you made a deal with creditors if you would have lost you job they would have lower your payments because of it if you filed chapter 11. Or was it just easier to have all your balances discharged?
Like I said legally you did nothing wrong as the law where changed and all lawyers and most people took advantage of the laws.
Why should the bank be happy about it and want to lend you money? If you were the bank would you lend money to someone who for ever reason choose the easy path of filing chapter 13 over chapter 11?
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As I posted earlier, LET THE WHOLE STORY BE TOLD - all the OP tried to do is to play the sympathy card, yet NEVER a word about whether he ever made any efforts to work with the creditors, at the time, and afterward. And, more importantly, now he obviously is well enough to think about earning miles thru credit card spending, yet, he does not think he SHOULD pay back the debts being discharged. We also had no idea how much was the credit card bills being discharged. And thank you, Dolmar, for pointing out THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES, and why Chapter 11 was not chosen ? I have seen people who paid back their card bills at a rate 0.10 for a 1.00, virtually 10% of the original debt. Yet, they paid it back by a monthly installment stretched over years. I reiterate that there are people out there who are very responsible in handling personal finances, making sure necessary financial protections are taken, such as purchasing medical and life insurances, etc. and would not even consider the idea of walking away from all debts. Yet, the responsible people have to share the burden brought by those irresponsible people in the form of higher fees charged by lending institutions.
Life tradegy is one thing, and everyone is sorry about what happened to OP. However, that does not mean the OP does not have a moral obligation to pay back his debt. Dolmar, you said it a few times, legally the OP does not have the obligation. You are being kind in your words. imho.
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I must say that I am extremely disappointed in the heartless responses to my original post....
I have to agree.
stevemason was asking "Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the AAdvantage Card?"
It is not our business to give him any advise (he didn't ask for).
However, after reading all comments, I believe that it is almost impossible for him to get a Citi AAdvantage Card. If I would be the moderator, I would close this thread.
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It is not our business to give him any advise (he didn't ask for).
However, after reading all comments, I believe that it is almost impossible for him to get a Citi AAdvantage Card. If I would be the moderator, I would close this thread.
It not impossible except you and the OP seem to think you have a right to have credit cards issued to you. And that banks should be happy they had debt discharged in BK and just forget about thoses balances and issue you a new account.
OP can choose to do what many people have reported doing on creditnet.com and just agree to either pay full amount or a reduced amount back to bank in question.
The problem is both you and OP cant seem to grasp that idea and instead choose to harp on the issue that his son got sick and just play the sympathy card and believe the bank should issue him a new card because they are in bussiness of lossing money.
He asked how he could get a Citi American Airlines credit. It really not hard. Just call up Citibank and work out a deal pay some of the dect that was discharged. But both you and OP just want to rule that out as a possiblity. If you dont want to take responsibilty for your past actions then you are correct Citibank will not issue you a new card.
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It not impossible except you and the OP seem to think you have a right to have credit cards issued to you.
I think OP was asking about possibuility of getting a new AA card, he did not state any kind of entitlement to one. Your (and another poster's) answers have been useless and OT at best - why did you even bother? :rolleyes:
OP I don't think you need to explain or justify your actions from 8 yrs ago - it's nobody's business.
I agree with advices on collateral and AA mileage accumulation through starwood amex. Additionally Citibank debit card may provide a temporary solution and help in transition to Citi AA credit card.
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plus a lot more stringent requirements to file bankruptcy.
Credit card companies seem to offer lots of incentives and easy credit AFTER the new bankruptcy law passed, as now they can get their money back one way or the other, though the cost associated to getting a deadbeat to pay is probably high and not worth it.
Just to end this useless discussion, I thought I'd set the record straight. I am amazed at the insensitivity of some of the people who responded to my original post. I did have health insurance 9 years ago, but a catastrophic illness far exceeds insurance limits. We were left owing $150,000.00 for medical bills, which we paid. We also paid back Citi Bank the entire debt that was included in our BK. We were simply unable to pay them at the same time we were paying for medical bills. The arrogance demonstrated by some of those who responded to my questions is only exceeded by their lack of compassion for another person's heartbreak!
