topic Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income.. in Credit Cards

Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Anonymous — Fri, 24 May 2019 14:31:58 GMT

Okay so here is my question..

Does your credit limit correspond to your income?!

For example.. are you more likely to have a 30k limit if you make 100k+ yearly.. or is it just as likely someone who makes 50-60k yearly could get such a limit? and what about the people who only make 30k or less? do banks limit their exposure bc they see it would take them forever to pay it back or let them have it bc it puts more interest in their pockets when consumers cannot pif monthly?

I would like for anyone who doesn't mind taking a moment to post what your CC limits are and your annual income when you were approved for that amount.

My mother has a 15k discover limit and she makes maybe 60k before taxes are taken out... what about you guys who have 100k+ in available credit??

Thanks ahead of time for your input and for growing our knowledge daily.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Anonymous — Fri, 24 May 2019 14:50:36 GMT

From everything I can tell income is one of the least important factors when determining CL. I'm a full time student so my annual income is not very high but I've seen data points on here for people that were approved for lower limits for the same cards with a much higher income.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

pinkandgrey — Fri, 24 May 2019 14:53:26 GMT

Honestly with most lenders, income isn’t a huge factor. It plays a role of course, but responsible (and frequent) use is probably the most important determining factor. There are people who make 150k and then get new cards with only 4k limits. And then there’s the other side—I just saw an approval thread today where someone got almost 70% of his income as an SL. Lenders look at waaaay more than just what you make.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

ChessChik47 — Fri, 24 May 2019 14:54:11 GMT

Hi OP,

Starting limits on credit cards take into consideration more than just income. Your score and overall profile are very important. It varies for each lender. Some lenders seem to care more about overall profile than they do your income and for other lenders having a large income helps, but you still need a good profile to get the cards. I have almost $190K in trade lines (5 cards) and report $135K in income. My overall profile is pretty solid though...over 820 score on all bureaus and a have a semi-thick profile (mortgage, installment loan, and credit cards).

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Anonymous — Fri, 24 May 2019 15:41:31 GMT

Income is pretty important, especially for charge cards. Of course other factors are important as well.

I have relatively few cards (CSR, bonvoy brilliant, CF, BOFA CR, AMEX gold, AMEX plat) with >250k on my 4 credit trade lines, income is >600k.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Kforce — Fri, 24 May 2019 16:18:06 GMT

In my opinion:

1st = Issuing Bank or CU

2nd = Profile & History

3rd = Spend

Last = Income

When I was young had ok-scores, soso-income (50k), and short history profile I received a $35,000 starting limit on a card from local CU

It had no rewards, so I gave it little use. Few dollars on it every couple of months. A year later they raised the CL to $45,000.

Still have the card but I had them lower the limit to 25k, and lock increases.

20+ years later, scores at 845-850, income(200k), long perfect history, and I got a US-Bank Cash+ with $7,500 starting.

My real life experiences point to the issuer as most important as far as CL's.

I have found all of my cards to grow after a few years.

Cards with low spend grow slower than cards I use a lot.

I now cap and lock at 20k, so have no high CL or long term growth data points.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Anonymous — Fri, 24 May 2019 16:34:49 GMT

Why lock at 20k? Potential identity theft?

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

AverageJoesCredit — Fri, 24 May 2019 16:48:20 GMT

Responsible use helps but im against the grain, income is very important. You can only get so far on your profile before the $ really does matter. Each profile is different but ive come to find score is one of the least important for as no matter how good your score is if you dont have the income to back it up might as well be going against the grain.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

NRB525 — Fri, 24 May 2019 16:58:30 GMT

Income can be a factor, but first and foremost is, is the cardholder paying on time? What is the risk the bank has a bad customer who defaults on the debt?

For initial limits, that payment history is the most important factor. As limits increase, income can become more of a factor, but only as long as payments continue to be made on time, according to the card agreement terms.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Anonymous — Fri, 24 May 2019 17:54:32 GMT

Myself I think income is one of the lesser factors. Here is my reasoning.
Generally banks don't ask for any kind of income verification (if it was so important I think they would).
Many forum members myself included have limits greater than half or more of their total income along with total exposure that is much greater than income.
In addition banks can also refuse transactions, close accounts and cut limits anytime they want. Because of this big limits on their own don't really pose any additional risk.
History and utilization are so much more important.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

CreditMagic7 — Fri, 24 May 2019 18:02:43 GMT

In all the time i've built and grown my own profile from scraps (SCT=Vicky Secret/Fingerhut/ etc) i am still no expert on it by any stretch, and still learning which i think is a great long term lesson for everyone that really never ends. The variables are everything as already mentioned above but so many factors go into it. and depending on your personal preference of lender that produces good reasonable results for your situation, the biggest help is constant study over time.

Like others, i seen mid 600 FICO scores and even dragging around a collection or two on occasion approved for more than i could muster from some lenders with a clean file and high lines.

