Angling for Credit limit increases

[Anonymous]

Cliff notes.....got a bunch of credit cards around August of last year after really not using credit for a while....added a few more along the way up until now. Total limits $23,250 over about 12 of them. Limits anywhere from $500 to $5000 (I got all the ones with the highest limits first, small ones came in later.  Score currently is 605 TU/590 EQ, with 78% untilization. That utilization should be dropping about 15% a week over the next 4 weeks if I had to estimate. No derogatory marks. All payments on time. Over limit a few times on various but only by a few bucks and it has been a while.

Now here is the rub, since pretty much all of these cards were 0% and still are, I have been running at 95% utilization pretty much for the past 10 months. I can always use some free money to play with for my business interests, I am self employed. Score went down to 510 at it's loweest., mainly because of that and the age of new accounts/hard inquiries/utilization during that period. A couple times my limit was cut after I made large payments (Wal Mart went from 900 to 450, Discover from 1200 to 900. Now over the next 2 months as a lot of the 0% are about to come to an end (some are 18mths) I am about to start paying all of them off. and get the utilization down to near 0. This is basically what the month of June will be for, I will just be paying them all down to zero so by July I should be seeing a huge score bump to around 700 if I had to guess. ( As a side not I have learned that this is much harder than you realize. It seems credit card companies like to hold payments over $500 sometimes for weeks on end if it doesn;t fit your payment "pattern" even after they have received the money)

So, around mid July I was hoping to start applying for some increases for the long term goal of having money to renovate my house (I am hoping to get to around 100k in credit at some point to do this) and am trying to figure out the best way to go about this, or what my chances are of getting anything more with that balance/min payment history over last 10 months.....even though my scores should be fine. Also was wondering how autimatic increases I got after 6 mths on Capital one will factor is if at all (One went from 2000 to 2500, one went from 300 to 500 a few months ago). 

So what should be my plan here? If they do a soft pull and see a great score, but then look at the account patterns what effect will that have on an increase? Is it too soon to even try, even though the score will be good and balances mostly at 0 across the board? I would like to try to set this up in 6 month ncrements over the next year or so so I want to plan it out. But I am new to this whole situation. Target the high limit ones? Low ones first? Any banks where I will have a better chance? Here is a list of cards and limits:

Discover - $900

Wal Mart - $450

Cap 1 Quick - $2500 (increased $500 few months ago on 6 month thing)

Cap 1 BuyPower - $500 (increased $200 same as other cap 1)

Chase - $3500

Sun Trust - $5000

Citibank Diamond - $2000

Home Depot - $2000

Lowes $1800

BJ's MC (Synchrony) $3500

Credit One $500

First Premier $500

Citi Double Cash $500

Macy's $100

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Cliff notes.....got a bunch of credit cards around August of last year after really not using credit for a while....added a few more along the way up until now. Total limits $23,250 over about 12 of them. Limits anywhere from $500 to $5000 (I got all the ones with the highest limits first, small ones came in later.  Score currently is 605 TU/590 EQ, with 78% untilization. That utilization should be dropping about 15% a week over the next 4 weeks if I had to estimate. No derogatory marks. All payments on time. Over limit a few times on various but only by a few bucks and it has been a while.

Now here is the rub, since pretty much all of these cards were 0% and still are, I have been running at 95% utilization pretty much for the past 10 months. I can always use some free money to play with for my business interests, I am self employed. Score went down to 510 at it's loweest., mainly because of that and the age of new accounts/hard inquiries/utilization during that period. A couple times my limit was cut after I made large payments (Wal Mart went from 900 to 450, Discover from 1200 to 900. Now over the next 2 months as a lot of the 0% are about to come to an end (some are 18mths) I am about to start paying all of them off. and get the utilization down to near 0. This is basically what the month of June will be for, I will just be paying them all down to zero so by July I should be seeing a huge score bump to around 700 if I had to guess. ( As a side not I have learned that this is much harder than you realize. It seems credit card companies like to hold payments over $500 sometimes for weeks on end if it doesn;t fit your payment "pattern" even after they have received the money)

