Citi says has a 8/65 rule stating applicants are ineligible to apply for more than one Citi credit card in eight days, and not more than two credit cards in 65 days. It would be easier to get the DoubleCash too. Lowering your credit limit probably wasn’t the answer. What was the reason for denial in the letters they have sent afterwards?

Excellent credit score (always 760-820) for two decades, been doing the cards and miles thing for the last 12 years, mostly Chase but also BofA here and there. Never been denied for a card. Usually carry around 6-8 cards. Average age of accounts is 6-7 years. Fully employed with light mortgage and good salary.

With the 80K bonus, I decided to apply for Premier in late mid-June and try out the Citi credit ecosystem. Denied! What??

Called and tried to figure out why, mostly useless CSR, though they encouraged me to try again and opined that maybe my ratio of credit use to credit limit was too low. I had just opened Alaska card in Feb. and British Airways in early June, so had around 80K credit with only 8K revolving debt.

I think this was bad advice, but I went ahead and canceled Alaska and lowered limits on a few cards to drop to 50K hoping that would impress the Citi algorithms.

Applied again in mid-July. Denied

Okay, maybe I need to give more time for everything to season.

Applied again in early Sep. Denied.

Okay, wait a little longer.

Applied again in late October. Denied again. Wtf??

Anyway, I don’t know what else to do. There is just something about my particular profile that must be triggering rejections with Citi. My credit score is still between 750-790 (depending on which bureau one checks).

I would really like to get this card with the 80K bonus and then add the DoubleCash back.

I thought about going for DoubleCash back first and maybe Citi would like that But afraid to get another denial and yet another hard credit check. I’ve already collected several worthless credit pulls, so what a waste this has all been.

Thoughts?