Who "likes" to match limits?

[longtimelurker]

---

@jonald11 wrote:

Here is my experience with matching limits, for what it's worth. All since June.

I had the Chase United at $10,000 and Freedom at $6,400. I applied for the Barclay's Arrival and was approved for $12,500, becoming my new largest limit. Barclay's reported immediatly on my report, even before I got the card and activated it. A few days later  I applied for a AMEX BCP got a credit limit of $16,400 -- which topped Barclay and exactly matched my combined Chase Freedom and United Explorer limits. To the penny.

Yesterday I was approved for the CSP with a credit line of $17,000, barely beating out the AMEX. 

I only have five credit cards -- Arrival, Freedom, BCP, Explorer (which I will now close) and the new Sapphire Preferred -- and it seems as though they really are jockying with each other to top the highest limit by a small amount. Has anyone else experienced this? 

---

I think this is looking for patterns where they may not exist!  You stress that the BCP matched the "combined" limits "to the penny."  First question is why look at the combined limit.   Then note the Arrival didn't do that, and the amount has no obvious relationship to your Chase cards, why didn't the BCP match Chase+Barclays, and the CSP do Barclays+Amex etc.

This can simply be that your reports are getting better and so your CLs are going up, up to a point.

It's just that if you look at a lot of people, the experience varies greatly.  For me, Chase certainly didn't attempt to match Cap One or Amex for example, Cap One matched my Bank of America card, my second Citi card was lower than my first, third and fourth Citi cards etc.  Just too much variation!

[FinStar]

---

@longtimelurker wrote:

---

@jonald11 wrote:

Here is my experience with matching limits, for what it's worth. All since June.

I had the Chase United at $10,000 and Freedom at $6,400. I applied for the Barclay's Arrival and was approved for $12,500, becoming my new largest limit. Barclay's reported immediatly on my report, even before I got the card and activated it. A few days later  I applied for a AMEX BCP got a credit limit of $16,400 -- which topped Barclay and exactly matched my combined Chase Freedom and United Explorer limits. To the penny.

Yesterday I was approved for the CSP with a credit line of $17,000, barely beating out the AMEX. 

I only have five credit cards -- Arrival, Freedom, BCP, Explorer (which I will now close) and the new Sapphire Preferred -- and it seems as though they really are jockying with each other to top the highest limit by a small amount. Has anyone else experienced this? 

---

I think this is looking for patterns where they may not exist!  You stress that the BCP matched the "combined" limits "to the penny."  First question is why look at the combined limit.   Then note the Arrival didn't do that, and the amount has no obvious relationship to your Chase cards, why didn't the BCP match Chase+Barclays, and the CSP do Barclays+Amex etc.

This can simply be that your reports are getting better and so your CLs are going up, up to a point.

It's just that if you look at a lot of people, the experience varies greatly.  For me, Chase certainly didn't attempt to match Cap One or Amex for example, Cap One matched my Bank of America card, my second Citi card was lower than my first, third and fourth Citi cards etc.  Just too much variation!

---

+1

[Revelate]

---

@longtimelurker wrote:

---

@w20031424 wrote:

Amex likes to beat other cards, and Chase likes to beat Amex cards.

---

And you say that because....?

---

It's a lot of bunk and anecdotal evidence when everyone's credit report is different, and every lender views said individual's credit report slightly differently than every other lender too.  It's likely impossible as you and others have stated to pull out any statistically meaningful result on this one.

I think it's somewhat fair to say that Amex and Chase are competitors, and I strongly suspect that having one of them on one's credit report is a potential benefit in borderline approvals for the other.  Beyond that it's hard to say, I'm guessing i'll get countered by Amex into the 15-16K range when I go for my third 3X CLI, and the eventual CSP presumed approval would still likely be in the 5K range in my case as I've wrapped my arms around Amex and their CLI policy to build what I consider to be a quality revolving tradeline on my credit report.

[enharu]

---

@FinStar wrote:

---

@longtimelurker wrote:

---

@jonald11 wrote:

Here is my experience with matching limits, for what it's worth. All since June.

I had the Chase United at $10,000 and Freedom at $6,400. I applied for the Barclay's Arrival and was approved for $12,500, becoming my new largest limit. Barclay's reported immediatly on my report, even before I got the card and activated it. A few days later  I applied for a AMEX BCP got a credit limit of $16,400 -- which topped Barclay and exactly matched my combined Chase Freedom and United Explorer limits. To the penny.

Yesterday I was approved for the CSP with a credit line of $17,000, barely beating out the AMEX. 

I only have five credit cards -- Arrival, Freedom, BCP, Explorer (which I will now close) and the new Sapphire Preferred -- and it seems as though they really are jockying with each other to top the highest limit by a small amount. Has anyone else experienced this? 

---

I think this is looking for patterns where they may not exist!  You stress that the BCP matched the "combined" limits "to the penny."  First question is why look at the combined limit.   Then note the Arrival didn't do that, and the amount has no obvious relationship to your Chase cards, why didn't the BCP match Chase+Barclays, and the CSP do Barclays+Amex etc.

This can simply be that your reports are getting better and so your CLs are going up, up to a point.

