Stuck with low limit cards

[visorboy1974]

Congrats Tony on the 2 recent approvals.  Let those cards age!!!  I have some good news and some bad news for you...  

I'll start with the bad news for you...

The cards you currently have will not get you much in the form of CLIs.  You might get $100 here or $250 there, but in general, they won't grow like you want them to. Back about 14 months ago I had 4 HSBC/Orchard cards that had a total CL of $1800, 2 CapOne cards with total CLs of $3000, A few GEMB cards that totaled about $2500 and Dell Financial Services that had a CL of $1500.  

Fast Forward to today:  

I have 8 cards with a total credit limit of $76K (reports $96K with the PSECU PSL/VISA).  All it took was one approval for a card and a 5 digit limit and the floodgates opened for CLIs and new opportunities.  My current CLs are:  $22K, $20K, $15K, $7K, $6K, $3K and $3K.  Every card I had that was subprime has either been upgraded to a better offering or closed.  

  I filed for BK7 back in '06 so many prime banks won't touch me, but in going the CU route as well as some retail cards and Barclays, I was able to get back into the better limits.  Ask Barclays for a CLI every 6 months, keep your payments up to date and let those inquiries age.  You'll be on your way.  GOOD LUCK!  

[LS2982]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So here's my situation, I'm rebuilding my credit, didn't know much about credit made some bad choices and destroyed my credit. I'm on the recovery path and currently have FICOs in the mid 600s, only one recent 30 day late and that's about to hit two years, very low debt ratio, only one credit pull (well three was rate shopping auto) in the last year.

Now, my current credit cards are:

HSBC 520CL

Orchard 300CL

Best Buy(HSBC) 300CL

FPB 800CL

Cap1 750CL

Cap1 800CL

Amex Pref Gold Charge Card

Care Credit 4100CL (cosigner)

I have strong income, about $120,000 but due to my bad early credit have low limits on my cards, the credit limits I've received on these cards have all been small in the 100-200 range. My amex I charge 2-5k a month on and payoff no problems.

What I want to know is what's the best approach for getting credit cards with decent limits on them? Should I try getting better increases on current cards? Apply for a new card (just fear getting another 300CL starter card), do I need to wait to get into the 700FICO range.

It just seems that the credit card companies are only lending what I've already got.

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What is your AAoA and the individual age of each card account?

[roughdraff]

yea h, i believe the best thing to to do is get a secured card with a higher limit, that possibly don't report as secured. Cap one has a 3k limit and once you reach that limit close all small limit card's and keep perhap's one so at time's your out to dinner and hand someone your card, you jus dnt want to hand someone a 5k limit card. Rather a 300 one. 500 cards hurt your increase power for some reason. Once, that high limit reflects it will gather there attention.