So, around mid July I was hoping to start applying for some increases for the long term goal of having money to renovate my house (I am hoping to get to around 100k in credit at some point to do this) and am trying to figure out the best way to go about this, or what my chances are of getting anything more with that balance/min payment history over last 10 months.....even though my scores should be fine. Also was wondering how autimatic increases I got after 6 mths on Capital one will factor is if at all (One went from 2000 to 2500, one went from 300 to 500 a few months ago). 

So what should be my plan here? If they do a soft pull and see a great score, but then look at the account patterns what effect will that have on an increase? Is it too soon to even try, even though the score will be good and balances mostly at 0 across the board? I would like to try to set this up in 6 month ncrements over the next year or so so I want to plan it out. But I am new to this whole situation. Target the high limit ones? Low ones first? Any banks where I will have a better chance? Here is a list of cards and limits:

Discover - $900

Wal Mart - $450

Cap 1 Quick - $2500 (increased $500 few months ago on 6 month thing)

Cap 1 BuyPower - $500 (increased $200 same as other cap 1)

Chase - $3500

Sun Trust - $5000

Citibank Diamond - $2000

Home Depot - $2000

Lowes $1800

BJ's MC (Synchrony) $3500

Credit One $500

First Premier $500

Citi Double Cash $500

Macy's $100

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I think you may want to look into other means of financing (instead of credit cards) for a home renovation of that scale.  

Getting a bunch of cards and essentially maxing them out right away is tanking your scores and spooking your creditors. It's nice you're in a position to get caught up on this quickly. Once you do, I'd keep the utilization in check on your cards and not apply for anything for a while.

Once your credit file is stable, maybe get a home equity line of credit for the remodel.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Cliff notes.....got a bunch of credit cards around August of last year after really not using credit for a while....added a few more along the way up until now. Total limits $23,250 over about 12 of them. Limits anywhere from $500 to $5000 (I got all the ones with the highest limits first, small ones came in later.  Score currently is 605 TU/590 EQ, with 78% untilization. That utilization should be dropping about 15% a week over the next 4 weeks if I had to estimate. No derogatory marks. All payments on time. Over limit a few times on various but only by a few bucks and it has been a while.

Now here is the rub, since pretty much all of these cards were 0% and still are, I have been running at 95% utilization pretty much for the past 10 months. I can always use some free money to play with for my business interests, I am self employed. Score went down to 510 at it's loweest., mainly because of that and the age of new accounts/hard inquiries/utilization during that period. A couple times my limit was cut after I made large payments (Wal Mart went from 900 to 450, Discover from 1200 to 900. Now over the next 2 months as a lot of the 0% are about to come to an end (some are 18mths) I am about to start paying all of them off. and get the utilization down to near 0. This is basically what the month of June will be for, I will just be paying them all down to zero so by July I should be seeing a huge score bump to around 700 if I had to guess. ( As a side not I have learned that this is much harder than you realize. It seems credit card companies like to hold payments over $500 sometimes for weeks on end if it doesn;t fit your payment "pattern" even after they have received the money)

So, around mid July I was hoping to start applying for some increases for the long term goal of having money to renovate my house (I am hoping to get to around 100k in credit at some point to do this) and am trying to figure out the best way to go about this, or what my chances are of getting anything more with that balance/min payment history over last 10 months.....even though my scores should be fine. Also was wondering how autimatic increases I got after 6 mths on Capital one will factor is if at all (One went from 2000 to 2500, one went from 300 to 500 a few months ago). 

