CLIs: Pros and Cons

[Anonymous]

Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any other pros and cons to getting a lot of CLIs?

[Ghoshida]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any cons to getting a lot CLIs?

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You may reach your internal limit with some creditors and have difficulty getting new cards without splitting limits from existing cards.

New lenders may sometimes deny you citing excessive available credit. 

[kdm31091]

Pretty much what Ghoshida said. There can be drawbacks to excessive exposure. New lenders can frown on it and not approve you, and existing ones may require you to divvy up the credit lines among cards to approve any new products.

My advice is to only go for substantial CLIs on cards you are actually going to use on a regular basis. Having a huge limit on a card that sits in the drawer is just unnecessary exposure, IMO. As long as you keep your utilization low, there's no benefit to super inflated limits. Low utilization is low regardless of how much overall credit you have.

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any other pros and cons to getting a lot of CLIs?

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The major advantage here is that people can put "$XXXXX in total CL"  in their sigs

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any other pros and cons to getting a lot of CLIs?

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The major advantage here is that people can put "$XXXXX in total CL"  in their sigs

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Now, that is funny..

[Anonymous]

CLI's can serve the purpose of enabling you to strengthen and streamline your profile.

For example, I request CLI's on certain cards because I would like to build up the credit line of that specific card, all the while keeping my overall profile in mind and the fact that CLI's on certain cards enable me to close other cards as I'm not really losing anything, and in fact am bolstering the cards that serve me best.

Also, CLI's enable to you streamline the number of cards you have. I'd rather have fewer cards with larger credit lines, and building up the credit lines of certain cards while closing others that no longer serve my purpose will assist in doing so.

During our credit lives it's important to be flexible and realize that cards that once served us well may no longer do so at a point down the road. It's part of the journey.

[Anonymous]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

Pretty much what Ghoshida said. There can be drawbacks to excessive exposure. New lenders can frown on it and not approve you, and existing ones may require you to divvy up the credit lines among cards to approve any new products.

My advice is to only go for substantial CLIs on cards you are actually going to use on a regular basis. Having a huge limit on a card that sits in the drawer is just unnecessary exposure, IMO. As long as you keep your utilization low, there's no benefit to super inflated limits. Low utilization is low regardless of how much overall credit you have.

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Ha. I don't think I would I want to deal with the headache.  At first, I was VERY tempted to but then I was thinking what if I want some sort of loan or mortgage in the next few years. I am sort of afraid that too much exposure would be a major liability and I don't want to piss the CCCs for when I actually have a urgent matter come up. 

I partially applied for the Marvel card and Discover because they are known to do minor auto-CLIs occasionally without the user engaging other than the usage level. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

CLI's can serve the purpose of enabling you to strengthen and streamline your profile.

For example, I request CLI's on certain cards because I would like to build up the credit line of that specific card, all the while keeping my overall profile in mind and the fact that CLI's on certain cards enable me to close other cards as I'm not really losing anything, and in fact am bolstering the cards that serve me best.

Also, CLI's enable to you streamline the number of cards you have. I'd rather have fewer cards with larger credit lines, and building up the credit lines of certain cards while closing others that no longer serve my purpose will assist in doing so.

During our credit lives it's important to be flexible and realize that cards that once served us well may no longer do so at a point down the road. It's part of the journey.

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Ahhh thank you for that perspective! So more of a strategic tool than a blitz attack on all the CCCs?  I like that.

[irunfromcredit]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@kdm31091 wrote:

Pretty much what Ghoshida said. There can be drawbacks to excessive exposure. New lenders can frown on it and not approve you, and existing ones may require you to divvy up the credit lines among cards to approve any new products.

My advice is to only go for substantial CLIs on cards you are actually going to use on a regular basis. Having a huge limit on a card that sits in the drawer is just unnecessary exposure, IMO. As long as you keep your utilization low, there's no benefit to super inflated limits. Low utilization is low regardless of how much overall credit you have.

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Ha. I don't think I would I want to deal with the headache.  At first, I was VERY tempted to but then I was thinking what if I want some sort of loan or mortgage in the next few years. I am sort of afraid that too much exposure would be a major liability and I don't want to piss the CCCs for when I actually have a urgent matter come up. 

I partially applied for the Marvel card and Discover because they are known to do minor auto-CLIs occasionally without the user engaging other than the usage level. 

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I couldn't agree with you more. I actually just asked to reduce some of my credit limits on a few of my cards.  I had intitially got caught up on the frenzy calling and asking for high limits, and surprised to get approved for them. At any rate, at some point, I realized I didn't need all that credit and the "what if" came into mind, so I slashed my credit limits.  I have a few high limit cards, but as another poster mentioned, I use those cards the most!

[Anonymous]

Do think carefully before slashing credit limits voluntarily. Lenders looking at your report see the CLD and don't know that it was you who initiated it. It especially looks concerning when multiple accounts show this. Just a word of caution.