Discover won't grant me any further CLI requests - insufficient experience with current limit?

[Anonymous]

Howdy guys. I've had a Discover card since the day I turned 18, it was my first credit card and is my oldest account. I am up to an $8,500 limit with my card and have been requesting a CLI every 31 days and was having great luck ($1,000 to $1,500 increase each time), however I hit a wall 3 months ago that I can't climb over. I have made three requests over the last three months (one per month) and each time was declined, with the only reason being that I have insufficient experience with my current credit line. No issues about income, debt to income, etc., only insufficient experience.

I finally called them on the phone today to see what it is they want to see and the girl I spoke to from the CLI department said they want to see 50% utilization of the credit limit. Surely that's absurd, correct? They want me to spend $4,250 per month on my card before they'll consider me for another CLI request? I'm lucky to spend that in an average year. I can certainly understand their position to decline me because I'm not taking full advantage of the relatively high CL I have already, but I've seen people on these boards with CLs of $15,000 and above.

Any tips or pointers to jump over this barrier or should I just be happy with my current CL?

[Gmood1]

I'd just chill for a while. They've locked a lot of us out of CLI's. I haven't had one from them in six months. You're not alone..that is for sure! Eventually the gates will open again. I'll be waiting when they do.

[Anonymous]

When a creditor gives you a revolving credit line, they have to have access to that money to pay your retailers.  So your $8000 credit limit means Discover has to sit on a reserve ratio that backs up $8000 you could spend to give to retailers.  

If you aren't using $8000, they aren't making merchant processing fees and interest profits so the money they have sitting in a bucket with your name on it makes them nothing.  They can give CLIs to people who make them money, but you aren't using your portion so they see no reason to help you out with utilization for the cards you do use.

[Anonymous]

Short answer: stay happy with your current limit for a while.

I'm not certain, but I think Discover is now (and may have been for some time already, I wouldn't know that) on a 6-month CLI pattern.  In other words, CLIs at six months after the last one, assuming score/income/history stays good.  I haven't tried for one in a long time lol

That being said, there is also a "ceiling" put in place by any lender on how much can be extended based on whatever their own weird set of requirements are - income, score, inquiries, recent accounts, weather, angle of the leaning tower of Pisa divided by pi, whatever - beyond which a given file will not be extended more credit until the person gains/loses whatever it is that is standing in the way.  Not sure how long it's been since you turned 18, or what your income range is, but that may be affecting your chances too.

[austinguy907]

Your issue coincides with the fix they did back on 3/29 that was primarily Secured accounts not being able to request a CLI w/o being prompted for an additional deposit even though the majority of the account holders had already gotten at least one CLI since graduating.

It's funny though that they said to use 50% or more of your CL to get another CLI which contradicts my persoal experience over the last 2 years with them. Prior to the 3/29 issue they had given me 18K+ in CLI's the prior 4 months of requests.  My year end with them for 2016 was shy of 6K for the year in spend.

I personally think that when they fixed things over there they changed something in the process since the well has been dry for most of us beyond 20K CL's.  Lower limits seem to be about 50/50 right now for CLI's w/ most of the denials coming back with the insufficient experience reason on the letters.  My theory for most higher accounts is that the clock reset for everyone that had been on the 30/60/90 day cycles and they also got rid of the manual 2-day review messages after the fix.  

Some have reported though that after the denial they login a few days later and see a spontaneous CLI appear.  I think the CSR might have been reaching for a reason and ended up with the 50% number to pacify you on the call.  Disco has been pretty solid though on communication with being upfront about things but, this one is a curveball.  I would just sit tight for a little bit and not get too frustrated with the CLI experience until we start seeing some momentum again.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Disco has the cli train down for maintenance. I wouldnt put stock into whatever the letters you get say. When they are ready to give a cli again they will. Continue to hulk smash the button, eventually the streak will end

[CreditCuriosity]

IMO they are doing what Cap1 started doing... If you aren't using the CL or a good portion of it what motive do they have to increase it?  It adds additional risk to them and their shareholders.  Basically the same reason Cap1 started to give a year or so ago and is still giving.  Both Cap1 and Discover saw a huge uptick in charge-offs/bad debt and most likely is reacting to this and thus the train is broken currently for most whether you are > 20k or less than 20k.  Some above 20k has got CLI and some below 20k mark have got CLI.  Saying 50% of people below 20k get them is just a guess at best other then the little information you see on this forum.  Sure more people are seeing them on lower CL's as can be seen on the forum, but plenty aren't as well.  Whether Discover loosen up again is anyone guess and so many factors play into whether they would do this we could only speculate.  All we know is something has changed for sure whether it is good or bad (good for discover probably and bad for us that are impacted by it).

[Anonymous]

My case is the opposite. BoA keeps giving me cli that I dont want or need.

If you dont need more than what you have why ask for more?

[AverageJoesCredit]

Ill take your unwanted cli .

Most people dont actuslly need more cli from Disco but it sure is fun trying

[Anonymous]

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Ill take your unwanted cli .

Most people dont actuslly need more cli from Disco but it sure is fun trying

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I'll trade for a CFU.