So what should be my plan here? If they do a soft pull and see a great score, but then look at the account patterns what effect will that have on an increase? Is it too soon to even try, even though the score will be good and balances mostly at 0 across the board? I would like to try to set this up in 6 month ncrements over the next year or so so I want to plan it out. But I am new to this whole situation. Target the high limit ones? Low ones first? Any banks where I will have a better chance? Here is a list of cards and limits:

Discover - $900

Wal Mart - $450

Cap 1 Quick - $2500 (increased $500 few months ago on 6 month thing)

Cap 1 BuyPower - $500 (increased $200 same as other cap 1)

Chase - $3500

Sun Trust - $5000

Citibank Diamond - $2000

Home Depot - $2000

Lowes $1800

BJ's MC (Synchrony) $3500

Credit One $500

First Premier $500

Citi Double Cash $500

Macy's $100

---

I think you may want to look into other means of financing (instead of credit cards) for a home renovation of that scale.  

Getting a bunch of cards and essentially maxing them out right away is tanking your scores and spooking your creditors. It's nice you're in a position to get caught up on this quickly. Once you do, I'd keep the utilization in check on your cards and not apply for anything for a while.

Once your credit file is stable, maybe get a home equity line of credit for the remodel.

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I would love to get a 2nd mortgage and make it a lot easier, but try getting any type of large financing these days being self employed. It is **bleep** near impossible. My 1st mortgage is through a private lender, owner financed the purchase. It sucks because I have a bunch of equity too. 

The renovation will take a year and I will be able to keep up paying the cards as I go, so it isn't like I am going to be pay 25% every month or something. After the reno the equity in the property will be so high I can probably find a loan at that point to pay off any remaining balances if I have any. I am going to need to be near 800 for that to happen given my provable income limitations, so the increases will help with that too over the long term. 

[Anonymous]

One thing to consider with that high utilization is that you may have creditors balance chase you as you pay things down. Especially since other lenders already did so. I do think patience may be needed on your part if you aren't able to swing the home equity loan SteelerNYC suggested.

[CreditInspired]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Cliff notes.....got a bunch of credit cards around August of last year after really not using credit for a while....added a few more along the way up until now. Total limits $23,250 over about 12 of them. Limits anywhere from $500 to $5000 (I got all the ones with the highest limits first, small ones came in later.  Score currently is 605 TU/590 EQ, with 78% untilization. That utilization should be dropping about 15% a week over the next 4 weeks if I had to estimate. No derogatory marks. All payments on time. Over limit a few times on various but only by a few bucks and it has been a while.

Now here is the rub, since pretty much all of these cards were 0% and still are, I have been running at 95% utilization pretty much for the past 10 months. I can always use some free money to play with for my business interests, I am self employed. Score went down to 510 at it's loweest., mainly because of that and the age of new accounts/hard inquiries/utilization during that period. A couple times my limit was cut after I made large payments (Wal Mart went from 900 to 450, Discover from 1200 to 900. Now over the next 2 months as a lot of the 0% are about to come to an end (some are 18mths) I am about to start paying all of them off. and get the utilization down to near 0. This is basically what the month of June will be for, I will just be paying them all down to zero so by July I should be seeing a huge score bump to around 700 if I had to guess. ( As a side not I have learned that this is much harder than you realize. It seems credit card companies like to hold payments over $500 sometimes for weeks on end if it doesn;t fit your payment "pattern" even after they have received the money)

So, around mid July I was hoping to start applying for some increases for the long term goal of having money to renovate my house (I am hoping to get to around 100k in credit at some point to do this) and am trying to figure out the best way to go about this, or what my chances are of getting anything more with that balance/min payment history over last 10 months.....even though my scores should be fine. Also was wondering how autimatic increases I got after 6 mths on Capital one will factor is if at all (One went from 2000 to 2500, one went from 300 to 500 a few months ago). 

