Citi Goes Wild With Credit Card Offers

Citigroup is moving aggressively to expand its credit card business, hoping to capitalize on rivals who are toning down their efforts in the area. The bank sent out a whopping 346 million card offers to North American customers in the third quarter alone—which, the Wall Street Journal observes, is more than one for each person in America, and should vault it past Chase as the most dogged mailer of card offers.

Citi says the move comes in part because more customers are paying off their debts, a sign of financial crisis recovery. They’re also hoping that customers will be jumping from debit cards to credit cards, because many debit card issuers are instituting new fees on customers to make up for a Dodd-Frank Act provision limiting the fees they can charge merchants. Citi isn’t the only one making that pitch—Chase recently sent customers a flier titled, “Debit or Credit?” making the case for credit. (More Citigroup stories.)