topic Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help! in Credit Card Applications

PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

AHumdy — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:02:36 GMT

I'm new here. My roommate told me to come here to get my questions answered so here I am! I'm newer to credit. My oldest is about 18 months old. My newest is 5 months. I have a $5,000 HD at $924 used. An $1,800 Discover at $1,700 used. An $5,000 SYNC/PepBoys at $2,200 used. An $4,000 CBNA/WayFairMC at $3,900 used. Then the $2,000 PenFed Gold Card in question, at $1,500 used. All the sudden the REQUEST CLI button has appeared. It was NEVER THERE BEFORE NOW! I've made 5-6 payments. Does this mean I'm now eligible for a CLI?! Does it put an Inquiry?! My score on Credit Sesame is 634, so it's probably higher by FICO standards.

Should I request more?

I'm wanting to consolidate all my cards really badly! Maybe I should apply for a PL with PenFed? Or...?

Advice appreciated!

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

jcooks — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:24:30 GMT

Some of the cards are considered maxed out, I would recommend getting those down before requesting a CLI. Some banks would be skeptical about raising credit limits as it may increase their exposure in the event of a default.

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

coreyb80 — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:32:29 GMT

Penfed is definitely a hard pull for a CLI any and every single time. Penfed also does pre-approval for personal loans I believe. I tried back in December of last year and I was successful. If you can afford the HP then I say go for it. Otherwise sit tight and get some more history with them under your belt.

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

OmarGB9 — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:36:53 GMT

I'd focus on paying down those high/near maxed balances first, honestly. If you're struggling financially, you could try for a personal loan instead to pay off all those CCs and consolidate into one single payment. The danger there though is that with your cards now at zero balance, you could potentially run up your cards again and then have twice the debt. Not saying that's what you do, just saying it's happened to people in the past. I'd hold off on any CLI requests right now. And a CLI with Penfed would be an HP, yes.

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

AHumdy — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:44:16 GMT

I actually don't use my cards. At all. I just opened a few around the same time, maxed them all out so I could make a few months of payments and have been waiting. I haven't used any card I own except my PepBoys in about 3-4 months. So how low should I pay them before requesting a CLI? Like half paid off each? I'll starting tripling my payments. 😍 I make ninty per year and have no car or house payments. So I just kind of waste it on traveling and shopping. Lol So I just thought I'd throw in some credit building along the way and try to get that right. Figured one day I may need it. Lol

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

OmarGB9 — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:56:11 GMT

@AHumdy wrote:
I actually don't use my cards. At all. I just opened a few around the same time, maxed them all out so I could make a few months of payments and have been waiting. I haven't used any card I own except my PepBoys in about 3-4 months. So how low should I pay them before requesting a CLI? Like half paid off each? I'll starting tripling my payments. 😍 I make ninty per year and have no car or house payments. So I just kind of waste it on traveling and shopping. Lol So I just thought I'd throw in some credit building along the way and try to get that right. Figured one day I may need it. Lol

Oh well, I mean if you have the means, I'd say pay them all down to zero except one (non-store) card. On that one leave a small, $10-$20 balance. But at the very least, yes, pay them down to half. More specifically, to less than 48.9%.

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

jcooks — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 16:08:09 GMT

Yes if you have the means, definitely pay them off. Especially if they don't have 0 interest promo. Regardless holding limits near its max can lead to adverse actions by other lenders. Which even after paying them down, they still may do that.

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

OmarGB9 — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 16:15:34 GMT

@jcooks wrote:
Yes if you have the means, definitely pay them off. Especially if they don't have 0 interest promo. Regardless holding limits near its max can lead to adverse actions by other lenders. Which even after paying them down, they still may do that.

Indeed, running up cards and leaving them maxed out is not the way to build credit @AHumdy.

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

paulesport — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 20:06:03 GMT

I would say if you're paying at the least make it 28-29% (below 30% on each card) or overall enough that your total credit utilization is below 30%. You'll be in better graces with your score and the report they pull on your Equifax and would be in better position to get a lower APR.

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

cashorcharge — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 21:04:38 GMT

6 months is the eligibility threshold for CLI's with PenFed. The appearance of the link IN NO WAY is a determining factor for likelihood of a an approval. As others stated, it will be a HP and based on the notes above...you way want to pause.

Lastly, the MAX CL on the PenFed Gold card is $15,000. This limit was put in place a little over a year ago.

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

W261w261 — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 13:40:10 GMT

OP, $90k is a pretty good amount to earn, and absent any info on your living expenses but reading that you can "triple" your payments, I would suggest you look at how secure your 90k job is, and also that more and more people are expecting a recession, and the Fed is thinking about a huge interest rate increase. Look at what happened in 2008, when high-paying but unstable jobs disappeared seemingly overnight.

If you can make it happen, pay off your balances asap. It'll help with your stated goal anyway. They're a snap to carry now, but if you lost your job tomorrow how would they be then? I'll get off my soapbox with a quote from Warren Buffett: "Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked."

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

pip3man — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 14:47:14 GMT

Some clarity needed. You say you make $90k per year and have no car or house payment. But also at the same time you live with a roommate, safe to infer your roommate is letting you live for free with the amount of money you make? Quite refreshing to know there are still good-hearted people in the world

Re: PenFed Gold Card CLI, Help!

practical1 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 22:21:10 GMT

All the advice on this page is solid and correct.

For maximum benefit to your FICO, of course, pay down all cards except one to zero, leaving a small balance on one major (as another poster indicated). Second best: pay down total balances to below 5.9%, ideally, with no single card having greater than 9.9% utilization, preferably all below 6%.

Once you've done all of that (and given the reporting bureaus enough time to reflect the payments -- which can take as long as a couple of cycles) and for your FICO scores to be properly re-computed, then you have the decision to make. If you do "pull the trigger" on the CLI, you will take a HP -- whether you succeed or not. If you do secure a CLI, the benefit will be to obviously increase total available credit and therefore (assuming you are responsible in future use of creit) decrease liklihood of your overall utilization -- a plus factor in all the FICO scoring models. An additional small benefit is that your average age of accounts (AAOA) will not decrease -- another factor in the scoring models.

An alternative to the CLI request, at that point: you could "spend" that hard pull and seek another credit card. That might, over the long haul, increase the diversity of your card portfolio, while also increasing your available credit, as well. However, you might not get as large a total line as you could possibly end-up with at PenFed (a potentiaal negative) and further, your AAOA would take a hit -- for a long time.

The credit maximization game is a long one and a more subtle an art than might appear at first blush..... keep studying these forums, ask questions and over time, you too can become a Jedi Master (like some of the frequent posters....). I, for one, am still learning.

Best of luck, Young Apprentice!