topic Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons in Credit Cards

CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 13:38:29 GMT

Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any other pros and cons to getting a lot of CLIs?

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Ghoshida — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 13:37:34 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any cons to getting a lot CLIs?

You may reach your internal limit with some creditors and have difficulty getting new cards without splitting limits from existing cards.

New lenders may sometimes deny you citing excessive available credit.

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

kdm31091 — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 13:47:18 GMT

Pretty much what Ghoshida said. There can be drawbacks to excessive exposure. New lenders can frown on it and not approve you, and existing ones may require you to divvy up the credit lines among cards to approve any new products.

My advice is to only go for substantial CLIs on cards you are actually going to use on a regular basis. Having a huge limit on a card that sits in the drawer is just unnecessary exposure, IMO. As long as you keep your utilization low, there's no benefit to super inflated limits. Low utilization is low regardless of how much overall credit you have.

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:04:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any other pros and cons to getting a lot of CLIs?

The major advantage here is that people can put "$XXXXX in total CL" in their sigs

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:10:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any other pros and cons to getting a lot of CLIs?
The major advantage here is that people can put "$XXXXX in total CL" in their sigs

Now, that is funny..

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:19:26 GMT

CLI's can serve the purpose of enabling you to strengthen and streamline your profile.

For example, I request CLI's on certain cards because I would like to build up the credit line of that specific card, all the while keeping my overall profile in mind and the fact that CLI's on certain cards enable me to close other cards as I'm not really losing anything, and in fact am bolstering the cards that serve me best.

Also, CLI's enable to you streamline the number of cards you have. I'd rather have fewer cards with larger credit lines, and building up the credit lines of certain cards while closing others that no longer serve my purpose will assist in doing so.

During our credit lives it's important to be flexible and realize that cards that once served us well may no longer do so at a point down the road. It's part of the journey.

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:19:41 GMT

@kdm31091 wrote:
Pretty much what Ghoshida said. There can be drawbacks to excessive exposure. New lenders can frown on it and not approve you, and existing ones may require you to divvy up the credit lines among cards to approve any new products.

My advice is to only go for substantial CLIs on cards you are actually going to use on a regular basis. Having a huge limit on a card that sits in the drawer is just unnecessary exposure, IMO. As long as you keep your utilization low, there's no benefit to super inflated limits. Low utilization is low regardless of how much overall credit you have.

Ha. I don't think I would I want to deal with the headache. At first, I was VERY tempted to but then I was thinking what if I want some sort of loan or mortgage in the next few years. I am sort of afraid that too much exposure would be a major liability and I don't want to piss the CCCs for when I actually have a urgent matter come up.

I partially applied for the Marvel card and Discover because they are known to do minor auto-CLIs occasionally without the user engaging other than the usage level.

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:30:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
CLI's can serve the purpose of enabling you to strengthen and streamline your profile.

For example, I request CLI's on certain cards because I would like to build up the credit line of that specific card, all the while keeping my overall profile in mind and the fact that CLI's on certain cards enable me to close other cards as I'm not really losing anything, and in fact am bolstering the cards that serve me best.

Also, CLI's enable to you streamline the number of cards you have. I'd rather have fewer cards with larger credit lines, and building up the credit lines of certain cards while closing others that no longer serve my purpose will assist in doing so.

During our credit lives it's important to be flexible and realize that cards that once served us well may no longer do so at a point down the road. It's part of the journey.

Ahhh thank you for that perspective! So more of a strategic tool than a blitz attack on all the CCCs? I like that.

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

irunfromcredit — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:38:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
Pretty much what Ghoshida said. There can be drawbacks to excessive exposure. New lenders can frown on it and not approve you, and existing ones may require you to divvy up the credit lines among cards to approve any new products.

My advice is to only go for substantial CLIs on cards you are actually going to use on a regular basis. Having a huge limit on a card that sits in the drawer is just unnecessary exposure, IMO. As long as you keep your utilization low, there's no benefit to super inflated limits. Low utilization is low regardless of how much overall credit you have.
Ha. I don't think I would I want to deal with the headache. At first, I was VERY tempted to but then I was thinking what if I want some sort of loan or mortgage in the next few years. I am sort of afraid that too much exposure would be a major liability and I don't want to piss the CCCs for when I actually have a urgent matter come up.

I partially applied for the Marvel card and Discover because they are known to do minor auto-CLIs occasionally without the user engaging other than the usage level.

I couldn't agree with you more. I actually just asked to reduce some of my credit limits on a few of my cards. I had intitially got caught up on the frenzy calling and asking for high limits, and surprised to get approved for them. At any rate, at some point, I realized I didn't need all that credit and the "what if" came into mind, so I slashed my credit limits. I have a few high limit cards, but as another poster mentioned, I use those cards the most!

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:41:39 GMT

Do think carefully before slashing credit limits voluntarily. Lenders looking at your report see the CLD and don't know that it was you who initiated it. It especially looks concerning when multiple accounts show this. Just a word of caution.

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

DoroLucky — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:46:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any other pros and cons to getting a lot of CLIs?
The major advantage here is that people can put "$XXXXX in total CL" in their sigs

Aren't we being catty this AM??

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

irunfromcredit — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:50:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Do think carefully before slashing credit limits voluntarily. Lenders looking at your report see the CLD and don't know that it was you who initiated it. It especially looks concerning when multiple accounts show this. Just a word of caution.

Just out of curiousity, bc I am "new' to the credit game. What would prompt a lender to see it as a negative?

