topic Re: Should I Max out Discover? in Credit Cards

Should I Max out Discover?

grillandwinemaster — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 19:04:45 GMT

I have a brand new Discover IT with $4500 cl and 0% Apr for 12 months. I need your valuable input-opinions. I can transfer $2k from other cc's, have a small home improvement project, $1.5k, and also try to take advantage of rewards 1k. I can easily max this card out in one week. Of course the 1k would be revolving, and pif. The remaining $3.5k would be spread out over ten months. How would this behavior look to Discover? How would it affect any future cli's? I would like to take FULL advantage of my new Discover, but also show "good, responsible" behavior in the eyes of Discover.

I turn to you my Fico Friends. What are your thoughts?

TIA!

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 19:07:20 GMT

It's not a good idea to max out any card, especially over time and most especially a new card. Other lenders may also notice and not like the behavior.

Lending institutions by nature are conservative and sudden moves and rapid utilization spikes are not a good idea in the credit world.

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

shakalaka — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 19:34:10 GMT

I beg to diver, at least a bit and with Discover. Of course you should never max out a card. But Discover has no problem with having a balance, I always use them heavy and sometimes up to the limit. And I had times, where I had 50% of my CL reporting. Discover showed me nothing but love, including double cash promo, 0% APR promo, BT promo and since 2015 big CLI each and every 31 days.

So yes, in my opinion one can have a good balance reporting for Discover. As long as everything else is in check and you pay more then the minimum.

Just my 2 cents here.

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 19:57:05 GMT

Now I kinda want to max my 22k discover card

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 20:15:18 GMT

Me too. 39k BT direct deposit into checking, 30 day unpaid leave from work and vegas baby!

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 20:23:39 GMT

OP, it woudn't hurt if you could share how your overall credit profile looks like (other cards, utilizations, etc). just a thought!

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 21:24:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's not a good idea to max out any card, especially over time and most especially a new card. Other lenders may also notice and not like the behavior.

Lending institutions by nature are conservative and sudden moves and rapid utilization spikes are not a good idea in the credit world.

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

NRB525 — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 23:03:40 GMT

OP, when I got this second Discover in 2012, $5k limit, I immediately put a $4,750 BT onto it to take advantage of the low APR. After it was paid down to below $1k in 2014, they sent me a temporary CLI for a year, paired with a 0% BT offer for a year, so I BT'd onto it for a new balance of $7,727 on the temporary $8,000 total CL. Then just a few months later they sent me "spend $1,000 get $100" along with a 0% Purchase APR offer. So I had to spend $1,000 on top of the BT, finding ways to pay mid-month to be able to manage both.

After getting past the CLD back to $5k in May 2015, I got some CLI, and the latest was a $6k CLI to $14k.

I do have a long history of large balances and high utilization, so that may help my particular profile. However my opinion of Discover is, they like usage and payments. High utilization didn't cause me any issues with them.

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 03:50:41 GMT

If you arent worried about your score go ahead. I maxed mine paying a bill and didnt realize that it was reporting teh next day. My scores dropped 17-27 points on each CB. i PIF immedietly so It seems I have to wait until next month to see my scores recover. But Discover seems to have no problem with me using 100% of my CL at any given time.

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 15:47:45 GMT

You can put me firmly in the "it depends" camp. I got my Discover it Miles card last June and, over three months, spent it up to 100% of C/L. It's remained anywhere from 95% to 100+% of C/L since then. Yes, my score did drop... from 820ish to 800ish. So who cares? I still get approved for anything I apply for. I've asked for CLI's from Discover three times since I opened the account, got a CLI each time. And I've received no AA from Discover or anyone else. So it's really YMMV.

Chris.

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 15:51:59 GMT

I believe a concern as mentioned above is what other lenders will do when seeing this, not just Discover. It's never solely about "what will that specific lender think?" It has happened a number of times to myfico members where one card was maxed and another lender took AA action to minimize their own risk.

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

taxi818 — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 19:07:44 GMT

@grillandwinemaster wrote:
I have a brand new Discover IT with $4500 cl and 0% Apr for 12 months. I need your valuable input-opinions. I can transfer $2k from other cc's, have a small home improvement project, $1.5k, and also try to take advantage of rewards 1k. I can easily max this card out in one week. Of course the 1k would be revolving, and pif. The remaining $3.5k would be spread out over ten months. How would this behavior look to Discover? How would it affect any future cli's? I would like to take FULL advantage of my new Discover, but also show "good, responsible" behavior in the eyes of Discover.
I turn to you my Fico Friends. What are your thoughts?
TIA!

Discover loves heavy usage. If you got plan. They will reward you. I started at 2500 limit. Maxed it out a couple times. Over 80%. Raised my limit to 10k. Might do it gain soon

Re: Should I Max out Discover?

grillandwinemaster — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 20:00:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
OP, it woudn't hurt if you could share how your overall credit profile looks like (other cards, utilizations, etc). just a thought!

I updated my sig to include my "active" credit cards and current scores. However, I'm not applying for ANYTHING for the next 12-18 months, so any score decrease effect would be negligible.