@h4ldol wrote:Hi folks, love this board because it's fun to see so much useful and fun info about credit, which has become something of a hobby (or obsession, rather) for me in the past few years. Anyway, I thought I would share some of my past credit experiences, including recent ones, to add to the sizable knowledge base of this board. I have six CC now (listed below) and a BofA line of credit (gold option load).
1. Discover ($20,000)
- Opened in early 1990s as a college freshman.
- Never asked for a CLI (until recently), steadily grew with auto-CLI to $12,600.
- Read that up to $15,000 they would approve or not without a hard pull, but when I called (online acct told me to call). When I called to request an increase (but did not specify a target CL), they told me that I would need a hard pull, so after some deliberation I agreed. The CLI dept called this morning and asked how much I wanted to increase it to (I said $20,000) and after some questions (and hard pull already done) and told me that the computer system auto-approved a $500 increase, and that they could increase it manually another $5,000 (for a total of $5,500), but that I would need to have income verification to get it to $20,000, which I agreed to. Within an hour it went to $20,000.
2. Sony (Capital One) Card ($6,900)
- Opened in early 1990s as well, originally was a Citibank card.
- Switched to Sony Card circa 2001 when Sony was affiliated with Citi, and then of course they promptly sold it to another bank which later transfered to Chase and finally to Capital One.
- CL steadily increased over the years (can't remember how high but probably under $10,000) until it dropped to $6,900 at some point some 6+ years ago for a reason I can't recall).
- Requested CLI recently but after providing info they told me that I was not eligible, but didn't ask for (nor did I suggest) a hard pull.
3. AMEX Gold Card (n/a)
- Opened in the late 2000s.
- I checked the potential spending limit on their website and was approved for $25,000 (but didn't try a higher number).
- I plan to close this one sometime this year due to not wanting to keep pay the AF.
4. BofA Cash Rewards Signature VISA ($15,000)
- Opened last month, approved for $15,000 (I have a checkings/savings/gold option line of credit with them). I think they hard pulled Experian.
- Plan to request CLI to $20,000 later this year.
5. Citibank Diamond Preferred MC ($8,300)
- Opened last month (the day after the BofA card), approved for $8,300. They hard pulled Equifax.
- Given that Citi has a reputation for pulling hard for CLI requests, I will probably let this one auto increase for now.
6. AMEX BCE ($10,000)
- Opened several days after the above two cards, gave me the "wait 7-10 days" message but when I checked the status online a few minutes later it said it was approved. 2 weeks later I got the card finally and found that I was approved for $10,000. I think they hard pulled Equifax too.
- Plan on requesting periodically (at 61 days and 6 months after that) up to $20,000.
7. BofA Gold Option Loan ($17,200)
- It is basically a line of credit, opened in mid-2000s, limit is $17,200 now. Originally was $20,000+ but went down after the financial crisis several years ago to $17,200.
- Paid off a few months ago.
Credit Scores/History and Impact on them
- Equifax prior to the three new cards last month was about 749. About 10 days or so after the three new cards my Equifax score dropped to about 724. Then yesterday, it rose up to about 768. Even though the new inquiries (only one actually from Citi) and new credit cards negatively affected the score, it seems the new higher limits with lower utilization (went from 20s to around 7%) more than offset the drop to result in a higher score.
- Transunion yesterday (don't have one from before, wish you could order past credit scores!) was 746 even though there are no inquiries on TU.
- Experian doesn't offer scores/reports on MyFico but I think I got something in the mail from BofA and/or AMEX that showed about 748 scores when they pulled it for my application. I did check the 'vantage' scores though, after the new accounts were approved, and they were in the low 800s with 'prime plus' (or something like that, the second highest level) and B+ rating as I recall (I'll have to check this later at home).
- Only real negative (baddie?) on my record is a 60+ day late (it shows as 120+ day late on one report) on all three records from 6+ years ago (wll drop off this year), from when I was traveling abroad for several months and didn't realize I overdrew from my line of credit from a since-closed account (WAMU).
- Otherwise, no mortgage history and extremely large student loan debt (but paying off since 7 months ago on time).
- All cards are PIF every month with no balances carrying over.
Very nice cards and CL's!!!!!
Congrats!!!!
Nice work!
I can only hope my credit looks like yours in the future 
Nice cards and especially nice limits!!
@crunching_numbers wrote:OOhhh... I have CL envy.....
Very nice. May I ask your HHI?
Way to break in the new guy/gal and send e'm scrambling for the 'Common Abbreviations' thread 
@jdogi wrote:
@crunching_numbers wrote:OOhhh... I have CL envy.....
Very nice. May I ask your HHI?
Way to break in the new guy/gal and send e'm scrambling for the 'Common Abbreviations' thread
