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@Anonymous wrote:
@austinguy907 wrote:There's a few... some prefer US to overseas. If you want to maximize the result w/o the PITA rejections the US team gives then use the 8173 number. I had called the US one a few times over a couple of years trying to get my Sam's MC to move and never got anywhere with them or the online request. I saw the 8173 number start trending on here with success and gave it a shot or was going to close the account. They didn't give me any static or question anything at all and came back with a bump from 11 to 25K in a matter of minutes.
Gotcha, thanks for clearing that up. I really wish I could remember which number I called; my phone history doesn't go back that far. I've dealt with so many CSRs over the last few months that I can't remember if I talked to what I would have believe to be someone overseas or in the US in this case. Regardless, I'll have my father use the number you provided first in this thread and see how he makes out.
Do you recall from your call what pieces of information they use for verification when you call? Since my father has never made one of these types of calls in his 70+ years I want to make sure I arm him with everything needs and that he's set up for success.
Back in the early summer when my TU became 'clean' for the first time in 16 years I called CS (overseas) for increases on both my Lowe's and Sam's Club MC... both times I got what I asked for ($20k). My calls were a couple of weeks apart, although some have reported calling literally back-to-back with no issues. Ironically, I think I got the same guy each time... a very distinct but easy to understand Indian accent, and friendly while at the same time completely uninterested in why I wanted the increase... they keep small-talk to minimum, at least on my two calls.
For Lowe's they only asked my income and (I think?) my monthly rent/housing costs... after a brief stint on hold the CSR came back to tell me my request was approved. For my Sam's Club MC it was the same, except that after putting me on hold they came back to ask if they could send me a code via text message. Oddly, I was asked what number to send the message to, and I gave him my number while mentioning that it was the same as on my account, although I'm not sure if that would have mattered. After sending me the code and my reading it back to him, he promptly told me my request was approved.
Note that when they ask for income they quickly go over a laundry list of sources that you're allowed to include, so it would appear that they really do want to get your request approved. 
I suspect that the reason for the text on my second call was because the Sam's Club MC is a major credit card and the possibility for abuse is perhaps higher, but this is only my own speculation. In any case, the call still only took minutes... I actually was annoyed with myself for not calling sooner. 
Let us know how things go with your father... something tells me he will be quite pleased with the results! 
@UncleB wrote:
Let us know how things go with your father... something tells me he will be quite pleased with the results!
Uncle B,
Thanks for the data involving your two experiences with CS and getting increases on your two Synchrony accounts.
So, rather disappointing news regarding my father's CLI today. First of all, his SL was $3800 not $5k which I originally must have misunderstood. When he called this morning he asked for $30k. After answering the verification questions (no text message) including his income and a brief hold they came back and countered him with $6k saying that was the best they could do 
Of course my father let me know immediately about his increase, but I could tell he was a bit let down as I had gassed him up about Synchrony CLIs and he was expecting somewhere in the $20k-$30k to be his end result.
My father asked me why I thought he was only extended $6k, and honestly I didn't have an answer for him so I figured I'd pose that question in here to pick all of your brains. He thought that his income could have held him back, but I disagreed. He's retired with a $60k income. I've seen plenty of people on this forum with income of $35k-$45k with Synchrony limits of $30k. He also thought it could be because he's only had his Amazon account for about 6 months. Again, I disagreed as I only had my Lowe's account for all of a day and was bumped up from $3k to $30k with one CS call. My scores were about 100 points off from his too at 725-730 vs 825-830.
I really can't think of any logical reason that they wouldn't extend him the big limit that he wanted. Any ideas here from anyone? His only other revolver (Chase) has a limit of $26k and is at 0-1% utilization, as is his Amazon utilization. His AAoA is > 10 years. Never any negative items. One HELOC loan. At most he's got 1 inquiry from the Amazon card; the Chase card is 20+ years old I believe and I don't believe he's applied for any other credit outside of the Amazon card in maybe 6 years when he got his last auto loan (which has been paid off for a few years now). I'm quite puzzled by this, to be honest. He knows nothing about credit and is just going off of what I tell him, so I feel like he thinks I was either misinformed or didn't quite know what I was talking about when I suggested he call and ask for a very large limit. I suggested in a few months he try again with a call perhaps to the US CS number rather than the overseas one, but I'm not quite sure he's going to be too keen on trying again after this letdown this morning.
Does he show use on the cards that he has? I know some folks in the forums like to focus on scores and utilization. Does he allow balances to report or micromanage?
@Anonymous wrote:
@UncleB wrote:Let us know how things go with your father... something tells me he will be quite pleased with the results!
Uncle B,
Thanks for the data involving your two experiences with CS and getting increases on your two Synchrony accounts.
So, rather disappointing news regarding my father's CLI today. First of all, his SL was $3800 not $5k which I originally must have misunderstood. When he called this morning he asked for $30k. After answering the verification questions (no text message) including his income and a brief hold they came back and countered him with $6k saying that was the best they could do
My father asked me why I thought he was only extended $6k, and honestly I didn't have an answer for him so I figured I'd pose that question in here to pick all of your brains. He thought that his income could have held him back, but I disagreed. He's retired with a $60k income. I've seen plenty of people on this forum with income of $35k-$45k with Synchrony limits of $30k. He also thought it could be because he's only had his Amazon account for about 6 months. Again, I disagreed as I only had my Lowe's account for all of a day and was bumped up from $3k to $30k with one CS call. My scores were about 100 points off from his too at 725-730 vs 825-830.