Whoever said that it's a marathon and not a sprint hits it right on the spot. For me it's the time element of regular usage/PIF etc. even aside from the income equation. You have to LEARN the habits from them just as much as they measure the habits of our spend & payments IMO,

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Kforce — Fri, 24 May 2019 19:35:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Why lock at 20k? Potential identity theft?

Reason is just personal preference, financial profile, and the way I use and pay cards.

I do not need more for utilization, or large purchases.

I am financially at a point where I have no need to use a CC for a BT, low APR loan or extended travel.

I feel having extremely large revolving CL's is not necessary or prudent for me.

Many CC users have or might need a low APR card for short term loan or a card for BT offers.

In both situations a card with large CL's and overall large CL's would be desirable.

Many travel for weeks and between air, hotel, car rental, wife & kids spending, etc might also need large CL's

Everyone's spend, type of cards, payment time frame, use, financial profile, etc is different.

Many in this forum dream about, change spend patterns, get certain cards, track moon phases, etc to get larger CL's.

I am not the norm in this forum, on this and many other subjects !!

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Anonymous — Fri, 24 May 2019 19:47:24 GMT

Income is definitely less important than you would think to some lenders. I have $15.2K in exposure with NFCU and $12.7K with Disco and I only have $18K in income. It depends on what the lender likes from their customers — NFCU and Discover both don’t mind customers who carry a balance for a long time and rack up a lot of interest so they’re a lot more likely to issue higher lines to lower income individuals than lenders that don’t like customers who carry high balances for elevated periods of time.

Income is just one factor of many when determining risk and credit limits but my success tells me that it really doesn’t matter that much at all — I mean I’m approaching 3 times my annual income in limits and I’ve got a BK on file until next year still.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

DaJagman — Fri, 24 May 2019 19:49:22 GMT

Income $95K 3 trade lines over $39K

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Anonymous — Fri, 24 May 2019 21:55:22 GMT

$25K total revolving credit limit. $9K owed on a $12.5K car lease (aka loan). $28.8K non-taxable income, $10.2K taxable income for a total of $39K.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Anonymous — Fri, 24 May 2019 22:01:46 GMT

Thank you all for the input!

I am in the process of my rebuild and I am learning to use credit wisely for the first time in my life really. I just got curious (with reading in the approvals thread and) seeing all of the great SLs and I had to ask.

Got some great info and I appreciate every response.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

wasCB14 — Fri, 24 May 2019 22:55:58 GMT

I have five Chase cards, the last two of which I got in 2015 and 2018.

Those last two cards both brought my total Chase credit limits to exactly 50% of stated income (I applied using a rounded income figure on both apps).

FICOs fluctutate between 740 and 800. I occasionally get a new card for a bonus, only have revolving history (5.5 years), and usually let a balance report on about 8 cards.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Trudy — Sat, 25 May 2019 00:12:12 GMT

Reading this thread is interesting. When I applied for a card after 2+ years of gardening in Aug 2018 I had 780+ to 800+ scores in all models with the exception of 2 very old models, but mid 700's, made over 160K, DTI of 10%, 1 old 30d on 2 bureau's set to expire this year, AoOA 22y+, AAoA 13y+, AoYA 2y+ which was 10y+ prior to that and they gave me 5K. My largest card is 25K but grew to that over 18yrs but no rewards and can't product change. Wanted a rewards card with high CL to do some remodeling and was disappointed with the low CL. My other cards with rewards would not give me CL increases.

But I was told on the forum that spend is the likely reason because I report less than 1K (usually $300 or less) on 1 or 2 cards. Rotate 9 cards just to keep them open.

The truth is I don't need any more credit just wanted a rewards card with high CL for a project. After reducing my CC UTL from 80%+ to basically 0% between 2015 - 2017 I simply don't want to charge much and haven't needed to.

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Anonymous — Sat, 25 May 2019 03:41:51 GMT

One of the big things I am gathering from many of your posts is that using the cards a lot helps increase limit.. like use alot and pif monthly or maybe more than once monthly. Does that sound about right?

For example.. if you have some great limits on your cards but dont run your purchases through them (as in don't really use them much) then you arent likely to get good CLIs or to get big SL with new cards?

Personally, Right now I use all my cards to their limit or at least close and pay them off before the statement date so that I am using them but not reporting big balances.. now that I got the reporting dates down anyway.. I am doing AZEO for score help trying to qualify for my mortgage. wondering if once I manage to get my mortgage there is some other strategy to get better limits on my better cards once I qualify (God willing).

Thanks again for all the great answers!

Re: Please give some data points..credit limit/income..

Trudy — Sat, 25 May 2019 04:24:06 GMT

I don't know if it's spend or reported balance although I stated reported. For me there's not been much difference. But I assume it's spend as I recently received a 1K credit limit increase on an older card (17 yrs old) I keep around due to age and less risk if compromised since the limit is low, now $3,100. Got the increase because I've recently become addicted to Amazon Prime plus I need to spend. Yet I pay on it before stmt close but still report a small balance. I've requested an increase in the past and like all of my cards , denied due to low use. Even my other bank cards have similar language.

From what I've gathered a company want's to see use, possibly making money on interest or whatever benefit they may gain from usage.