Credit Cards

[Leahgrace]

Ok, I am in a ton of debt, I know that. But I am a senior in college and working a not so great job till I graduate, so I do need credit, at least for now, and I am not planning on using more, but I want to improve my credit and thus am looking for higher limits. So, my question is, should I even bother trying to get a cli or would it be a waste of an inquiry? I have almost 5 years credit history and have never missed any payments or had a late. No collections or anything on my credit. Here are my cards: Wells Fargo 5,600, 7 k limit Cap 1 0 balance 1200 limit Cap 1 2,500 balance, 3 k limit Discover 2 k balance, 3k limit Citi, 0 balance, 500 limit. Side note on my citi, it used to be a 2500 limit, but a year ago the did a cld. No reason. I was last declined for an increase 8 months ago.

[Leahgrace]

For some reason that posted as one paragraph! Sorry, no clue why

[AZHeather]

I would venture to say that increases are not likely because of your overall high utilization, but that is just my guess.

[ChrisW]

In my past experiences I've learned that CCC do not like giving CLI's when cards show high balances. If it were me I'd save the HP's and try to pay them down first.

[migliogiorni]

Unfortunately no go on the cli.  Uti to high lower it first then ya should be good.

[OptimasPrime]

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AZHeather wrote:

I would venture to say that increases are not likely because of your overall high utilization, but that is just my guess.

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Unfortunately I would have to agree. Until you get util down, creditors will see you as higher risk, and will be thus be unlikely to grant any cli requests 

That's not to say you can't try, just that you would probably not be successful 

[Revelate]

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Leahgrace wrote:
Ok, I am in a ton of debt, I know that. But I am a senior in college and working a not so great job till I graduate, so I do need credit, at least for now, and I am not planning on using more, but I want to improve my credit and thus am looking for higher limits. So, my question is, should I even bother trying to get a cli or would it be a waste of an inquiry? I have almost 5 years credit history and have never missed any payments or had a late. No collections or anything on my credit. Here are my cards: Wells Fargo 5,600, 7 k limit Cap 1 0 balance 1200 limit Cap 1 2,500 balance, 3 k limit Discover 2 k balance, 3k limit Citi, 0 balance, 500 limit. Side note on my citi, it used to be a 2500 limit, but a year ago the did a cld. No reason. I was last declined for an increase 8 months ago.

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Welcome to the forums Leah!

CLI's don't improve credit directly; the biggest thing you can do (besides never being late or under the minimum payment on a card) to help your credit score is to begin to pay down the balances.  I know that's difficult as a student with a crummy job, but you have more than enough credit cards for your report to produce a solid score, and you have fairly good limits compared to many people who stumble across this forum.  That's doubly true as a student.

In any event, I'd put any future credit applications / CLI's / etc on hold until graduation and a better job is obtained with hopefully better income.  As long as you continue to make on-time payments, your payment history will improve, and once you get your balances paid down, you'll be in a pretty eviable position.