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I believe the above by OP does add clarification. If you paid back the debt, even after a number of years, it does show responsibility on your part. Good for you. But there are too many that think they have no moral obligation to pay once they file BK. In some cases small business get stuck due to a BK where they tried to help out someone that was needy. I think that is why it appears many are heartless. Once burned badly, one does not go near the fire.
Hope all works out for OP. Not sure the AA Citibank card is really a big deal, for anyone.
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I can say as a newbie that they really aren't meaning to bash you, a general question was asked and answered without predjudice to anyone... Now there are some options here. I owned a credit repair biz in Vega$ so heres my opinion as I can't legally advise you. 1.) Have a family member apply to them or upgrade and ask for an additional card in your name, try the Lakes office in Vega$, they can tell them they don't know your SSN off hand, you will be "piggybacking" on someone elses credit, be aware of the new laws because you may now be a co-signer and liable in the future. 2.) There are 9 IRS offices in the U.S. that can issue you an EIN, a fed tax# for small biz which the numbers are similar to SSN (the first 3 signify state of issue) the numbers are dashed differently but you can legally file for an EIN using a hobby as a profession and use a seperate address so not to merge the 2 credit files and good luck in your new biz. 3.) This is my favorite, I hate banks and fees they are all bad, check out the new laws, used to be you had to wait 14 years from a BK, 7 on collections, suits and judgements, however if your FICO is that high and all accounts are up to date you can always file a complaint under the FCRA as they are denying you credit that is not available through the CB's, hmmmm that doesn't seem fair, hit up the FTC also and make sure they have disclosures issued to you. heres a good read http://www.badcreditcards.org/CITIcomplaints.htm good luck
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To the OP: If you don't specifically have to have the Citibank card, you might be able to get the Starwood Amex card instead, particularly if Amex wasn't a creditor in your bankruptcy. Starwood points can be transferred to AA miles (or those of many other airlines), at a rate of 25,000 AA miles for 20,000 Starwood points. Amex is accepted almost everywhere that Visa and Mastercard are in the U.S.
I believe that it is also possible to get debit cards that earn miles on purchases (but not cash withdrawals). Debit cards might be easier to get.
Good luck.
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BKs stay on your credit report for 10 years, so that may be your problem. I had a BK back in 1983 and Amex and Citibank were on the list.
They have gotten over it, I have both cards with a credit limit over 10K on each.
goto creditnet.com.
There is a lit of creditors who never forget and will never issue you a card again if you go Bankrupt and dont pay them back.
They are Amex, Bank of America , Citibank, Chase, and US Bank. Some people have gotten cards issued from the above list when they had a very small amount discharged normally under $1K or bankruptcy was over 25 years ago before all the above banks keep everything on computer.
Some people have gotten letters from the above creditor basically saying if you want a credit card issued from us please pay X amount which included the interest owned till today. These are people who had there BK over 20 years ago. Legally after you file BK you are not required to pay them back. But legally also there are not required to issue you credit either. The fact you filed BK and had a balance with them discharge is legal reason not to extend you credit.
If you were a bank and got beat out of money would lend the same person money 10 years later hoping they dont do same thing again to you?
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I would imagine Citibank would give you an AAdvantage DEBIT card - not the same but would earn miles for signature transactions.
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Op-please do not give up. Try this and some other cards. When you receive a rejection call them within 30 days and discuss. You have positive facts.
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Credit problems like this is what happens when the US health system costs as much at those of France, or other Eu countries and yet delivers worst care to fewer people than those systems. Also, check out your facts - most people who go bankrupt do so b/c of medical expenses and most of those are middle class, working class, and/or working poor. These stats are easily avail. Look at some of the archived data over the "new" bankrupt bill from the Economic Policy Institute, etc.