PF Under 30

Paying off debt and finding my financial lifestyle

Archive for category Citibank

Citibank PIF!

Feb 24

Posted by kiki in CC Debt Progress, Citibank | No Comments

So, it’s not from my hard work and dedication that this happened, it’s because my boyfriend was gracious enought to give it to me, but it’s still something to be celebrated!

Citi PIF!

Citi PIF!

Logged in today and it shows a ZERO balance, which hasn’t happened in YEARS (I’ve had this card since 2001, it’s been my balance transfer card since.)

I’m not going to close it until the house is finalized, as I don’t want to jeopordize my underwriting, but it feels great to have one less thing to worry about. Plus, this should boost my score by approx 30+ points!

Anyway, while I’ll now be making the payments on some of his liabilities because of this, I’m still a lot closer to being a single credit card holder than I originally was. He paid off his Amex this week too, and when I logged in this morning, we had a total of 4 cards between us, two of which had zero balance.

He’s keeping his Amex open for the moment so that he can keep an eye on his credit score (CreditSecure really is the best) and I’m keeping my Citi open until the house closes. After that’s done though, we’re not worrying about our scores anymore, as we will have no other reason to add new debt to our lives. Chasing credit scores makes people do foolish things with their lives in order to have “high numbers.” While I do understand the need in the short term, it’s not part of our long term objectives.

Still, a paid off card is still a paid off card, and something to be celebrated. Pop open the bubbly!

Thoughts on my Citicard/ Citi Bailout

Dec 1

Posted by kiki in Citibank | No Comments

I paid a little extra on my Citi Debt this month – just so my balance could be under $9000. Right now it sits at $8975.24 – and I’m stoked.

For years it hasn’t made it under $9000, barely under $10,000 before I would balance transfer something else to it again. Now I can see the light – I can actually see myself paying it off and closing it for good.

Which is a good thing too, as now that Citi is in line for Federal Bailout Money, I no longer wish to do business with them. (I feel this way about American Express, GM, Chrystler, and Ford too.) It’s nice to actually know that I will finally be able to stick my money where my mouth is. When you rack yourself up with debt, you limit your options in this department, and while I have money stuck there now, this will finally be a luxury that I will be able to afford.

I do have mixed feelings about giving up my longest open card, but Citi hasn’t done me any favors (other than the good BT for life deals they’ve sent me), and they sure wouldn’t think twice about my longevity as a customer. In fact, I just recently got a Notice of Change in Terms from them finding more sneaky ways to up you to the default APR. Yup. As soon as this account is zeroed – they’re gone!

2008 Goals? Anyone seen mine?

Mar 5

Posted by kiki in CC Debt Progress, Citibank, Credit Scores, Credit and Debt | No Comments

Yeah…. keep looking. I couldn’t find them either. Matter of fact, the last time I specified my year end goals on this blog was 2006. I’ve put together numerous plans – but with the bank account and balance transfer soup - there is little evidence of which balance got consolidated into which card.For instance – I have my old bedroom set up for sale on Craigslist. I would like to put the proceeds toward part of the original bill. It was originally on a 0% financing furniture store card – before the 0% expired, I paid off some, then balance transferred the rest. According to my blog it was my Citi Dividend. Well, now that account doesn’t exist anymore. I combined the credit limit with my Citi Diamond Preferred, but the balance went to my Costco True Earnings American Express. (I think.)See – that’s the problem with “moving” money instead of just paying it off. After 3 transfers, I have no idea where that balance is sitting today.Anyway – back to the goals. I’ve noticed that if I put them in writing and attatch a specific date that I actually complete them! Evidence of this can be found by me fully funding my Roth IRA for the last 4 years despite being behind the entire year. What’s the culprit? That April 15th deadline of course! I had until April 15th to reach $4,000 this year and I did it in February. Now is the time to attach specific dates.

  1.  2007 Roth – contribute the $4,000 max by April 15th. DONE!
  2. Payoff the $4400 on my USAA Amex by June 15th. (In progress. 50% complete as of today.)
  3. Payoff the $10,300 currently sitting on my Citi Card by Dec 31.
  4. Fully contribute $5,000 max to my 2008 Roth (On auto-pilot w/ regular paycheck contributions.)
  5. $1200 in a Christmas fund for Christmas 2008. ($100 already in Savings. Turning on auto-pilot this week to keep on track.)
  6. Cancel my Amex Gold in July and replace the credit line w/ a $10,000 jump on my USAA Amex (so it doesn’t affect my credit score.)
  7. Bump my score to 790 with all 3 bureaus by July Amex cancellation. (Have to correct all the inaccuracies on the Equifax report, and they make you do it by snail mail.)
  8. Get new house in the fall and not add any new debt (other than the mortgage.)
Yeah… um. I guess I have lots to do.

Credit Card Limits Revisited

Oct 3

Posted by kiki in American Express, Citibank, Credit and Debt | No Comments

Hi Everyone!

