Making sure I'm using my new Discover card the right way

[GettingBetter2015]

I just got the card two weeks ago $1000 CL, I've already run $700 through it and paid it off. Tonight, we ran $800 through it buying DH a new pretty at Gander Mountain for his birthday. Will pay it off next paycheck with his annual bonus. Should I leave any of the $800 reporting or pay it off completely too and only leave a small charge on it? I really want a nice CLI in a few months and I know mmmv, but with DH having an upcoming trip to Vegas that his company will reimburse us for, I really foresee us running about $2000 through this card every month, so the $1000 is very limiting. Ultimately I'd love to see it get to at least $3500 pretty quickly so I'm keeping my other cards utilization pretty low for the next few months with the exception of the AMEX BCE that I just got the other day as well... I've got to at least get the cash bonus on it! :-)

[NRB525]

Congratulations on DH getting the Discover card!

My experience is, the more I use it, including extremely high utilization percentages, the more they like it and the more offers I get.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Discover-CLI-6k/td-p/4504008

I'd use it up to $950 and then pay it off, regularly, seriously. If DH is setting up a trip that is reimbursed, charge as much as you can to the card, pay it down, charge it again. I would not worry about what reports on the statement, if you need to pay it off to charge something else, send the payment. When it shows the available credit, charge it again. That may result in a $0 statement report, or a $950 statement report, doesn't matter much if DH objective is to get a CLI on this card from Discover.

Check on DH Discover online account, to see if there is a CLI Request available. The language will tell you whether a SP CLI is available (no credit report will be needed) or if it is a HP.

In DH situation, where you anticipate more spend going through, he likely wants to run multiple cycles of high usage, fast payment through the card, then if no CLI link is on the account, call Discover up directly and ask if they can do a HP to give a CLI. Spend is fine, if the computer algorithm plays along, but sometimes you just have to call up and ask for what you want, and give up the HP to get it.

[GettingBetter2015]

Thanks for the good info, it's actually my card, but I added DH as AU because he will get better spend with his job sending him different places. That's how we already ran $700 through it with his airfare from going to Orlando this past week. The company will reimburse us for airfare, so we figured that's the best way to do it rather than use the cash we have on hand. This way we'll get cash back on the purchase as well as the reimbursement.
I'm waiting until the 3rd quarter bonus category to use the card at Lowe's/Home Depot since we need a new deck. The next bonus category is the hard one for us, it's rare we go out to eat and I haven't been to a movie since Guardians of the Galaxy came out a couple years ago and previous to that I hadn't been to a movie in about 6 years! (I do go out to eat with my parents frequently, but they insist on paying, so I might have to have them give me the cash money and I'll put it on the Discover card to get the cash back.)

[GettingBetter2015]

The charges seem to lag on their site too... A gas purchase from last week is still pending, is there any way to force a payment through?

[steelers1]

If your bank or credit union uses online bill pay you can force a payment to Discover.

[Broke_Triathlete]

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@GettingBetter2015 wrote:
The charges seem to lag on their site too... A gas purchase from last week is still pending, is there any way to force a payment through?

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Yea I've found that Discover takes the longest to post purchases and payments. So keep that in mind if you are needing a payment to post by the due date or trying to make a certain utlization amount post before the statement cuts.