Citi Bank keeps lowering credit limit (2024)

I have the Citi Bank Double Cash and Citi Bank Costco cards. Both have now lowered my credit limit twice in the past 5 months (at the same time for both) with the reason being "high utilization". But if they'd stop lowering my CL, I wouldn't have high utilization..! I get the cards paid down to 50% and they then suddenly drop my CL to just over $100 of my unpaid balance, causing a waterfall to a drop in my credit score. I haven't even been using the cards because they keep dropping my limit.And I havent missed a payment, on any credit line, for more than 4 years now (these two cards never). Is this common, will they ever stop?!

Maybe I'm just venting. But I'm getting so frustrated - especially since they are, in theory, causing the reason given 😒.

• Other

This is called balance chasing and often, but not always, results in them eventually closing the card, or leaving you with a very low credit limit.

There is no great way to stop it, but getting util down on all other cards might help.

@AzCreditGuywrote:

They sound like Barclays.....Glad I didnt bother getting a Citi card

Recent posts about Synch and Chase too.

Scores: March 21 FICO 8: EX 810, TU 808, EQ 813
AoOA: closed: 36 years, open: 25 years; AAoA: 11.8 years
Amex Gold, Amex Green, Amex Blue, Amex ED, Amex Delta Gold, Amex Hilton Surpass, BoA Platinum Plus, Chase Freedom Unlimited, Chase Amazon, Chase CSP, Chase United Explorer, Citi AA Plat, Sync Lowes, Sync JC Penney - total CL 145k
Loans: Chase car loan (35k/6yrs 0.9%)

@FlaDudewrote:

@AzCreditGuywrote:

They sound like Barclays.....Glad I didnt bother getting a Citi card

Recent posts about Synch and Chase too.

Any issuer will balance chase an account that has triggered their risk mitigation. In the current climate of rising balances and increasing defaults, we'll probably continue to see more posts about this across the board.

@MN3wrote:

I have the Citi Bank Double Cash and Citi Bank Costco cards. Both have now lowered my credit limit twice in the past 5 months (at the same time for both) with the reason being "high utilization". But if they'd stop lowering my CL, I wouldn't have high utilization..! I get the cards paid down to 50% and they then suddenly drop my CL to just over $100 of my unpaid balance, causing a waterfall to a drop in my credit score. I haven't even been using the cards because they keep dropping my limit.And I havent missed a payment, on any credit line, for more than 4 years now (these two cards never). Is this common, will they ever stop?!

Maybe I'm just venting. But I'm getting so frustrated - especially since they are, in theory, causing the reason given 😒.

If it's any comfort, the same thing has happened to my accounts recently at Chase and Discover. It's a tough climate.

Total revolving limits 657200 (536700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 712 TU 710 EX 708

@Slabensteinwrote:

@FlaDudewrote:

@AzCreditGuywrote:

• They sound like Barclays.....Glad I didnt bother getting a Citi card

Recent posts about Synch and Chase too.

Any issuer will balance chase an account that has triggered their risk mitigation. In the current climate of rising balances and increasing defaults, we'll probably continue to see more posts about this across the board.

Right, so a more appropriate comment, albeit unlikely in this forum is: Glad I didn't bother getting a credit card

And as a gentle reminder from Statistics 456; the fact that one or two people post a bad experience with issuer X (and usually, at least at first, omitting some key details) doesn't mean that you should assume this is typical of X and you should be glad you dodged the bullet, if you did.

• Some behavior is considered risky by almost all issuers, so the AA described doesn't tell you anything about the merits of the issuer.
• You don't know all the people who have been perfectly fine with issuer X and like/love/tolerate the cards.

And even when there are LOTS of complaints, e.g. Sync, you still don't know if this is because the issuer is extremely risk adverse (and thus may be a bad choice) or is it simply that the population size is very large, because the cards are easier to get, or a mixture of the two (the cards are easy to get and given to people with weaker profiles, leading eventually to more AA).

otherwise it will be a blitz. 😁

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