So with the recent credit card soup game I’ve been playing, I thought I would write an update to the post I made back in July on my Credit Card Limits. With everything going on, a lot has changed and been consolidated.

Here’s how I fair now:

Business Costco American Express: $16,200
This is the card I recently picked up in July. Combined my new credit limit with my old Starwood Amex (now closed.) Been balance transferring to it ever since I got unemployed. But as soon as it’s 1.9% APR is up I am very anxious to start using it for it’s Cash Back – 5% at Gas Stations, 3% on Eating Out, 2% for Travel, and 1% for everything else. And since it’s Amex, I didn’t take a hit on my Credit History since AMEX reflects the year you joined for all of your accounts.

2 - Citibank Diamond Rewards: $21,700
This is my main balance transfer card and my oldest credit card. Great rewards program but I never use it since it’s the balance transfer card. Everything on it is 5% APR or less for the life of the balance. Just combined it with my old Dividend Rewards card to get a higher credit line.

4 – American Express Rewards Plus Gold: $No Limit
This is the card I use everyday. It comes with a $140 annual fee, but that is for 5 additional cards too. I have secondaries assigned to my 2 best friends and my dad for convienience in purchasing things for me. I have a boatload of Membership rewards points as a result of it. Thinking about switching to the Business version though – they currently have a 25,000 points signup promo and waive the fee for the first year. Plus, Business cards don’t generally show up on your credit report. And for those of you who have no limit cards, you know how tough it is having one of those on your credit report. Because they don’t have any limit, they don’t report one so you are constantly looking like you are using almost all of your credit limit.

5 – Dell Preferred Credit: $4,000
Got this last year when I bought my new PC because it had 18 months interest free financing. As far as I am concerned, this is Toy Credit, and it’s been more of a hassle than a benefit of the 18 months. Paid off the remaining $500. Think I’m going to cancel it – reducing my total available credit but also bumping up my average length of credit history.

6 – Bank of America Mastercard (NEW): $3,600
This was actually an older card I chose to re-open to extend the length of my credit history. It’s toy credit, but I recently put in a request to bump up my credit limit. Since I can’t BT Amex to Amex, I’m hoping to be able to BT the $3500 I already have sitting on my Amex Rewards card.

TOTAL AVAILABLE CREDIT: $45,500

Not a bad change from July. Of course, in my mind it’s merely keeping hold with my higher utilization rates from being unemployed these last two months. I’ve got big plans though on these credit cards and I can’t wait to get started. I’ve already scheduled my bi-weekly payment to my Costco Amex as 10% of my (expected) Gross Income.

Now if I could only just find a job…..

Finding a home for my new Emergency Fund

Oct 3

Posted by kiki in Citibank, Costco, Emergency Fund | No Comments

So everybody knows by now that with my recent layoff, I’ve learned the importance of an Emergency Fund. My goal is $10,000 in a single liquid account. According to my calculators, with direct depositing 10% of my (expected) gross income every 2 weeks, it’s going to take me 1.3 years to complete. I would like to think that somewhere along the way I could add more to do it in a year flat, but if I can’t… I’m OK with that.

My goals right now are 10% gross into my emergency fund, $192 per paycheck to my Roth ($5000 max 2008 contribution limit / 26 paychecks), and of course, credit card debt reduction. Currently I have scheduled 10% of my gross pay to go to one particular card. Minimum payments for the rest are going to have to come out of my everyday spending account. I’m trying to automate as much as possible so that what I have left in my checking account is what I can spend.

Anyway, back on topic. I’ve been looking for new homes for my new E-fund. Look here for a great list of current rates. I looked at the Capital One 5.20APR deal for Costco members, but the minimum is too high for me. Plus, I’m not too fond of opening an account with yet another bank.

But I think I have found the solution. The Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund. Currently yielding a little over 5%, it’s a great solution for me since I already hold all of my retirement funds with them. The only problem is that it has a $3,000 minimum. While I still want to go with them, I can’t until my account meets the $3000 minimum threashold.

So where do I stash my moola up until I reach the $3000? New banks are out of the question! I absolutely hate the idea of setting up another address/phone/social security info with another bank. And the additional website login… the horror! the horror!

So it’s going to be either Citibank, Bank of America, or my local credit union. Well, my local credit union savings account yields .75% APR, plus it would be too easily spendable. BoA has savings accounts, but at not great rates and not without fees. Citi, on the other hand has an Ultimate Savings account yielding 4.75APY. It requires no checking account, and has no fees. And since I’m looking at dropping my Citibank checking account as soon as my last check clears, this is perfect for me!

It’s probably going to take me about 5 months to get to that $3000 threashold, but that’s OK with me.

I’m excited! Even though I don’t have it going yet… I HAVE A PLAN PEOPLE! AN AUTOMATIC PLAN! And once I setup all of these direct deposit pieces, we will surely be in business!