How to SD cards and purposely reduce limit?

[Anonymous]

Okay myfico members....so I just had lunch with a couple of friends. One topic came up where my friend has a bunch of decent cards with pretty decent limits (15k-30k). He wants to purposely  request a limit reduction on some cards by calling in, I find it a bit silly. I told him I never really heard of that as its been the opposite where everyone and their mom is trying to get bigger limits as the goal. I think hes worried about " too much available credit" because he said he has a bunch of high limits and barely rotates his cards. I'm not sure if thats even a big deal? Once in a while he mentioned he'll charge like a soda on it just to keep it open. So like....$2 bucks on a 20k cards here and ther. He asked me for advice if its look frown upon by lenders if he called in and specifically told them to reduce it, or should he continue  to SD (sock drawer) all of them in hopes theyll natually CLD credit line decrease him for barely any usage on a high limit card.

In the end, it was one of the most silly but interesting questions I heard. ANd ....I didn't know how to respond or give advice I told him ill a sk the people here. Anyone have experience with credit line decreases SDing a bunch of high limit cards or does limits stay in tack regardless if theyre not being used? Or has anyone called in to request to reduce their limit purposely be reduced? Should he just leave it alone and keep the high limits and not worry about " too much avilable credit" .  Would too much avilable credit make his profile look bad?

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't SD in hopes of getting a CLD it's just as likely they will close it outright for non use.
Asking for a CLD isn't unheard of but generally there really isn't much benefit. Reducing available credit with one lender maybe but across all accts not much benefit. My overall available credit is considerably larger than my annual income has yet to be an issue.

[austinguy907]

As long as the cards are secure in a place where they aren't able to be tampered with then it shouldn't be much of an issue.  It's always nice to have a backup with a decent limit if you happen to lose your primary or whole wallet and have to wait for the replacements to show up.

The only reason I would CLD cards would be if I was worried about some fraud or ID theft to limit exposure but, you're protected on the CC from fraud charges typically.  I might CLD a single card down to $500 if I were going to keep it in the glovebox for an emergency source of funds if you happen to leave your wallet at home or need to pay for roadside assistance.

Another reason to drop your CL's down would be if you have an issue keeping your hands off them for taking cash advances on them constantly for say trips to the casino.

The only time a lender's going to question the available credit and it being an issue is typically with smaller lenders and some select CU's that may give a denial based on having enough credit on hand.

[stellar]

There's nothing wrong with CLDing his cards and there's nothing wrong with just using them occassionally for $2.  Either option is fine.  There are pros and cons to both.

People sometimes do reduce their limits to have overall less credit limits (if they feel they have too much or that a future/current creditor may think so).

Just bc everybody is doing one thing (asking for CLI's all the time) doesn't mean everyone should, or that it's good.  

Everyone's profile/lifestyle/goals are different.

And there can be more than one right answer.