Associates Classic Visa Card

...nor ever have owned an Associates visa card. For those of you quickly dragging your mouse to the ‘unhelpful’ button, before you click I would just like to point out that I did however work in their customer service department for nearly 2 years as a customer account manager so I hope the following will be a resourceful insight for you all.

The Name Change
Those of you who already have an Associates account should now all be ...
...under the name of Citigroup. More specifically, your credit card will be issued by Citicard. This encompasses a number of different financial sections of the parent company Citigroup. However, as you have probably noticed, little about the company or your account has changed. It was a step by the company to attempt to attract ‘premium’ customers to the ‘citi’ brand. If you were with the company during the rebrand process though you will probably ... more

Well I’ve been away from ciao for some time now and I’ve finally decided to neglect my fellow ciaoers no longer. As for my review. I firstly must point out that I do not own nor ever have owned an Associates visa card. For those of you quickly dragging your mouse to the ‘unhelpful’ button, before you click I would just like to point out that I did however work in their customer service department for nearly 2 years as a customer account manager so I hope the following will be a resourceful insight for you all.

The Name Change
Those of you who already have an Associates account should now all be aware of the fact that the Associates are now trading under the name of Citigroup. More specifically, your credit card will be issued by Citicard. This encompasses a number of different financial sections of the parent company Citigroup. However, as you have probably noticed, little about the company or your account has changed. It was a step by the company to attempt to attract ‘premium’ customers to the ‘citi’ brand. If you were with the company during the rebrand process though you will probably have been wholly disillusioned by the process though as little or no advice of the name change was sent out to customers and the whole exercise illustrated Citigroup’s general incompetence.

Before I go any further perhaps now is the time to point out that there is no animosity towards the company on my part. I enjoyed my job on the whole and left the company for personal reasons. Any negative comments are based on my experience of dealing with approximately 100 different credit card accounts on a daily basis and I hope this review will provide you with a fair and sound illustration of the company as a whole and specifically their credit card department.

Applying
To apply for your Citicard you can either call and request an application form (0870 903 5000) or you can apply online at www.citicards.co.uk. In my experience the company offers no training to customer service representatives to guide applicants through the online procedure so unless you are confident about applying this way you may be best to use postal application.

Contrary to popular belief, applying online with Citicards does not provide you with a decision any faster than sending a postal application. Even if you are provisionally approved the company will still carry out the usual manual checks before sending you a credit agreement to sign and return. Whichever application method you use, expect to wait 28 days for your card and usually a couple of weeks above and beyond that.

If you receive a ‘priority application’ or a form that says you have been ‘provisionally approved’ through the post – don’t believe it! As I’m sure you all know this is simply a marketing ploy and your application will be stuck in the same pile to go through the same processes as everyone else’s.

As for those who can apply, Citigroup offers credit cards with limits ranging from £250 to £25000. If you have an adverse credit history they do strongly recommend you apply but in my experience I would recommend you allow at least a year to pass from receiving any CCJs or defaults on your credit file. They will still be counted against you though so if you are looking to repair a poor credit rating then expect one of the lowest starting limits and a very high APR. (APR stands for annual percentage rate and is the amount of interest you will be charged on your outstanding balance over the course of the year.)

Another group Citigroup targets is the emerging credit market. This concentrates on people who have had little or no credit previously and therefore no information on their credit file. Again, if you fall into this category, expect a low credit limit and high APR. Other ways to help you build your credit rating include getting a mobile phone on contract which will show on your credit file as a regular monthly payment that you make.

Using Your Card
As with all Visa cards, your Citicard will be accepted worldwide at any shop displaying the Visa international logo. You won’t be charged for using your card for transactions abroad and the exchange rate will be a commercial exchange rate calculated by Citigroup for the day your transaction was made.

As for withdrawing cash – do this at your peril! I personally don’t have pin numbers for any of my credit cards. If you need cash in an emergency you can take your visa or mastercard into any bank or building society and withdraw cash over the counter. Make sure you have some photographic ID with you if you plan on withdrawing the cash this way. The reason I don’t have any PINs for credit cards is because of the charges incurred for withdrawing cash. With your citicard these charges will vary so I would recommend calling the customer service department to verify the charges for your particular account before taking my word for it. On the classic or diamond accounts expect to pay £5 for each and every cash withdrawal you make regardless of the withdrawal amount.

On top of that you will be paying a cash rate of interest for this amount as opposed to a merchandise rate. The cash rate is higher and is applied from the day you withdraw your cash so there is no interest free period. If you do withdraw cash it is very hard to stop cash interest accruing on the account without paying the balance off in full but I will explain that shortly.

