new CC CL not what I want - disappointed

[natasjlp]

hello - I have been looking for a credit limit of 10K but just got approved for only $5200 through Citizens. They check EQ, my score when they checked was 745! my income I put down was $70K - my only other open CC is a barclay with $3500 - I do have a Belden's card with a $7800 limit and a TJMAX with a $300 limit – but not sure how they count – they are revolving but figure they count differently than a regular CC? 

Why didn't they give me at least $10K? should I get a secure card through someone else perhaps? I can actually put up like $10K for a year/year and a half till it becomes unsecure or so without a prob.

Reason is my score won't go much higher without 'larger cls'. I would like to buy a house within the next year or 2 or 3 and would like to be in the 800's with large CL's…

I paid off my school loans - should I maybe get a car loan or something and pay it off in about a year?

I have cash and am looking to aggressively increase my FICO and CLs - - - >

[Anonymous]

My current cards (and CL) prior to this wave of apps were PenFed gas $20K, USAA Amex $21K, USAA Mastercard $20K and Amex gold card. 

The CC companies are screwy. I was just approved for the Costco Amex for $20K after being turned down last year when my scores were better. On the same day Discover would only give me a $7K CL. The approval process seems random at times. 

[ArisGreek]

Geez, where the hell are you people getting these huge lines? The highest line I have is $3,250 at frickin' Home Depot. I can't even get a measly $400 increase on my AMEX SPG!! I have no baddies and credit for 10 years and my AAoA is 4 years 11 months and credit util at the moment is 1%. I just don't get it.  I can't get over this mediocre line hump...not that I'd use it, but geez...I feel like I'm living on the island of misfit credit lines.  I make $75K a year too. I simply do not understand.

My profile:

Citi AA World Mastercard - $3,000 limit -- No balance

Citi Home Depot Card (Store card only) - $3,250 limit -- $101 balance 

AMEX SPG - $600 limit -- No balance

AMEX Zync - No pre-set spending limit -- No balance

Saab Car Payment - $379

Student Loan Payment - $139

Mortgage - $1,210/mo

*sigh*

[Anonymous]

My income is most likely what does it for me as I have a lot of debt too. $200K for education, $650K mortgage, $110K business loan, $90K for autos, etc. 

[Anonymous]

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natasjlp wrote:   my score won't go much higher without 'larger cls'. I would like to buy a house within the next year or 2 or 3 and would like to be in the 800's with large CL's…

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CL's don't affect your FICO score.  A new account has the potential to drop your score, depending.  When considering an additional app - watch your AAofA.  Figure out what it is now, and what it will be with an additional line of credit.  When AAofA drops, only time will bring it back up again.

The best way to find out your path to 800 is to pull your FICO report and score here.  It will provide you with a list of what's helping and what's hurting your FICO score.  It will also give you a simulator that helps you know what various actions may do to your FICO.

What's your current utilization?  Adjusting that is an easy and quick way to adjust your FICO score.  And take a gander at the education tab - it'll give you some grand ideas on what'll tweak your scores.

CL's in and of themselves, though, will not give or take a single FICO point.

[jforsyth]

It comes down to basic math.

You have a $70k income, which is $5,800 per month. Why would a lender trying to assess your risk give you a $10k CL? That's almost twice as much as you make per month. They don't want you spending that much on any card.

As it has been already stated, credit limits do not affect FICO scores in and of themselves. Work on getting your utilization down, and just have patience. There is NO way to "quickly" bump your score up when you're in the mid 700s range with a good payment history (without piggy-backing as an AU, of course). It just takes time.....years.

[natasjlp]

hmmm... Then how do people get CLs of like 20K+ when they are clearly not making 20K a month?

also, what about getting a secure card for 10K that becomes unsecure after a certain length of time?

are there any places to understand how different companies actually calculate your cls? seems like it is extremely cryptic... some transparency would be nice.

[Anonymous]

I can't say with absolute certainty but maybe they've had the card for awhile, allowing the CL to grow to 20K?

[Anonymous]

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@jforsyth wrote:

It comes down to basic math.

You have a $70k income, which is $5,800 per month. Why would a lender trying to assess your risk give you a $10k CL? That's almost twice as much as you make per month. They don't want you spending that much on any card.

As it has been already stated, credit limits do not affect FICO scores in and of themselves. Work on getting your utilization down, and just have patience. There is NO way to "quickly" bump your score up when you're in the mid 700s range with a good payment history (without piggy-backing as an AU, of course). It just takes time.....years.

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I have to disagree with this part. I have only $55k income and they just approved me for $10K for the Costco Amex. 

But I do agree that you can get your credit scores in the 800's without high CLs. I had an 805 with Equifax and my highest limit was my Care credit at $3700, other than that, I only had $2000 with merrick, $1000 with Capital One and several $500 CLs.

[Anonymous]

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@ArisGreek wrote:

Geez, where the hell are you people getting these huge lines? The highest line I have is $3,250 at frickin' Home Depot. I can't even get a measly $400 increase on my AMEX SPG!! I have no baddies and credit for 10 years and my AAoA is 4 years 11 months and credit util at the moment is 1%. I just don't get it.  I can't get over this mediocre line hump...not that I'd use it, but geez...I feel like I'm living on the island of misfit credit lines.  I make $75K a year too. I simply do not understand.

My profile:

Citi AA World Mastercard - $3,000 limit -- No balance

Citi Home Depot Card (Store card only) - $3,250 limit -- $101 balance 

AMEX SPG - $600 limit -- No balance

AMEX Zync - No pre-set spending limit -- No balance

Saab Car Payment - $379

Student Loan Payment - $139

Mortgage - $1,210/mo

*sigh*

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Have you tried requesting CLI's from any of these?? Amex is usally pretty generous as long as you have maintained a good paymetn history and you can usually request up to 3 x your current limint so your Amex SPG would be a good one to try.  You can usually request CLI's after 6 mos.