I dont think anyone has figured out the secret sauce they use to determine CL. I have 5 accounts, all have great credit lines with no balances, and Discover would only give me 3k, yet my wife got 20k with the exact same income from them for SL. Sometimes I wonder if they just throw darts at the wall to determine starting lines.
@azg74747 wrote:I'm carrying a portfolio of probably some 20 cards, and my AAofA is not the best, only 4 years (oldest card is 8 years). So I am really trying to be selective in opening cards, especially now that I can afford to do that. But my last card - a Citibank Rewards Plus - gave me a ridiculous CL of $1000. If I had any idea that would happen I would not even have opened it. Is there a way to predict this? Also, I have two other Citibank cards with zero balance but they do not allow CL consolidation (I called twice). Would appreciate any pointers that may be relevant.
No, there's no way to predict it.
Unsolicited advice: when you get a relatively small starting limit, you should take that as a sign that your approval was marginal, and that it's time to take a breather from applying for things.
Depending on the issuer, these are some things that may affect SL:
-Credit score
-Utilization
-Delinquency
-Length of credit history
-Length of revolving credit history
-Thickness of credit file
-Amount of existing TCL with this issuer
-Amount of existing TCL with other issuers
-Individual CL's of existing cards
-DTI
-Time on job
-Time at current address
-Velocity of recent applications
That said, it will probably be difficult for anyone not working in underwriting at that issuer to say how exactly these and other factors would come together to determine SL in any particular case.
is right. From reading the forums and also facebook groups you do kinda get a feel of what they will give you. Older systems with prepprovals really helped too from AMEX to Discover/Sam's Club. I don't know why they got rid of it. But say it's def. income based and how much you already have with the creditor.
Say for example your income is 60K, then most lenders will only will loan out a total of 30K total credit to you. The only exception I see from this is Discover and Bank of America. It's not exact science but sort of like saying if you are the "ideal" candidate you would get 100% of your total SL, and then get docked down for attributes.
I'm sure they all prefer 0/24 or under 5/24 rules as well. Or more precise under 2/6 or 2/12 rule for sure. I'm sure they looking at usage/carrying a balance as well as someone whom is gonna use the product. Banking really determines alot as well. I used to get very low CLI with Discover and chase, until I did banking with them. Suddenly I'm getting 2K-5K + CLI as compared to years ago with $500-2000 CLI.
Since you are high velocity I assume you will probably be in that bracket where they put all the baddies. I know this one facebook guy once you get in the $500-$1000 SL club, it's VERY hard to get out until you get higher FICO score, income or SLOW YOUR FLOW. Honestly I would prefer just 3-5 cards with 30K CL instead of 20+ with $500-2500 CL. From reading I know lots of these credit collectors always get asked, "why do you have so much credit cards?" lmao.
it seems like they all use the same algo. Once Chase or w/e gives you only 7K, almost all the other credit companies give you 7K as well or less. I know I was in that "low income" under 3K SL bracket for awhile as well until i came upon Discover and Amex. It's so hard for creditors to respect you until u get that 750+ fico score and 2-5 cards under your belt.
Take a look at the approvals on this site and see if they align with your financial profile.
There really is no way to know.
My last 4 cards SL in order:
26k
2k
10k
13k
makes no sense
