Easy Credit

I received a new Costco Citi credit card in the mail today. Since my parents go there all the time to shop, I hardly go anymore. For the past 10 years, I’ve only had one or two transactions per year on my card.

In order to activate the credit card, I went into Citi’s mobile app. I also have a Citi Double Rewards card, which is my main credit card since it gives 2% rebate on all purchases. I got tired of tracking which card had the best rebate on which categories. Looking around, I noticed that I had about $175 in cash back rewards. On some cards, there is an option to automatically apply the rewards as a credit to your account. For Citi, you have to go in and choose a redemption option. You can convert to points for shopping, apply as account credit, get direct deposit into a bank account, or receive a paper check. The points option is a $1 = 100 points conversion but items cost 100 points per $1. I don’t know why anyone would choose that option since you don’t get any monetary benefit yet you lock yourself into Citi’s points. Anyway, I chose account credit since there is always a balance due.

I also noticed you can ask for more credit on your card. The app asks for your salary and rent/mortgage payments, then it decides within a few seconds whether to modify your credit line. I didn’t change the existing values much, but when I clicked on submit, it gave me an additional $4000 of credit. Dangerous if you can’t control your spending. I don’t buy that many large ticket items so I’ll probably never used all the credit available but I guess it doesn’t hurt to have it if you’re responsible.