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:53:28 GMT

@irunfromcredit wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Do think carefully before slashing credit limits voluntarily. Lenders looking at your report see the CLD and don't know that it was you who initiated it. It especially looks concerning when multiple accounts show this. Just a word of caution.
Just out of curiousity, bc I am "new' to the credit game. What would prompt a lender to see it as a negative?

An issuer can reduce CL as a way of reducing their perceived risk. So another issuer might get concerned if they see several CLDs. (Not sure this actually happens but if it did!)

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Gmood1 — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:58:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
CLI's can serve the purpose of enabling you to strengthen and streamline your profile.

For example, I request CLI's on certain cards because I would like to build up the credit line of that specific card, all the while keeping my overall profile in mind and the fact that CLI's on certain cards enable me to close other cards as I'm not really losing anything, and in fact am bolstering the cards that serve me best.

Also, CLI's enable to you streamline the number of cards you have. I'd rather have fewer cards with larger credit lines, and building up the credit lines of certain cards while closing others that no longer serve my purpose will assist in doing so.

During our credit lives it's important to be flexible and realize that cards that once served us well may no longer do so at a point down the road. It's part of the journey.

+1000

This is my strategy. I'm closing the useless cards and bolstering the ones the serve me best! I already have a mortgage and get auto loans at will. My limits seem to not spook only the most conservative lenders. Who still in the end come back and try to offer me a product. Go figure? Lol

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

irunfromcredit — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:58:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@irunfromcredit wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Do think carefully before slashing credit limits voluntarily. Lenders looking at your report see the CLD and don't know that it was you who initiated it. It especially looks concerning when multiple accounts show this. Just a word of caution.
Just out of curiousity, bc I am "new' to the credit game. What would prompt a lender to see it as a negative?
An issuer can reduce CL as a way of reducing their perceived risk. So another issuer might get concerned if they see several CLDs. (Not sure this actually happens but if it did!)

Ahhhh! Gotcha! Well, I am not going to get my drawers in a bind if a lender perceives me as a risk or not. I guess it's all personal preference. I guess I realized (probably too late) that I didn't need a large amount of credit. Thanks for the clarification!

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Journeygod — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 15:34:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any other pros and cons to getting a lot of CLIs?

Bigger credit lines beget bigger credit lines.

Biggest card: British Airways $33,000

Total credit: $276,400

Util: 4%

(I gotta update my siggy!) -LOL

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 15:45:11 GMT

Each card in my wheelhouse serve a different purpose Chase Freedom is still my favorite card but I don't think the limit on it is bad (3.5k) because I don't charge more than six hundred bucks on it. Ebates is 7k, tempted to use it heavy for 3% on top of retailers but I wish my amex limit was my ebates, and so on. I have a 21 year relationship with Synchrony Bank and one year w/American Express so I can respect that. Use pizza1 philosophy and get increases on everything then close them to try to end on a high note so new creditors will see your limit that they were when they were closed at your request. The only bank that did not like my available credit compared to income was a credit union.

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 16:10:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Each card in my wheelhouse serve a different purpose Chase Freedom is still my favorite card but I don't think the limit on it is bad (3.5k) because I don't charge more than six hundred bucks on it. Ebates is 7k, tempted to use it heavy for 3% on top of retailers but I wish my amex limit was my ebates, and so on. I have a 21 year relationship with Synchrony Bank and one year w/American Express so I can respect that. Use pizza1 philosophy and get increases on everything then close them to try to end on a high note so new creditors will see your limit that they were when they were closed at your request. The only bank that did not like my available credit compared to income was a credit union.

I sort of wished I had CLIed my Chase Amazon card (my lowest limit) before applying for cards, because my last two credit cards matched that of Amazon's (3K). But you live and learn! I got approved for 6 cards within the last 3 weeks so it would look incredibly bad (most likely) if I asked for CLIs any time soon. I am curious to see what Chase and Amex will do to me for opening that many accounts in such a short time... lol

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 16:31:41 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Each card in my wheelhouse serve a different purpose Chase Freedom is still my favorite card but I don't think the limit on it is bad (3.5k) because I don't charge more than six hundred bucks on it. Ebates is 7k, tempted to use it heavy for 3% on top of retailers but I wish my amex limit was my ebates, and so on. I have a 21 year relationship with Synchrony Bank and one year w/American Express so I can respect that. Use pizza1 philosophy and get increases on everything then close them to try to end on a high note so new creditors will see your limit that they were when they were closed at your request. The only bank that did not like my available credit compared to income was a credit union.
I sort of wished I had CLIed my Chase Amazon card (my lowest limit) before applying for cards, because my last two credit cards matched that of Amazon's (3K). But you live and learn! I got approved for 6 cards within the last 3 weeks so it would look incredibly bad (most likely) if I asked for CLIs any time soon. I am curious to see what Chase and Amex will do to me for opening that many accounts in such a short time... lol

Don't beat yourself up for not trying for a CLI on Chase Amazon because it would have been a hard pull.

Re: CLIs: Pros and Cons

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 16:32:34 GMT

@Journeygod wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Many people on this board really seem into getting CLIs. I understand the UTL factor but are there any other pros and cons to getting a lot of CLIs?
Bigger credit lines beget bigger credit lines.

Biggest card: British Airways $33,000

Total credit: $276,400
Util: 4%

(I gotta update my siggy!) -LOL

Sometimes. Many of us have had the experience of getting low CL cards after a series of high ones, particularly if the new card is from an issuer you already have.