Should I just close my Sallie Mae cc?

[renclan]

Hi everyone! I wanted some advice. I've had a Sallie Mae card for almost a year. It started with a low cl of $300. I wasn't sure as to the reason it was so low, but figured it was because I had added two new cc's the month before. Since it opened, I was able to gripe and moan and convinced them to give me a soft pull cli. Unfortunately, it is now only up to $700. I am wondering if I should just close it because I rarely use it anymore because it's too much of a hassle to make a bunch of payments on it to keep the utilization down. I think I also read on here that they don't even offer this card anymore. I was thinking that it's probably not going to grow and maybe they want me to do a product change. I have no desire in apping though because I am happy with my current cards and use my Amex and Discover mostly. I also don't want a hard pull. I am afraid that the low limit will affect my cli's on other cards that I want to build. What do you guys think? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I am rebuilding myself so can't comment much on what to expect. I do know that Barclay refuses to give the an auto-CLI but oh well, that is there choice. At this point I keep my barclay card because it helps with my history. If it wasn't for that I would get rid of it as the 1500 limit is not much useful. But it has a place in my wallet.

In your scenario where you have other cards at your disposal, I would just close it and move on.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure why you would need to make a bunch of payments. Groceries and gas are capped at $250 each per month, which is $200 less than the limit. For utilization purposes, just make one payment right before statement cut. Unless you're doing a lot of shopping on Amazon?

[core]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm not sure why you would need to make a bunch of payments. Groceries and gas are capped at $250 each per month, which is $200 less than the limit. For utilization purposes, just make one payment right before statement cut. Unless you're doing a lot of shopping on Amazon?

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Yeah I would be absolutely stoked if they could give me a card with just $250 on it.  Sadly that is no longer possible.  And one is not going to be stuck in low limit hell with 4x $10k cards reporting!  Sounds to me like someone is just upset at Barclays.  Don't get emotional about credit cards.  Take their money and run!

[Callandra]

Do you use the card a lot? If it's useless to you, I would say go ahead and close it (but remember, you may never be able to get another one!).

Also, what is the length of your credit history? Barclays is kind of conservative and while your scores are decent in the low 700s, they may you feel you have enough credit for you current credit file/income at this time. 

[Themanwhocan]

Barclays tends to give  a percentage increase for CLI's. So if a card has a low limit, it will increase relatively slowly.

Keep the card, and when your scores are high and you haven't applied for anything in ideally 6 months, apply for another Barclay card, perhaps an Arrival+ for the sign up bonus. Continue to request SP CLI's every 6 months on both cards via the APR trick. Then move the limit to the Salie Mae card and close the Arrival+ before the annual fee hits.

[Gunnar419]

+1 to what themanwhocan said.

You know that the Sallie Mae can't be gotten any more and it's a great card for those basic everyday expenses (plus AMAZON). I'd hang onto it. You can check periodically to see if they have any offers on the card like lowered APRs or SP CLIs. Or as others have said, just wait until you're in the best possible shape and risk taking an HP for a CLI.

I started with a relatively low limit on my Sallie, too. Not as low as yours, but way lower than any of my other cards. I'm now at $12k, and my last CLI was 3.33X! That was worth that HP I took.

[Anonymous]

If it were me; I would keep it. As stated before, the card is valuable for basic gas and groceries up to the $250 cap per month as well as amazon purchases capped at $750. With your limit, you would be able to make maximum usage monthly.  Secondly, as you know the card is no longer issued and few cards at the moment give out the SM gas rewards.

IME, I was approved after recon for my SM with a $2k sl.  I closed out my Apple rewards card and moved that limit over to the SM, bring it to a $5.7k sl.  3 months later I received a bt offer from them and used it as an excuse to shoot for a cli.  It cost my a hp, but I was able to get a $4.3k cli bring the SM cl to an even $10k.  Just something to consider.

[Ghoshida]

There's a Barclays SP CLI thread in the CC Applications forum. Follow the directions and get yourself an APR reduction and an SP CLI.

[mitchblue]

$300 to $700 is over 200%. That's a good jump. Might not seem like much but as one person said above a small starting CL, you get small CLI. It's a good card with no AF. I see no reason why you'd close it.