It's just that if you look at a lot of people, the experience varies greatly.  For me, Chase certainly didn't attempt to match Cap One or Amex for example, Cap One matched my Bank of America card, my second Citi card was lower than my first, third and fourth Citi cards etc.  Just too much variation!

---

+1

---

+2.

There's no real tangible benefit in lenders trying to match or "better" their competitors' CL.

Just because they gave you 500-1000 more in credit than competitor X isn't going to make you "love" that bank more or want to use their product more, especially if their product is subpar to competitor X's. Sure, it might make you a little happier for a few minutes to a few days, but it's not going to drastically alter you spending pattern just because they gave you a little more.

Lenders sometimes evaluate your CL based on your current limits simply because if you're already doing okay with 9k CL, then what it means is that you're okay with handling around 9k in credit on a single tradeline. Assuming no other complications, such as a derog-free credit report, income not being a limiting factor, or not having a high DTI, lenders may just issue you a CL around that amount simply because it's a "safe" bet for them.

[longtimelurker]

For those in the business, how are underwriters evaluated?   I would assume that giving approval to a person who then causes a large chargeoff is negative, but are there also targets such as approve X accounts this year (or, less likely perhaps, approve $Y in new credit lines)?  

In my telecom company there is always a huge battle between marketing, who want as many people to use our systems as possible, and regulatory, who would rather than no-one was entitled to access the systems to avoid liabilities!

[Alkalinem0n0]

---

@xerostatus wrote:

---

@longtimelurker wrote:

Lots of people here, lots of lenders.  In the past we have found, for (nearly) every lender, there are people where the CL with that lender was the highest, in the middle, the lowest.

Now there may be patterns that Lender X is a little more likely than Lender Y, but we haven't seen anything like proof of this, just individual anecdotes that are countered by the experience of the next person.

Also, as I have posted before, there is too much confounding.   I have two cards and I get a third, and that third is my highest CL.   One reason for it being my highest CL is that my record is good right now.  I apply for a CLI on one of my original cards, and they match (or nearly match or exceed) the high CL.  Are they "matching"?  Or just looking at the same credit record and reaching the same assessment?

---

I agree with everything you're saying, which is why I think i should clarify my question a bit:

Has anyone "explicity" requested a CLI (or a CL recon upon approval) and state the reason being "because your competitor so-and-so is giving me ___ limit" and what was their response?

"Well, we dont give a hoot-n-a-half what our competitor is doing, so blow off."

"Well, we dont give a hoot-n-a-half what our competitor is doing, but we can see you want this increase so we'll let you have it"

OR

"Really? Those rotten [competitor] underwriters are giving you how much? Well, that just wont do." and then.. "shuddup n take our money!!"

---

 When I applied for a discover it last week I got through to a second level rep (i dont have a SSN so they needed to verify my ITIN and my identity) so anyways she asked why I wanted the card and i said well i was going to get the chase freedom but it doesnt offer no foreign transaction fees.

and the rep seemed so smug and proud about it! then starting going on about how the discover it was a great card. and Im just there think ok approve the bloody card i know all this **bleep** thats why i applied for it!

always find it funny when people get competitive about other companies when they just do a job.

maybe its because im mercenary and dont care what the company does as long as i get paid.

anyways to get back to my point i would imagine there are some reps that when hearing what they other company is offering their pride might kick in and get them to change the CL or exceed a compeditors CL.

[enharu]

---

@longtimelurker wrote:

For those in the business, how are underwriters evaluated?   I would assume that giving approval to a person who then causes a large chargeoff is negative, but are there also targets such as approve X accounts this year (or, less likely perhaps, approve $Y in new credit lines)?  

In my telecom company there is always a huge battle between marketing, who want as many people to use our systems as possible, and regulatory, who would rather than no-one was entitled to access the systems to avoid liabilities!

---

The method of evaluating approval / denials for credit largely depends on the management's strategic vision. Sometimes even their direct manager may have some sort of influence about how the analysts should go around doing things. As such, the evaluation process can vary as well.

In general however they're pretty much evaluated in a similar way as loans officers and to some extent even traders as well. As long as the analyst did everything by the book and followed the risk management's guidelines, they're rarely held responsible when the customers they approved results in a large chargeoff. However, if the analyst(s) in question often get swayed by the customer's SOB story and as a result stray off underwriting guidelines by a huge margin, then obviously there will be some slight problems even if the customer does not default.

[CreditUnionFan]

I don't know specifically if they "like" to match other limits, but a couple of interesting twists:

Reaching out to BoA underwriters, when I asked for a credit line increase, one of the comments was that they liked that I'd had no problem managing several other $20k limits, and a $20k CLI was approved on a card that had been slashed during a foreclosure action o $2k.

When reaching out to Walmart for a CLI on the Discover, I did mention that Discover (Novus) had recently reinstated a $9200 limit, and asked for an even $10k on the WM DC. Approved.

As others have posted, higher limits lead to other, or even higher limits.

[Credit-hoarder]

That's what I'm hoping for too now that I have a Visa card with a 11k CL. My next next non-store highest CL is $1500 on a Visa card I just got a few weeks ago before the $11k CL reported to the bureaus. I'm hoping the next one I app for will be at least $5k or a CLI on some of my current cards to at least $5k.