A credit card is the last thing you should have if you wanted financial freedom or if you wanna get out of debt. However, there are instances in our lives that we have emergency expenses.

It can be alarming and hard not to be able to pay for Utility bills, buy food and groceries after having some emergency expenses. Apparently, credit cards are the fastest way to get out of a sudden spiraling financial crisis.

It is the fastest way. If you already have a card. Of course, if a financial crisis happens before having a credit card it may take a while or even impossible.

The thing is applying for a credit card may take a month or two. At the same time if you had an issue in paying bills you may end up not getting approved for a card too.

Check out: How to Get a Secured Credit Card with BPI

This post is not about how to get approved for a credit card. Today, I’m going to share the full timeline of my Citibank Credit Card application for Simplicity+ Visa card. It is for those who are curious how long do Citibank process their card application.

Just so you are aware, this is going to be my 4th card ever. But my 2nd active card with a separate credit limit. There’s a reason behind that which I’ll tell you later on.

Day 1 – 11/02/18 Card Application

When filling out their form make sure you have all details complete and accurate to avoid delays. Don’t falsify any information.

I applied through their website, it’s more realistic online than the sales reps because details will be unsecured.

Since I have an existing card, I entered my card number on the form. That was a life-threatening attempt, hahaha just kidding.

The thing is, I had a financial crash for the past two months. My baby’s first birthday, my unhealthy body strikes again and my baby broke my mom’s TV. 

My mom is quite demanding with things. Instead of me paying for my card I was forced to get a home credit loan to replace her TV, my money was used to pay for the down payment. The TV was used on my baby’s birthday for karaoke purposes.

I was also supposed to make a payment for my card and just use the limit for purchasing the ingredients for my baby’s birthday feast. However, she told me that it’s gonna be better to buy at the local wet & dry market in Zapote. I got sick and lead to absences without pay, and being sick required me to purchase some meds too. 

It was a total crisis for me. I’m being able to pay just the minimum due and the finance charges I’m getting every month is about 600+ PHP. So that’s getting into a deeper hole of financial disaster. So before it gets deeper and deeper, I applied for a second card to do a balance transfer.

Day 4 – November 05, 2018

I didn’t really check anything about the application on this day, but I got an email around 9 pm. I check my email around 1 am because my shift starts at 3 am. The email is not even about confirming that I got approved. But it gives the impression that it was.

The email was about welcoming me for an eStatement. I didn’t want to assume that time so I checked the application status.

Day 5- November 6, 2018, I got an Email from CitiBank

Technically it was day 4 because it’s 1 am. After seeing the email about the eStatement, I checked my application status. I can say that Citibank’s online facilities are quite secured because even in checking status it sends an OTP (one-time-password).

On the status of the card application, it only says “Booked”. Their process is fast but really confusing. I thought when they say booked, it means that it is booked for checking or credit investigation or whatever.

I tried checking on the web and there’s only one forum that has this topic. And no one confirmed the accuracy of the answer. Usually when you go to forums, if the question was answered or resolved, there would be an indication or at least a comment that says it’s good. But there’s none.

I needed to have the confirmation on which one is accurate because there are two answers that make sense. One says it’s booked for shipment and the other one says the same ideology as what I thought.

I’m so curious about what it means, so I also asked a friend who used to work in Citibank. He’s offline that’s why I decided to call Citibank.

You’re right I should’ve called them instead of searching and chatting a friend.

However, Citibank doesn’t have a toll-free number. It sucks right? I think they are the only bank that doesn’t have a toll-free number. They have chat support who can’t help me identify what I am trying to find out.

So for the sake of knowing what’s the real deal, I called them using our landline in CAVITE. Since I can’t find an answer about the “Booked” status on Citibank’s card application status, I thought it would be nice to confirm and share it here.

Having that said, I was able to confirm that it was approved and booked for printing. And later on, be shipped according to the rep.

Day 6 – November 7, 2018, I got the Credit Card Delivery Tracking Number

Around 5 pm, I received a text message that the card is about to be shipped via Air21. The tracking number is giving me an error when I checked it. Details were just loaded up after an hour.

If you encounter the same thing don’t panic. There are some parts on our job where we check tracking for orders and there are times that tracking numbers won’t have details for a while.

Maximum wait for tracking numbers to have details are within the day.

As per Air21’s website, deliveries in Cavite takes 1-2 business days. I have a feeling that this would arrive by tomorrow since we’re just in Bacoor, we’ll see.

Day 7- November 8, 2018, I received my CitiBank Simplicity Visa Card

Around 2:30 pm, I received the card. According to my husband, the delivery guy went over earlier but they can’t release the card to him even I left my authorization letter and IDs.

As per the delivery guy and the note on the package, this is a face to face delivery. They also have a form from Citibank that I have signed, the guy said they’ll return that to Citibank.

So if you think you’ll not be at home during business hours, ask for the card to be delivered at your office.

Activation of the card

Citibank Simplicity+ Visa Credit Card Application Review