I really can't think of any logical reason that they wouldn't extend him the big limit that he wanted. Any ideas here from anyone? His only other revolver (Chase) has a limit of $26k and is at 0-1% utilization, as is his Amazon utilization. His AAoA is > 10 years. Never any negative items. One HELOC loan. At most he's got 1 inquiry from the Amazon card; the Chase card is 20+ years old I believe and I don't believe he's applied for any other credit outside of the Amazon card in maybe 6 years when he got his last auto loan (which has been paid off for a few years now). I'm quite puzzled by this, to be honest. He knows nothing about credit and is just going off of what I tell him, so I feel like he thinks I was either misinformed or didn't quite know what I was talking about when I suggested he call and ask for a very large limit. I suggested in a few months he try again with a call perhaps to the US CS number rather than the overseas one, but I'm not quite sure he's going to be too keen on trying again after this letdown this morning.
Well dang... I'm actually disappointed as well. I felt quite sure your father would do well with CS, but this is yet another example of how they can be quite unpredictable at times.
All we can do is speculate at this point, and I'm even hesitant to do that since as you state we've both seen people get the 'big' CLIs with Synchrony even with modest incomes - I'm one of them. The only thing that I can see that might (?) be different, at least from my own profile, is that I had 10+ open accounts and some previous Synchrony history when I requested my CLIs. Lowe's is actually my oldest account (12 years), but my Sam's Club MC was less than a year old when I got the CLI, so unless their computer 'knew' about my other Synchrony history it might not have mattered. Other than that, I had a total of 20+ accounts reporting, if you include both closed and open, so my file isn't 'thin' by most standards.
While your father's CLI wasn't has generous as any of us were hoping for, going from $3800 to $6k is still quite respectable, and tells me that Synchrony will likely be more generous in the future. Since this CLI was through CS it might be worth checking online to see if there's the option for a CLI there; I don't know if the CS increase will block an online request, but in any case it's not a HP so there's no harm in trying. Lately people have been able to get CS-level "generous" CLIs by entering the amount they want to request, so there is a precedent there.
Please stress to your father that Synchrony can be unpredictable at times, and it's not that you gave him the wrong idea of what to expect... with his score and resources you had all reason to think that a large CLI would be possible, and it should have been.
I'm still hopeful that his next request will have better results, even if it won't be in time for the purchase he's wanting to make right now.
Not sure if the Amazon card has a cli request option in the online account. I just confirmed while paying my bill, calling in is not necessary to get the highest CL on the Lowe's card without POI. Simply do it from the account.
@UncleB wrote:Well dang... I'm actually disappointed as well. I felt quite sure your father would do well with CS, but this is yet another example of how they can be quite unpredictable at times.
All we can do is speculate at this point, and I'm even hesitant to do that since as you state we've both seen people get the 'big' CLIs with Synchrony even with modest incomes - I'm one of them. The only thing that I can see that might (?) be different, at least from my own profile, is that I had 10+ open accounts and some previous Synchrony history when I requested my CLIs. Lowe's is actually my oldest account (12 years), but my Sam's Club MC was less than a year old when I got the CLI, so unless their computer 'knew' about my other Synchrony history it might not have mattered. Other than that, I had a total of 20+ accounts reporting, if you include both closed and open, so my file isn't 'thin' by most standards.
While your father's CLI wasn't has generous as any of us were hoping for, going from $3800 to $6k is still quite respectable, and tells me that Synchrony will likely be more generous in the future. Since this CLI was through CS it might be worth checking online to see if there's the option for a CLI there; I don't know if the CS increase will block an online request, but in any case it's not a HP so there's no harm in trying. Lately people have been able to get CS-level "generous" CLIs by entering the amount they want to request, so there is a precedent there.
Please stress to your father that Synchrony can be unpredictable at times, and it's not that you gave him the wrong idea of what to expect... with his score and resources you had all reason to think that a large CLI would be possible, and it should have been.
I'm still hopeful that his next request will have better results, even if it won't be in time for the purchase he's wanting to make right now.
Interesting point regarding other Synchrony accounts. Using myself as an example, prior to getting my Lowe's card this past summer I did have two Synchrony accounts... both Care Credit, one open and one closed. The open one at the time had a 60 day late and 30 day late payment and the closed one had a 120 day late payment. So, while I did have previous experience with Synchrony, I wouldn't say it was the most favorable. Still they extended me $30k. I'm not sure how many accounts my father has on his credit report currently, but I would guess in the neighborhood of 8-10 since he's got 3 open ones currently and I can think of at least 4 others that he's closed in the last 4-5 years. I'm sure there are a few others that I don't know about. Maybe it is just one of those fluke outlier situations that can't be explained, but it would be interesting to see if he's able to raise it some more via the online method if there is one for Amazon cardholders.