So what should be my plan here? If they do a soft pull and see a great score, but then look at the account patterns what effect will that have on an increase? Is it too soon to even try, even though the score will be good and balances mostly at 0 across the board? I would like to try to set this up in 6 month ncrements over the next year or so so I want to plan it out. But I am new to this whole situation. Target the high limit ones? Low ones first? Any banks where I will have a better chance? Here is a list of cards and limits:

Discover - $900

Wal Mart - $450

Cap 1 Quick - $2500 (increased $500 few months ago on 6 month thing)

Cap 1 BuyPower - $500 (increased $200 same as other cap 1)

Chase - $3500

Sun Trust - $5000

Citibank Diamond - $2000

Home Depot - $2000

Lowes $1800

BJ's MC (Synchrony) $3500

Credit One $500

First Premier $500

Citi Double Cash $500

Macy's $100

---

I think you may want to look into other means of financing (instead of credit cards) for a home renovation of that scale.  

Getting a bunch of cards and essentially maxing them out right away is tanking your scores and spooking your creditors. It's nice you're in a position to get caught up on this quickly. Once you do, I'd keep the utilization in check on your cards and not apply for anything for a while.

Once your credit file is stable, maybe get a home equity line of credit for the remodel.

---

I would love to get a 2nd mortgage and make it a lot easier, but try getting any type of large financing these days being self employed. It is **bleep** near impossible. My 1st mortgage is through a private lender, owner financed the purchase. It sucks because I have a bunch of equity too. 

The renovation will take a year and I will be able to keep up paying the cards as I go, so it isn't like I am going to be pay 25% every month or something. After the reno the equity in the property will be so high I can probably find a loan at that point to pay off any remaining balances if I have any. I am going to need to be near 800 for that to happen given my provable income limitations, so the increases will help with that too over the long term. 

---

This is only IMHO and just to give you a picture of what I see. I think it's going to be a difficult road to travel to reach your 100K credit goal in the near future for several reasons:

1. Your history of only paying minimum payments, even on a 0% interest card. Once you get your balances down to around 0, try to get in the habit of paying 3-5 times the minimum payment. This alone will help with getting decent CLIs. Well, it has for me.
2. Since you have been CLD and balance chased by Target and Disco, have they reinstated the CLs? If no, that negative will show on your CR.
3. You're self-employed. When considering large CLs, there's a possibility you will be subjected to a FR, or even a 4506-T could be requested. Will your self-employment income validate a 100K CL over several CCs? Just something to think about. Your response to Steeler verifies how difficult it is to get large financing when self-employed. Getting large CLIs will be similar to this.
4. You only show two scores--no EX. Are these FICO scores? If no, it's very important to get your FICO scores so you really know where you stand.
5. At least half of the CCs in your wallet are toy limits. I believe high CLs begat high CLs.
6. I am a staunch believer in Murphy's Law. If it can go wrong, it will. Don't put all your eggs in one basket betting on how much equity the renovated property will garner. There are a million and one things that can happen. Even you realized from waiting until the 0% interest is ready to expire, it is harder than you thought it would be when it's time to pay the piper.
7. @Anonymous paying down 78% utilization over 4 weeks @ 15% a week still leaves your debt ~31%. This is still not ideal score maximization. If you can, I suggest going to the garden until you can get 13 cards to a 0 balance and 1 card at 9% or less utilization.
8. Close Credit One. Not a good look in your arsenal.
9. See if HD and Lowes will give SP CLIs.

I honestly believe once you get your utilization way down and consider staying in the garden for at least a year, you will see many successes with your CLs. I hope you don't take my responses as a negative because they are truly given in good faith.

Good luck to you.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Besides closing Credit One and First Premier, lol, you do not need them if you can get Chase and Citibank, i think the biggest issue you have is getting the cards and keeping them maxed for the longest time. Even with 0% promo periods( which often times can be abused for the wrong reasons), you are establishing the wrong image to your new creditors. You may have a plan, but they do not know that. And in this day and age with computers making decisions, your patterns set off too many alarms, ie youve already been balance chased.

