How are CL/CLI decided?

[Anonymous]

I have never seen this question answered in this forum before.  I have read of people getting huge CL or increases many times.  I have also heard that income is not a factor in credit scores anyway.  How do they decide to set a credit limit?  Why would I be approved for $2000 max and others in the tens of thousands?

[Anonymous]

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creditcrazy wrote:

I have never seen this question answered in this forum before.  I have read of people getting huge CL or increases many times.  I have also heard that income is not a factor in credit scores anyway.  How do they decide to set a credit limit?  Why would I be approved for $2000 max and others in the tens of thousands?

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If you have low limits on existing lines, it can be tough to get a lender to give you a fairly large CL.  Most of the time, lenders don't want to be the first to take a chance with a very large CL.  Once you have a large CL, however, others tend to follow.

Income does not count in credit scores, but it is taken into account by lenders, especially when it comes to determining initial CLs and future CLIs.

For large CLs, IME the primary factors are existing CLs, income, and scores, in that order.

Message Edited by cheddar on 05-19-2008 07:07 PM

[Creditaddict]

I think you will see the largest CLI if you use a good portion of your current CL but pay almost all of your balance each month.

[FretlessMayhem]

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@Creditaddict wrote:

I think you will see the largest CLI if you use a good portion of your current CL but pay almost all of your balance each month.

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From what I've read here, that's the way to go for big CLIs with Amex and GEMB in particular.