Thanks for all the advice! I will try to hold off on applications in this case. I am still tempted to go for the BofA CLI request though. I buy international air tickets once every few months, and it sucks to have to put them on a debit card because they don't fit within my credit limit. If I'm stubbornly adamant on that, what kind of CLI should I be asking for? Would calling or doing it online be a better choice?
The $2k-3k spending for the signing bonuses shouldn't be a huge problem, if I time the applications and my air ticket purchases right.
And it does look like the SM will indeed be a better card than the BCE for my spending. I am still leading more towards the Amex though, if only for the fact that their account age policy might be beneficial in the long-term if I get more of their cards in the future. How generous is SM with credit limits?
Anyone? Is it really that inadvisable to have an extra HP at this point?
@Commutator wrote:Anyone? Is it really that inadvisable to have an extra HP at this point?
One extra HP isn't going to hurt much, especially if its just on one of your reports. Its when you start applying for more cards, and getting dings for multiple HP and multiple new credit lines, all of which are toy limits because you couldn't wait for you scored to recover... thats when it really hurts. Then 6-12 months later instead of applying for more high limit cards, you instead are forced to waste HP after HP to slowly increase each of the toy limits, etc...
Occasionally using a HP to increase your existing credit limits, especially when you don't have many that need increasing, can be a very good idea. A HP only effects your credit score for 1 year, the effect diminishes as the year goes on, and it only dings you on the reports that are actually pulled.