Its better overall to use your cards but try to keep the utilization down and in reality, if possible pif so you can establish you are responsible with your credit. With credit comes great responsibilty lol. I wish you the best, please take care of the cards you have, they can and will grow, you just have to remember the rules of game

[Anonymous]

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@CreditInspired wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Cliff notes.....got a bunch of credit cards around August of last year after really not using credit for a while....added a few more along the way up until now. Total limits $23,250 over about 12 of them. Limits anywhere from $500 to $5000 (I got all the ones with the highest limits first, small ones came in later.  Score currently is 605 TU/590 EQ, with 78% untilization. That utilization should be dropping about 15% a week over the next 4 weeks if I had to estimate. No derogatory marks. All payments on time. Over limit a few times on various but only by a few bucks and it has been a while.

Now here is the rub, since pretty much all of these cards were 0% and still are, I have been running at 95% utilization pretty much for the past 10 months. I can always use some free money to play with for my business interests, I am self employed. Score went down to 510 at it's loweest., mainly because of that and the age of new accounts/hard inquiries/utilization during that period. A couple times my limit was cut after I made large payments (Wal Mart went from 900 to 450, Discover from 1200 to 900. Now over the next 2 months as a lot of the 0% are about to come to an end (some are 18mths) I am about to start paying all of them off. and get the utilization down to near 0. This is basically what the month of June will be for, I will just be paying them all down to zero so by July I should be seeing a huge score bump to around 700 if I had to guess. ( As a side not I have learned that this is much harder than you realize. It seems credit card companies like to hold payments over $500 sometimes for weeks on end if it doesn;t fit your payment "pattern" even after they have received the money)

So, around mid July I was hoping to start applying for some increases for the long term goal of having money to renovate my house (I am hoping to get to around 100k in credit at some point to do this) and am trying to figure out the best way to go about this, or what my chances are of getting anything more with that balance/min payment history over last 10 months.....even though my scores should be fine. Also was wondering how autimatic increases I got after 6 mths on Capital one will factor is if at all (One went from 2000 to 2500, one went from 300 to 500 a few months ago). 

So what should be my plan here? If they do a soft pull and see a great score, but then look at the account patterns what effect will that have on an increase? Is it too soon to even try, even though the score will be good and balances mostly at 0 across the board? I would like to try to set this up in 6 month ncrements over the next year or so so I want to plan it out. But I am new to this whole situation. Target the high limit ones? Low ones first? Any banks where I will have a better chance? Here is a list of cards and limits:

Discover - $900

Wal Mart - $450

Cap 1 Quick - $2500 (increased $500 few months ago on 6 month thing)

Cap 1 BuyPower - $500 (increased $200 same as other cap 1)

Chase - $3500

Sun Trust - $5000

Citibank Diamond - $2000

Home Depot - $2000

Lowes $1800

BJ's MC (Synchrony) $3500

Credit One $500

First Premier $500

Citi Double Cash $500

Macy's $100

---

I think you may want to look into other means of financing (instead of credit cards) for a home renovation of that scale.  

Getting a bunch of cards and essentially maxing them out right away is tanking your scores and spooking your creditors. It's nice you're in a position to get caught up on this quickly. Once you do, I'd keep the utilization in check on your cards and not apply for anything for a while.

Once your credit file is stable, maybe get a home equity line of credit for the remodel.

---

I would love to get a 2nd mortgage and make it a lot easier, but try getting any type of large financing these days being self employed. It is **bleep** near impossible. My 1st mortgage is through a private lender, owner financed the purchase. It sucks because I have a bunch of equity too. 

The renovation will take a year and I will be able to keep up paying the cards as I go, so it isn't like I am going to be pay 25% every month or something. After the reno the equity in the property will be so high I can probably find a loan at that point to pay off any remaining balances if I have any. I am going to need to be near 800 for that to happen given my provable income limitations, so the increases will help with that too over the long term. 

