At what point does your income:CL ratio halt your CLIs?

[Anonymous]

Hey, y'all. At what point does a student income of ~20k limit my CLIs...? I have ~20k in credit, and I was begining to think that until I get a real full time job, I won't be getting many more CLIs.. There has to be a point where banks say you have too much credit for your income. I guess you could say mine is about 1:1. At what point are you hurting yourself? For example if I someone got an amex 3x cli I would add 12k to my credit limit (probably wouldn't go through), which would put my income:CL at 20k:32k... If I ever applied for another credit card (like with my credit union) would they flat out deny me because I have too much credit? This thought is making me rethink of asking for that 3x CLI from amex...

[Anonymous]

I believe your scores and profile have more to do with your CLIs than a CL/Income ratio does. More experienced members will certainly chime in. If your utilization% is low, I can't imagine your income preventing a CLI.

[Creditaddict]

each bank and credit union will be different and depending how long you have been with them that number still might change agian!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey, y'all. At what point does a student income of ~20k limit my CLIs...? I have ~20k in credit, and I was begining to think that until I get a real full time job, I won't be getting many more CLIs.. There has to be a point where banks say you have too much credit for your income. I guess you could say mine is about 1:1. At what point are you hurting yourself? For example if I someone got an amex 3x cli I would add 12k to my credit limit (probably wouldn't go through), which would put my income:CL at 20k:32k... If I ever applied for another credit card (like with my credit union) would they flat out deny me because I have too much credit? This thought is making me rethink of asking for that 3x CLI from amex...

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I'll let you know when I get there.

However it just depends on your profile. It's not unknown for there to be someone out there with perfect if moderately short credit history with CL's totaling 4-5x their income.

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey, y'all. At what point does a student income of ~20k limit my CLIs...? I have ~20k in credit, and I was begining to think that until I get a real full time job, I won't be getting many more CLIs.. There has to be a point where banks say you have too much credit for your income. I guess you could say mine is about 1:1. At what point are you hurting yourself? For example if I someone got an amex 3x cli I would add 12k to my credit limit (probably wouldn't go through), which would put my income:CL at 20k:32k... If I ever applied for another credit card (like with my credit union) would they flat out deny me because I have too much credit? This thought is making me rethink of asking for that 3x CLI from amex...

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I'll let you know when I get there.

However it just depends on your profile. It's not unknown for there to be someone out there with perfect if moderately short credit history with CL's totaling 4-5x their income.

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It certainly varies among lenders, but generally you may run into two different "walls"

1) Lender exposure.   An issuer decides that you have enough credit with them, somewhat independent of your CLs with others. 

2) Overall CL too high.  So even if you carefully got just one $5K card from each issuer, once you have "lots" you might find that issuers will be reluctant to give you credit.

Generally (because most people don't spread around, and find an issuer they like) you will run into 1) first.

The limits vary with issuers and over time as others have said, but my feeling from seeing some posts is that with a smaller income, it's easier to have higher multiples, so with a $25K income you will see people with $100K + in CL.   With a $250K income,I think  you are much less likely to see $1M in CLs (perhaps simply because you need a lot of cards, or some vey high CL cards to do this).   But for all I know, at $10M, may be it becomes easy again.

[uswala]

My Costco TE card had $10500 CL. I asked for $21000 but they gave me only $15800 citi income to debt ratio. Same with my wife who recently asked for $24000 on her BCE from $16100. She was denied citing the same. She asked for a recon and this time she told them the household income (mine and her income combined). Based on combined income they gave her $24000 limit. So, atleast for Amex income does matter IMO. 

PS: On recon they told her that her EX Score is 776. So score was not an issue.

[taxi818]

Read a post other day. Member has 800k in credit limits. I believe income was around 70k  which is impressive in any case. 

[Jerry45]

A excellent question. Thanks for putting it out there

[jim44]

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@taxi818 wrote:

Read a post other day. Member has 800k in credit limits. I believe income was around 70k  which is impressive in any case. 

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Those CLs might be a hold over from the days before the credit card reform laws. Back then banks were giving out huge CLs and if your fico, job and income held steady and if your utilization was low during those years, one might still have those high CLs. JMO

[ojefferyo]

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@taxi818 wrote:

Read a post other day. Member has 800k in credit limits. I believe income was around 70k  which is impressive in any case. 

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the kind of trouble some people could get into with those limits lol