My Citibank online statements has been overhauled with a fresh look now instead of a jigsaw puzzle it use to look like.The card act must had something to do with it or they must have finally listened to consumer complaints about it.

I've heard a lot of great things about Citibank but they were just like any other bank when I had a secured card with them. Maybe they didn't take me seriously because I had a secured credit card? Who knows

Yeah you got kind of a raw deal on that account.

I've heard a lot of great things about Citibank but they were just like any other bank when I had a secured card with them. Maybe they didn't take me seriously because I had a secured credit card? Who knows

Bank One... ! That was the one I missed in my list (couldn't remember). They handled the Minnesota AAA Bank Credit Cards for three years (did a good job - never heard of them before that). Yes, finally, the big B is up in September 2011 (thanks for a great memory). It should be a new life... I wonder? Associates National Bank... yeah I remember them because they took over Shopper's Charge which gave you free 0% no interest if you purchased more than $150 and paid it off in 90 days (never liked Assocates National Bank). I will remember 1970's architecture and cockroaches.

See, the funny thing about Bank One is that they are very much still alive. All the brick and mortar Chase branches and credit cards are still basically what Bank One/First USA used to be. I find that I miss the real Chase; Chase Manhattan. It is hard to explain but it's true. Chase merged with Bank One and kept the Chase name, but Bank One held a lot of the cards (banks and credit cards) so that allowed for Chase to expand.

Well you have done well in the past 10 years...you have several Chase cards and the USAA card. Not too shabby.

I had an Associates Visa in 1999. It was a college card. I actually liked them for the most part. Side note: Citibanks lockbox payments that used to go to The Lakes, NV now go to an address in IA. That was the old Associates lockbox.

Lots of banks are gone for sure. I especially miss WaMu. I liked the way they serviced their customers for the most part. How could you hate a bank whose tag line was, "Whoo hoo!"? We have rather boring banks here in Denver. We have oh so many lovely Wells Fargo's (they were United Banks of Colorado before degregulation, Norwest bought United Banks and of course, Norwest bought Wells Fargo and kept the name), Chase Banks (previously Bank Ones) and of course the umbiquous US Bank. No Citibanks or BofA's here.
A lot of the mergers and acquisitions over the years have brought up concerns about monopolies and the reduced competition and choice for the consumer. It doesn't help that congress and the Feds want to get their noses in everything (ie CARD Act, Dodd-Frank, Durbin Amendment).
I doubt Citibank will give up its Visa/MC/Amex portfolio but it is well known that they want to unload the private label business that it bought from The Associates. Citibank needs new management. That idiot Pandit Vikram should have resigned or forced from his position in all of this!
As for second chances.....in my opinion the only things to survive a nuclear crisis will be cockroaches, 1970s architecture and First Premier. First Premier will always be around for second chances.....

Bank One... ! That was the one I missed in my list (couldn't remember). They handled the Minnesota AAA Bank Credit Cards for three years (did a good job - never heard of them before that). Yes, finally, the big B is up in September 2011 (thanks for a great memory). It should be a new life... I wonder? Associates National Bank... yeah I remember them because they took over Shopper's Charge which gave you free 0% no interest if you purchased more than $150 and paid it off in 90 days (never liked Assocates National Bank). I will remember 1970's architecture and cockroaches.

Ahh... the infamous Signet Bank. Thanks for the reminder. Never did have this connection. As to RBS I did not realize they were bailed out and wondered why they were on the block. Very interesting! Capital One the former non-bank nibbles around the edges player a few years back turns itself into a full service banking giant (inprocess) and one force to be reckoned with. I miss Michigan National Bank, First National Bank of Wilmington, Commerica, Chicago Illinois Bank & Trust, Chemical Bank, and many more as they gave us choices and competition. My concern is the industry consolidation and as we can see now, the lack of choices and opportunities. Many of us will need another chance in credit and where do we go...? This is fore front on my mind. As Citi Bank considers card issuance to the preferred client (if they stay in the card business) and JP Morgan Chase already is focusing on the premier card holders where do the masses go (including myself). I have perfect credit from 1973 to today except for the big "B" and I still have had challenges in obtaining credit. What do others do?