---

This is only IMHO and just to give you a picture of what I see. I think it's going to be a difficult road to travel to reach your 100K credit goal in the near future for several reasons:

1. Your history of only paying minimum payments, even on a 0% interest card. Once you get your balances down to around 0, try to get in the habit of paying 3-5 times the minimum payment. This alone will help with getting decent CLIs. Well, it has for me.
2. Since you have been CLD and balance chased by Target and Disco, have they reinstated the CLs? If no, that negative will show on your CR.
3. You're self-employed. When considering large CLs, there's a possibility you will be subjected to a FR, or even a 4506-T could be requested. Will your self-employment income validate a 100K CL over several CCs? Just something to think about. Your response to Steeler verifies how difficult it is to get large financing when self-employed. Getting large CLIs will be similar to this.
4. You only show two scores--no EX. Are these FICO scores? If no, it's very important to get your FICO scores so you really know where you stand.
5. At least half of the CCs in your wallet are toy limits. I believe high CLs begat high CLs.
6. I am a staunch believer in Murphy's Law. If it can go wrong, it will. Don't put all your eggs in one basket betting on how much equity the renovated property will garner. There are a million and one things that can happen. Even you realized from waiting until the 0% interest is ready to expire, it is harder than you thought it would be when it's time to pay the piper.
7. @Anonymous paying down 78% utilization over 4 weeks @ 15% a week still leaves your debt ~31%. This is still not ideal score maximization. If you can, I suggest going to the garden until you can get 13 cards to a 0 balance and 1 card at 9% or less utilization.
8. Close Credit One. Not a good look in your arsenal.
9. See if HD and Lowes will give SP CLIs.

I honestly believe once you get your utilization way down and consider staying in the garden for at least a year, you will see many successes with your CLs. I hope you don't take my responses as a negative because they are truly given in good faith.

Good luck to you.

Wow thanks! I will try to answer all...

1. Will do. I will have to where I will be running up modest balances and juyst paying it off every month

2."Balance chased" so that is what it is called huh? LOL. Discover started out at 900 limit. Went up to 1200. They cut it down to 600. I called and complained and they put it back at the original 900. That was one of the first cards I got and that was probably 6 months ago.

3. I'm not looking for hueg increases all at once. If I could get even 10k more somehow that would be fine for now. I want to build up to the 100k over a long period of time, I know there is no way that is happening anytime soon. 

4. FICO is around 600 now. 

6. I am a contractor and will be doing the work myself. It was just appraised at +75k from what I owe and I really am not adding in any increase over what labor I will be putting into the project. That cost will be much lower than if I had to pay someone and I am being very conservative on ARV. 

7. I should be showing less than 5% by July 1st. (I like even numbers and I just used 15%, all of them will be fully paid off as they come in June.

8. Only have it for utilization purposes. Every little bit of credit helps.

9. Yeah I'm guessing those will be the easiest ones. I might "test the waters" with them first.

[CreditInspired]

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Besides closing Credit One and First Premier, lol, you do not need them if you can get Chase and Citibank, i think the biggest issue you have is getting the cards and keeping them maxed for the longest time. Even with 0% promo periods( which often times can be abused for the wrong reasons), you are establishing the wrong image to your new creditors. You may have a plan, but they do not know that. And in this day and age with computers making decisions, your patterns set off too many alarms, ie youve already been balance chased.

Its better overall to use your cards but try to keep the utilization down and in reality, if possible pif so you can establish you are responsible with your credit. With credit comes great responsibilty lol. I wish you the best, please take care of the cards you have, they can and will grow, you just have to remember the rules of game

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+100

[Anonymous]

I would try to HD  or Lowes CLI.  Your scores and % utilz will spook many lenders.  There are some lenders if you have enough equity that still will do light doc based almost on value and your bank deposits but the rate will be around 10%.  I get flyers in the email and mail for them all the  time. I trash them. Rehab using credit cards is not a good solution.  Even some consumer fiance co (and they are sharks) will give better deals with a secured second for a rehab.   

[Anonymous]

It's nearly impossible to talk about and achieve CLIs when you have utilization in maxed out territory.