What to Do If You Aren't Instantly Approved for the Citi Prestige

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A few readers have reported to me that they applied for the Citi Prestige® Card and either got a response that their application was pending or denied. What are their options?

The Citi Prestige® Card has been one of my favorite cards since I got it in March. I like:

• the 50,000 ThankYou Point sign up bonus after spending $3,000 in the first three months
• the ability to use points like cash toward the purchase of American Airlines flights at a rate of 1.6 cents per point OR to transfer them to 12 types of airline miles
• the $250 Air Travel Credit each calendar year, which means that I’ll get $500 worth of free airfare before my next annual fee is due
• the $100 statement credit for Global Entry
• American Airlines lounge access for me plus guests when I fly AA or Priority Pass lounge access worldwide when I don’t
• 3x points on airfare and hotels, 2x points on dining out and entertainment
• the fourth night free on paid hotel stays
• three free rounds of golf per calendar year

I don’t like the $450 annual fee, but it is so worth paying for the above benefits, at least for the first year at which point I’ll re-evaluate, but I’m 95% sure I’ll keep the card.

Here is my full review of the Citi Prestige.

So for readers who want the card, but were denied or got a pending status after hitting submit, there are still a few options to get the card. First make sure you followed Citi’s de facto application rules: Citi will not approve two cards within seven days or three within 60 days. If you want to apply for three Citi cards, the quickest you should do that would be something like application one on Day 1, application two on Day 9, and application three on Day 66.

If you’ve followed that rule and are still pending or denied, you have two options.

1. Do nothing and wait for Citi to call you
2. Call Citi

Do Nothing

There are reports that Citi Customer Service is calling some people whose applications are pending or denied to hold reconsideration over the phone.

If you don’t want to wait and hope for a call,

Call Citi

You can call Citi reconsideration at 800-695-5171. Calling reconsideration isn’t very scary. They usually just ask questions that were already on the application. Here is a video of a call to Citi for reconsideration from 2.5 years ago.

Bottom Line

Even an immediate rejection does not mean you cannot be approved eventually for the Citi Prestige® Card. You just need to get on the phone with a human about your application. Has anyone recently gone through Citi reconsideration? Tell us about it in the comments. We can learn from your experience.