Lots of banks are gone for sure. I especially miss WaMu. I liked the way they serviced their customers for the most part. How could you hate a bank whose tag line was, "Whoo hoo!"? We have rather boring banks here in Denver. We have oh so many lovely Wells Fargo's (they were United Banks of Colorado before degregulation, Norwest bought United Banks and of course, Norwest bought Wells Fargo and kept the name), Chase Banks (previously Bank Ones) and of course the umbiquous US Bank. No Citibanks or BofA's here.
A lot of the mergers and acquisitions over the years have brought up concerns about monopolies and the reduced competition and choice for the consumer. It doesn't help that congress and the Feds want to get their noses in everything (ie CARD Act, Dodd-Frank, Durbin Amendment).
I doubt Citibank will give up its Visa/MC/Amex portfolio but it is well known that they want to unload the private label business that it bought from The Associates. Citibank needs new management. That idiot Pandit Vikram should have resigned or forced from his position in all of this!
As for second chances.....in my opinion the only things to survive a nuclear crisis will be cockroaches, 1970s architecture and First Premier. First Premier will always be around for second chances......
Your big B should be completely gone by September right?

That makes sense about RBS. I believe I read that the UK government had to bail RBS out so they may be looking to unload them.
I read about how Capital One may be interested too. Very strange. Capital One itself was spun off from the now defunct Signet Bank as a sub prime credit card bank. And they they have brick and mortar bank branches and now they are looking to branch out into private label cards. There had been talks a few years ago that one of the bigger banks would have liked to have purchased Capital One. Funny how a few years can change things.
You are right about Chase. And I can hardly blame them really.

Ahh... the infamous Signet Bank. Thanks for the reminder. Never did have this connection. As to RBS I did not realize they were bailed out and wondered why they were on the block. Very interesting! Capital One the former non-bank nibbles around the edges player a few years back turns itself into a full service banking giant (inprocess) and one force to be reckoned with. I miss Michigan National Bank, First National Bank of Wilmington, Commerica, Chicago Illinois Bank & Trust, Chemical Bank, and many more as they gave us choices and competition. My concern is the industry consolidation and as we can see now, the lack of choices and opportunities. Many of us will need another chance in credit and where do we go...? This is fore front on my mind. As Citi Bank considers card issuance to the preferred client (if they stay in the card business) and JP Morgan Chase already is focusing on the premier card holders where do the masses go (including myself). I have perfect credit from 1973 to today except for the big "B" and I still have had challenges in obtaining credit. What do others do?

A follow on the RBS Bank. The bank itself was being placed on the sale block. I have not heard of any potential suitor's at this point. As to Citi buying HSBC's USA credit card portfolio... yeah that is right on. Does it make sense... from the outside no but, maybe it would be enough to beef up Citi's card portfolio and GE Money Bank or Barclay's would bite...? Who knows, Capital One has come out into a full service bank now with a total card portfolio and they mught be the buyer (my rumor). JP Morgan Chase feels they need to concentrate on the elite and business savy travelers and let the rest go unless they are prime customers with "excellent" credit. Hmm... and spend money with repayment of their debt in mind.

That makes sense about RBS. I believe I read that the UK government had to bail RBS out so they may be looking to unload them.
I read about how Capital One may be interested too. Very strange. Capital One itself was spun off from the now defunct Signet Bank as a sub prime credit card bank. And they they have brick and mortar bank branches and now they are looking to branch out into private label cards. There had been talks a few years ago that one of the bigger banks would have liked to have purchased Capital One. Funny how a few years can change things.
You are right about Chase. And I can hardly blame them really.

Right DNSB was created when Citibank started backing the old FACS credit division for Federated and when they gained all of the May department stores cards. I read that Citibank may be interested in some of HSBC's retail cards even though Citibank itself is trying to sell theirs...So now RBS is trying to sell its cards? RBS had a pretty solid portfolio because they purchased People's Bank (CT) credit cards and they used to issue the 1-2-3 Rewards MasterCards for Kroger. I got a preapproval a week or two ago and now it issued by US Bank.....Barclay's I don't mind so much but I really dislike GEMB. When and if they take over the Macy's I will be closing mine. The Macy's card is not what it cracked up to be anyway

A follow on the RBS Bank. The bank itself was being placed on the sale block. I have not heard of any potential suitor's at this point. As to Citi buying HSBC's USA credit card portfolio... yeah that is right on. Does it make sense... from the outside no but, maybe it would be enough to beef up Citi's card portfolio and GE Money Bank or Barclay's would bite...? Who knows, Capital One has come out into a full service bank now with a total card portfolio and they mught be the buyer (my rumor). JP Morgan Chase feels they need to concentrate on the elite and business savy travelers and let the rest go unless they are prime customers with "excellent" credit. Hmm... and spend money with repayment of their debt in mind.

