Just received a somewhat disturbing email where several of my credit cards from Citi have had their limits reduced. Email quoted / enclosed below.
Q: I did not authorize for them to look up my credit report - so were they allowed to do that? They claim it was from a consumer reporting agency. Does this mean this wasn't a credit check?
My credit limits were vastly reduced to basically 0 for all of these existing accounts. (The ones that had balances on them were reduced to just slightly above the balance.)
(N.B. Previous credit limit was $15,000)
There was a recent review of your account and credit information. As a result, we have revised the credit limit to $300. This decision was based on the information obtained from a consumer reporting agency. Specifically, your credit report indicates a substantial number of debts owed to other creditors. Your current account balance is $0.00
We're online
Please visit Citi Online to view your current account information. If you've enrolled in Electronic Communications, please check the Document Center for more information. Otherwise, a letter has been mailed to you and should be received within the next 7-10 days. This is the most up to date information available to our credit specialists. If you believe your credit limit has been reduced due to inaccurate information on your credit bureau report, and such inaccurate information has been corrected on your report, please visit Citi Online within the next 60 days to see if you qualify for a credit limit increase.
Update, for those curious on my current credit status and its possible relations to this Citi message.
I just checked creditkarma and I don't see anything in derogatory marks... Nothing is in Collections. There are some accounts with marks like closed on consumer request and also closed due to inactivity. However, I am using 48% of my credit across 27 accounts with slightly less than a 5 year age of credit history. Payments @ 100%. Last hard credit inquiries all listed at over a year ago. My score is currently rather low.
Update: finally had time to log in and write this letter. (For some reason, in the wee hours at 3 am, the Citi portal is often down)
I notice that my credit line has been dramatically reduced suddenly.
I would like to provide information to request that my credit lines be re-instated to their original amounts.
I am a software engineer based in Silicon Valley with over 20+ years of experience. My regular annual income exceeds $250,000. My credit score is not the best as recently, as I have taken out a few loans to start a startup in the past year.
Please note that my payment is at 100% on time with all creditors.
I have been a loyal Citi credit card customer for over 10 years and that my accounts have always been in great standing.
Currently, my credit lines for Citi have been set so low that it would be very inconvenient for me to use these cards.
I'd like to continue to be an active Citi customer.
Please set my credit lines back to their original amounts.
Thank you.