Another thing you need to be aware of when withdrawing cash on you account is your daily and weekly cash limits. Again, I would advise calling customer services to confirm this as it varies between accounts. Generally with the classic card your daily limit will be £100 and your weekly limit will be £200. This is regardless of your credit limit and even as your credit limit rises these cash limits will never be changed on your account. As for the Citigroup ‘week’ this runs from Friday to Thursday. So if you have withdrawn your maximum cash amount for the week it will be every Friday that your limit is reset and you can withdraw again.

As for withdrawing more cash – Citicards to offer a cash advance option. If you need any cash on your account and you can afford to plan ahead I would strongly recommend this option. You can arrange this by telephoning the customer service department and arranging for the cash to be sent to you in the form of a cheque. You can override your daily and weekly cash limits in this way but there are still limits to the amount of cash you can receive. At present you must leave 10% of your credit limit as available credit when taking a cash advance. So, if you have a credit limit of £500 and a balance of £150 you could have a cash advance of £300 leaving £50 (10% of your £500 credit limit) as available credit on the account. Your cheque will reach you in about 5 working days and you can then spend it as you choose. Another advantage to a cash advance is that you avoid paying any cash handling fee and you may also be eligible for a preferential interest rate for this transaction.

Making Payments to Your Account
As with most credit card companies you will be sent a monthly statement detailing your transactions, any interest and your minimum monthly payment with its due date. There are numerous payment methods available to you and these are detailed on the back of the statement along with payment processing times. The quickest method is to make a switch or debit card payment over the phone which will be applied to your account in 2 working days. Be prepared if you prefer to send a cheque though as Citicards request tat you allow up to 7 working days for a cheque to reach your account.

Making a late payment will result in a hefty late charge of either £20 or £25. Overlimit charges also vary between the two amounts. A friendly word of advice though, Citicards are helpful when it comes to refunding charges and should according to company policy refund 2 charges per year. Any more are at the discretion of the operator who you make your request to so it s a case of you win some you lose some.

And here’s some more information that isn’t specifically relevant to a review of a Citicard Visa but may come in use to you. If you are worried about your overlimit account having an adverse affect on your credit rating, your credit file only shows the current balance on your credit card account. So if you bring your account up to date, the following month no other credit lenders will be aware that your account was over it’s limit. I’m not recommending that you go over your limit though as this will have an adverse affect on your standing as a Citicard customer and will lead to the £20 fees I mentioned previously. Also, if your payment is late this will not always show on your credit file. If your payment is due on the 3rd of the month, provided your payment reaches your lender before the last day of the month it will not show as a delinquent payment on your credit file. If it reaches them on the first of the following month though it will. Again, I’m not suggesting you make late payments as you will be charged and your credit card issuer could suspend your credit limit. However, for those of you who have made payments a couple of days late in the past and have worried about it’s affects on your credit file I hope the above was useful to you.

A special note for new account holders – beware the floating payment!! Floating payment is a term coined by Citigroup which of course makes no sense but all will be revealed! I personally never used the expression when talking to a customer but there are those who do so now you’ll now what they’re talking about. Here’s the generally spiel… If you make any payments to your citicard during the first two months of opening the account your payment will be ‘held’ for 10 days. It will come off the account balance as soon as payment has cleared but it will not show on your available credit for a further 10 days. These are 10 calendar days and not working days but if the tenth day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday you will have to wait until Tuesday before your payment is available to spend. Citicards will not give you prior warning of this but for those of you who are unhappy it is unfortunately in the terms and conditions. I’ve not got any to hand but there is a section about Citicards being able to hold your payment blah blah blah. After 2 months – everything should be normal with your account. The only time this system will be brought back into place on your account is if a payment bounces and then the ‘float’ will be reapplied for a set period.

Right then. Have I mentioned most things? I won’t go into the APR. It is higher than other credit card companies but this is the price you pay for a card that aims to help you repair your credit rating. If you are doing this the best option is probably to pay your account balance in full each month so you don’t incur any interest.

Customer service is an iffy subject. As I said, I worked in customer service for nearly 2 years and so had a broad knowledge of the product. However there is a high staff turnover and I have experienced countless accounts where other operators have given incorrect or misleading advice.

As for my overall opinion of the Citicard classic visa, I do feel it is a great card if used properly. Hopefully the above has given you an idea of how to run your account well and avoid paying unnecessary charges. I would recommend using as an introduction to credit or to repair you credit rating and then move on to another company which offers more competitive interest rates.

I’ll finish there. This isn’t a fully comprehensive review but it does cover the basics. Any questions though – leave a message in my guest book and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
 

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