As of today, Macy's Department Store Card is issued from Department Stores National Bank located and Chartered in South Dakota. If my memory serves me right. they were charter as a bank in 2007 with about $29 million in capital (off shoot of the former Federated Stores). Citi Bank, HSBC and JP Morgan Chase are really interested in divesting themselves of credit card portfolio's in total or the sub-prime parts. The market today finds lookers but, none of them has been willing to pay the seller's prices. Royal Bank of Scotland was put on the market last month, and Barclay's and GE Money Bank have interest in the credit card porfolio's at their price's as buyer's not the seller's. Holding credit card portfolio's today appears to be not the lucrative investment of three years ago. Hmm... we shall see how the cat and mouse game plays out. My guess there will be consolidation of card issuers and less opportunities to find a new start from credit card issuers. Anotherwords, if you had a bankruptcy and moved on to successfully re-establish yourself... nothing prevents lenders from remembering you sttiffed them before and you are refused credit card issuance. With less banks rolling out cards, where do people or businesses go for a second chance???

Right DNSB was created when Citibank started backing the old FACS credit division for Federated and when they gained all of the May department stores cards. I read that Citibank may be interested in some of HSBC's retail cards even though Citibank itself is trying to sell theirs...So now RBS is trying to sell its cards? RBS had a pretty solid portfolio because they purchased People's Bank (CT) credit cards and they used to issue the 1-2-3 Rewards MasterCards for Kroger. I got a preapproval a week or two ago and now it issued by US Bank.....Barclay's I don't mind so much but I really dislike GEMB. When and if they take over the Macy's I will be closing mine. The Macy's card is not what it cracked up to be anyway: they are WEIRD about credit limits (now they won't even tell you the limit via the VRU) and if you have a Red Star Rewards card you basically only get coupons around Christmas. So my Macy's is on borrowed time.
As far as where do people go to get second chances? Credit Unions mostly, secured credit cards from Credit Unions. It is scary how much consolidation has happened; mostly because interstate banking was allowed in the 80s when previously it wasnt. The bigger banks have eaten up a lot of the smaller and mid sized ones.

I have been wondering when the Macy's cards were being converted to GEMB. Has that stalled?

As of today, Macy's Department Store Card is issued from Department Stores National Bank located and Chartered in South Dakota. If my memory serves me right. they were charter as a bank in 2007 with about $29 million in capital (off shoot of the former Federated Stores). Citi Bank, HSBC and JP Morgan Chase are really interested in divesting themselves of credit card portfolio's in total or the sub-prime parts. The market today finds lookers but, none of them has been willing to pay the seller's prices. Royal Bank of Scotland was put on the market last month, and Barclay's and GE Money Bank have interest in the credit card porfolio's at their price's as buyer's not the seller's. Holding credit card portfolio's today appears to be not the lucrative investment of three years ago. Hmm... we shall see how the cat and mouse game plays out. My guess there will be consolidation of card issuers and less opportunities to find a new start from credit card issuers. Anotherwords, if you had a bankruptcy and moved on to successfully re-establish yourself... nothing prevents lenders from remembering you sttiffed them before and you are refused credit card issuance. With less banks rolling out cards, where do people or businesses go for a second chance???

It seems that Citi has been trying to sell off their retail cards base and is not able to find qualified buyers. This is part of the ongoing resize of Citi Group after the credit meltdown.

I have been wondering when the Macy's cards were being converted to GEMB. Has that stalled?

It seems that Citi has been trying to sell off their retail cards base and is not able to find qualified buyers. This is part of the ongoing resize of Citi Group after the credit meltdown.

I believe the Diamond preferred rewards card was permanently changed but I've read that Citi gave consumers with just the preferred card the choice to upgrade.

Thanx ColoNative....When I requested for my lastest cli a couple of weeks ago, I notice that a short form showed up instead of calling.The form It seems has info exactly what the csr asked when you call. the amount you request, total annual income, occupation, employers name, and then you press continue for verification which will then ask you to hit submit and there it will show you what you were approved for.Then at the bottom it has a request for more button. the process actually took less than a minute but I did not have to call in for both of my Citi cards.

Sounds good. Thanks, Eugene.

Congrats! I'm thinking about applying for another Citi credit card as well to take advantage of their 0% on BT's for 15 months. I used to have a Secured Card with them but ended up closing it because they didn't increase my CL from $400.

Thnx hjm331 When people talk about how a card should grow as you use it, Citi for me was not kidding around because the Platinum Select card I opened in 09 now has 15K limit(lowered to 11k by reallocation) and my Dividend I opened last year is now 12k.