Decreases CL's on other cards after new approval?

[Anonymous]

Well I'm pretty annoyed right now.  I just got approved for a 28k Chase unlimited CL last week.  Today I get a letter in mail, showing my 20k southwest credit line is reduced to 6k, and my Sapphire got reduced from 28k to 14k.  Has this happend to anyone else before?  Any action I can do to reverse this?  So basically my net CL increase is ziltch!

[AverageJoesCredit]

Looks like you hit your internal limit with them and inly gave you your third card by pulling credit from the other 2. Sucks but at least you can still move limits around

[Anonymous]

Yeah the 2 cards they did it from are actually cards with annual fees I may remove before the next fee hits.  If I cancel a card can they remove the remaining line of that card over too?

[CreditMagic7]

Sorry to hear about this but looks like a squeeze is on across some main lenders lately for some reason.

Maybe internal limit thresholds are being lowered. No other explanation i can see for this.

[wasCB14]

I can understand Chase asking you to move some credit...or moving a small amount without consulting you...but that reallocation seems very aggressive.

Isn't the minimum CL for the Unlimited only $5k or something? Why wouldn't they just move $5k?

[HeavenOhio]

We've seen posts about Chase doing this before. They seem to have a maximum credit line in mind for people, but despite that, they're happy to issue a new card.

I think the trick here is to make sure that any Chase balances are low when you apply. That way, you'll avoid any utilization issues. Then once you're approved, call and reshuffle limits according to what works best for you.

If I remember correctly, AMEX might do this too.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I don't cary any balances, everything always paid in full every month.  

[HeavenOhio]

Chase is very friendly about reporting. They would have reported your previous balances and limits as of the last statement. If you pay to zero mid-cycle, they'll report again, and the zero balance will show up on your reports in a couple of days. If you haven't addressed utilization proactively, it's easy enough to address retroactively.