There are no universal rules. Creditors vary in what they're willing to extend to any given credit profile and they also have differing policies on when CLI's can be requested. You really just need to read up for each of your creditors. As I said, there are 2 pieces to answering your question. First, your credit profile and income have to qualify for a CLI. Second, you have meet the creditor's policy requirements on when you can make the request.
@Anonymous wrote:
Equifax has bounced from 590s to 630s over the past few weeks, very unstable. Credit Karma readings show 620s to 640s. Capital One's credit tracker in the 620s.
For any score you need to consider the specific scoring model, CRA and relevance of the combo to a given creditor. When you say "Equifax" are you referring to your Equifax FICO 8 score from myFICO? Or scores received from Equifax? If from Equifax itself, from which product? Equifax provides both FAKO's and FICO's depending on which product you're purchasing from them. Also keep in mind that Equifax is only one of the 3 majors. Your reports and scores with the other two matter as well.
Credit Karma won't be relevant unless you know you have creditors that use the TU and/or EQ VantageScores that CK provides. Really, the same applies to any scoring model -- even FICO's. If, for example, you have a creditor that uses an Experian FICO 8 then that's the only score that matters for that creditor. See also the Understanding FICO Scoring subforum and its stickies about the different FICO models used by creditors. Capital One's Credit Tracker provides TransUnion New Account scores and no creditor uses those.
@Anonymous wrote:
I do not want my secured card anymore but it is also my 2nd oldest account on my credit history to a credit union card I had straight out of high school that I closed but they left opened on my credit report. The secured card had a rocky payment history for a few months in the middle of last year and i can't seem to find answers on whether it would help or hurt me to close it or leave it open?
Take a look at the Closing Credit Cards thread linked in the Helpful Threads sticky in this subforum. You have 3 non-secured cards. General advice is at least 2-3 card for scoring purposes so you don't need the secured card in that regard. The thread I mention will point out that closing a card does not immediately impact your Average Age of Accounts. Closing will not change the Payment History. You may want to hit the Rebuilding subforum and see if there's anything you can do to address any issues with the Payment History as it is the biggest factor:
http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx
@Anonymous wrote:
On a whim I requested to increase the limit of my secured capital one card, which has 14 months now of timely payments well over the minimum balance
The only thing that the minimum matters for is the least required to keep your account current. It's your revolving utilization that really matters when assessing your credit. If you're carrying balances then work on a budget and sticking to it or else it will be impossible to make long term progress.
@Anonymous wrote:
I'm not really planning on using the cards very heavily
...and don't rely so much on usage. Usage may help in some cases but primary factors will always be your credit profile and income. Usage will not overrule those factors nor make or break a CLI on its own. People seem to tend to assume far too much causality with usage and CLI's IMO.
@Anonymous wrote:
my wife has tossed the idea around on either the Quicksilver or the Doublecash of using it for groceries and bills to capitalize on the cashback but I'd like to keep the utilization low. Right now from what I have read on here I ultimately don't have the card I want but for the next couple of years I will sit tight with what I have and would like to increase the limits so my utilization for groceries and such purchases doesn't get very high.
You can always pay the balance down just prior to report date to reduce the reported balance and utilization. Most cards report on statement date. I'm not sure if that applies to Citi or not.
You definitely have to pay every statement balance in full if you're looking to earn rewards.
