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Donny, when you say how long did it take you to obtain I assume you mean from the time you started "going for it" with respect to credit lines? Doing that on an established profile is quite different than someone that's just starting out in credit. Or, perhaps your numbers referenced in your original post are starting from nothing?
In 15 months I went from total credit limits of $3000 to $145k (will be $165k-$170k in 5 weeks), but that's on a thick/aged file. That was with me going from 1 revolver to 8 revolvers. Surely there are others out there that no doubt opened 30-40 revolvers in the span of time that I did that probably could have racked up $300k-$500k in total credit limits if that was their goal. My goal was to simply open up the cards I needed based on my spend and that's it. I have zero desire to open any additional revolvers and I'd be surprised if my TCL ever reaches $200k.
That's right Brutal starting from nothing. 27 months ago I had nothing.
I had completely dirty files. Cleaned them up perfectly and dove in. Last year I closed 70k in lines I just didn't want or need.
My siggy is what I like and will keep. I will no longer obtain more credit as I have every possible credit line I could ever need for each thing in life. I won't need or ask for cli's any more either.
Currently $621,000 and change in credit lines. Oldest reported account is 24 years old. Since becoming more active with myFICO in the last serval years I climbed from around $100,000 to where I am today.My wife has around $400,000 with only 1 or 2 accounts overlapping.
I have now reached the time that I will begin to consolidate my card portfolio.
So was bitten by the bug around 3 years ago and have greatly improved my credit scores and amount available.
$4,000
Just for the benefit of any newcomers..... be sure to remember that large credit limits do not in themselves improve your credit score.
EXAMPLE: Bob has four credit cards at $1000 each and a balance of $30 on each one. He then reaches out to his four CC issuers and (suprisingly) they agree to raise his limits to $20,000 each. His score will not go up by even a single point. That's because his CC utilization was very low before, and it is still very low.
That isn't to say that the bigger limits don't have a convenience advantage. But you'll notice that Donny and BBS both describe their increased limits as something they achieved largely as a byproduct of the other stuff they were pursuing. (Getting the cards they needed, etc.)
That's a smart way to go about it. Work on getting higher limits, but don't focus too much on it. It will happen gradually as you do the stuff that makes sense on other grounds.
Nice to see that it can actually happen very quickly too. Thanks Donny.
My files were dirty until March of last year. I started building in May of 2016 from $2600 TCL between two cards. Active lines with no AU accounts is $519,000.
So it took 29 months to go from $2600 to where it's at now.
@Anonymous wrote:Just for the benefit of any newcomers..... be sure to remember that large credit limits do not in themselves improve your credit score.
EXAMPLE: Bob has four credit cards at $1000 each and a balance of $30 on each one. He then reaches out to his four CC issuers and (suprisingly) they agree to raise his limits to $20,000 each. His score will not go up by even a single point. That's because his CC utilization was very low before, and it is still very low.
That isn't to say that the bigger limits don't have a convenience advantage. But you'll notice that Donny and BBS both describe their increased limits as something they achieved largely as a byproduct of the other stuff they were pursuing. (Getting the cards they needed, etc.)
That's a smart way to go about it. Work on getting higher limits, but don't focus too much on it. It will happen gradually as you do the stuff that makes sense on other grounds.
Nice to see that it can actually happen very quickly too. Thanks Donny.
Excellent post!
Current revolving Credit Cards (no mortgage or vehicle lines/loans included) $365k add in the wife's cards and that goes to probably $550k. Our business and life crashed and burned in 2005-2007, jobs, income, assets all crashed (did NOT file bankruptcy). In 2012 we got serious about fixing things, by 2014 we were well healed, but not without scars. As of mid-2015, we could get just about any card we wanted or tried for and almost all start with 5 digit limits (last two cards I got started at $21k and $15k, last one she got started with a $16k CL).