Hi lydiadietz! Welcome to the forums!
As with any CLI request with any lender, YMMV with regard to the information obtained from the CSRs. Take whatever they say with a grain of salt, because you could hangup, call back, and get a completely different response from the next person that answers the phone.
I just wanted to toss in my $.02 regarding utilization. There's a difference between utilizing your card (to whatever limit) and PIFing, and utilizing your card to (whatever limit) and carrying a balance. Frequently, when I read about keeping credit card utilization "low", the writer doesn't distinguish between the two types of utilization. While any lender can and might be sensitive to both at some threshold of usage, I don't believe that keeping credit card usage under 10% when you PIF is necessary.
Let's say you have a CC with a $1000 limit. Each month you charge no more than $90 to $100 and PIF. Your utilization would definitely be low. It woudn't signal to the lender, however, that you have an "appetite" for credit, and an ability to utilize and pay back (even immediately) larger short-term loans. So, if you have a $1000 limit, and you charge and PIF $650 per month you might get the lenders attention. You'd likely be going over their secret-never-gonna-tell-ya threshold for determining that your appetite for credit has grown, and you have the discretionary income and discipline to handle larger short-term loans. They'll begin to see you as a potential source of income. Same scenario, only you don't PIF, you may begin to look risky-- perhaps with limited or negative cash flow. The higher the balance goes, and perhaps minimum payments, and the the credit line is a significant liability for the lender.
Now, this is NOT to encourage you spend more money, or money that you didn't have to spend in the first place. I just wanted to point out that high/low utilization can be viewed very differently when you're a PIF customer vs. a balance carrying customer.
