Sallie Mae doesn't seem to want to grow with me. Anybody else have this problem?

[renclan]

I have had my Sallie Mae card since January. They gave me a startiing limit of $500. I have done a credit limit increase request and was offered $300. I felt insulted so I declined lol. I don't understand why they aren't offering a more reasonable increase. I am below 10% utilization on all my cards with many having a 0 balance. I have no new credit lines, no new inquiries. With the limits I have on other cards, I just don't get it. I am thinking of just closing the card rather than wasting another hard pull. If I am going to do a hard pull, I would rather it be on a new card with someone else. Any opinions or ideas?

[kdm31091]

Some lenders are just like this sometimes. Everyone goes on about how generous Comenity is, but my BJs MC has barely grown in a year.

If you have no real use or huge benefit from Sallie Mae, I'd just close it rather than keep wasting HPs for tiny increases. You have plenty of other good cards.

[happypill]

How much spend do you put through your card each month?  If you close your account, will you miss the 5% categories?

[Closingracer99]

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@renclan wrote:

I have had my Sallie Mae card since January. They gave me a startiing limit of $500. I have done a credit limit increase request and was offered $300. I felt insulted so I declined lol. I don't understand why they aren't offering a more reasonable increase. I am below 10% utilization on all my cards with many having a 0 balance. I have no new credit lines, no new inquiries. With the limits I have on other cards, I just don't get it. I am thinking of just closing the card rather than wasting another hard pull. If I am going to do a hard pull, I would rather it be on a new card with someone else. Any opinions or ideas?

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I have the NFL extra points card which is the same bank so I can tell you my expeirence with the bank at least. I got a $500 limit and after spending $500 on it to make the bonus I basically put it in my SD because the limit was $500. Around March I think I got an auto CLI to $2,000. I do have a lot of inqs on my reports at the time of the increase ( a lot of them have fallen off now). I had 1 card ( Chase Slate) showing usage around 38% of it's CL: $1,800 of my $5,000 limit which I am carrying at the moment with 0% APR. Overall my util is 1% though. Honestly I would just wait and see with Barclay's.

[pip3man]

For the first 6months I had my Barclay Arrival card I never got any CLI or whatsoever despite seeing others getting increases around the 6th month. Well on my 8th statement I just paid off the remaining balance in full to basically SD the card. To my surprise the same night the statement cut, they doubled my credit limit. Meanwhile day after day I would call them and no offer available for me. So what I'm trying to arrive at is, PATIENCE is the key when it comes to issues like this.

[longtimelurker]

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@happypill wrote:

How much spend do you put through your card each month?  If you close your account, will you miss the 5% categories?

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This.    My Sallie Mae is my lowest limit by far, but this is a low cap card. So providing you are not near the max of $1,250 per month, $800 seems OK (although you would want to pay before statement cut to reduce a util hit).    But if your spend is small, you are not getting much value, so closing might be the right thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Barclays is like Chase I've read that they combine limits pretty easily. If you are low inquries try for the nfl. They gave me 5k SL when others gave 1500. I would love to open a Sallie Mae and do this but I burned a lot of inquiries.

[renclan]

I probably put about $1000-$1200 through it per month. I use it only for groceries and gas. It's annoying because I have to make like five payments a month because the darn limit is so low. 

[renclan]

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@happypill wrote:

How much spend do you put through your card each month?  If you close your account, will you miss the 5% categories?

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The categories are the best compared to other cards, but my Amex is pretty comparable and less hassle.

[renclan]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

Some lenders are just like this sometimes. Everyone goes on about how generous Comenity is, but my BJs MC has barely grown in a year.

If you have no real use or huge benefit from Sallie Mae, I'd just close it rather than keep wasting HPs for tiny increases. You have plenty of other good cards.

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The only benefit is that I get the $25 reward every month because of the categories. I just wish it had a higher limit because everytime I charge it, I am afraid it screws up my utilization because the limit is so low. One grocery trip takes up half the limit.