topic Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card in Credit Cards

How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

CreditGuy03 — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:16:48 GMT

I've seen and hear of people with credit card limits of 10k, 25k even 50k. How does one get this much credit with an average credit score from all 3 bureaus over 745?

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

marty56 — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:38:49 GMT

In the past, household income and balance history would be the major factor in setting CLs. These days who knows. IMHO asking for a high CL unless its a business card is just drawing a big target on yourself. Along with revolving non-store CCs.

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:44:14 GMT

Are you talking about FICO's over 745, or "credit scores", aka FAKO's?

My high-limit cards are from USAA ($27K and $10K), PenFed ($20.3K), and BofA ($18K.) Believe me, the rest of my cards are down in the much-more-normal range. Most of these limits were granted before I hit 740's FICO's.

Credit unions are generally more willing to extend higher CL's. USAA is not a credit union, but a federal savings bank, but it functions in many ways like a CU. BofA used to extend higher-than-usual CL's, which was their version of rewards. They've pulled back now, and in fact, I had to argue back the reinstatement of my CL. CU's and BofA have traditionally been the sources of higher-CL cards.

I have a mess of 30-day lates, plus a 90-day late. But they're all over two years old, everything was repaid, I have way lower than 1% util (something like $20 out of $110K total CL's), and I use my cards and pay them off faithfully. That's the best I can tell you!

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

mt2va — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:49:50 GMT

I'm not sure the exact answer but I imagine it is based on household income & length of credit history to go along with a good score. My parents scores are 800+ (not sure exact score but my mom's was 830 last time she pulled it & I'm sure my dad's is higher) But their length of credit I'm sure is at least 50 years or more.(assuming there were even CC back then)

Not sure about the 25K or 50K but they do have several CC that are over the 10K. They earn some great rewards that they pass along to me in the form of gift cards on occasion as they charge everything every month & then PIF when the bill comes.

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

smallfry — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:40:08 GMT

These days unless you are over 750 and have a very decent income you would be doing well to get over 10K from normal channels. NFCU might be a little easier. The easy days are gone at least temporarily.

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:42:03 GMT

Just to add to what was already said, Alliant nowadays gives up to 10k without income check (they don't even ask), and they will check for higher CL's. In former times, they gave more. Which means that, with higher income, you might be even better off with a different CU, which might start you with a higher limit.

My bank cc limits have crept up over time, but I don't have an account with any of those banks that traditionally offered high limits. Frex, WF got stuck at $8,900, although it doesn't really matter as its a Visa Signature card (but doesn't report as such).

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 22:12:01 GMT

I started out with a 500.00 CL's as a college student back in the early 90's, and the limits have increased over the years. From my experiences, it takes time to get the high limits. I Paid all of my bills on time, used credit responsibly, etc, and saw my limits steadily rise over the years. I found that after I bought my house in 2000, the banks started increasing me to the crazy 25-50K limits.

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:41:29 GMT

I strongly believe to have a high credit limit on any credit cards start with your payment history. Pay on time is important to lender so that they can balance cash flow..If i were the lender I would do the same thing, look at past credit and payment history. Afterall, everyone is responsible for all their actions so take care of your credit, credit will take care of you. It makes alot of sense. I have a Credit Union Mastercard with a 10K limit, my highest credit card limit in my wallet after AMEX..

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

wmarat — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:46:56 GMT

Can you please explain your point.

@marty56 wrote:
In the past, household income and balance history would be the major factor in setting CLs. These days who knows. IMHO asking for a high CL unless its a business card is just drawing a big target on yourself. Along with revolving non-store CCs.

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

cobra — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:48:05 GMT

Join a CU

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

wfreeman3 — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:50:33 GMT

My credit scores are in the mid 700's and I have:

National City : 15,500.00

Ameriprise : 10,000.00

Partners CU : 10,000.00

Discover More : 9,800.00

These are pretty recent, only the National City has had a CLI. The rest all started where they are.

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

wmarat — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:12:03 GMT

OK.

3 cards at $25000 credit limit, one card has $20000 CL, 7 cards have 5 figures CL. Average CL is $15100. Store cards are not included in calculations.

The oldest account is 3 y.o.

AAoA is 1 year.

TU 760, EQ 723, EXP (Alliant 787)

HHI a little more than $100k

No baddies

I have never paid a penny of financial charges.

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:23:26 GMT

Wmarat, would you mind telling me what cards do you have and how did you get those limits? did you get them initially or got CLI's?

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:06:31 GMT

An income of over 40k.

Over 2 years of credit history.

Low credit utilization (under 10%)

An excellent payment record.

I mention these four things because that has been my experience. A few years back my income was a little over 40k and both my BofA and AMEX limits were over 15k. As soon as I put 8k on my AMEX, they reduced my limit to 8k. A couple of years later, (after paying off my debt) I asked for an increase of 10k and they said yes instantly.

Question is, do you really need a cli of 10k? I have 3 cards with limits over 10k, but to be honest, I really do not need a card with a 10k limit, let alone three.

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:08:09 GMT

Do you guys think that the higher cash flow will significantly help you to increase you CL? I know that many times things do not work the way they make sense to us, but I look it this way - if creditors see that you are charging you cards and paying them off all the time, a CLI would bring higher credit utilization and more profit for the company.

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

MattH — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:01:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I started out with a 500.00 CL's as a college student back in the early 90's, and the limits have increased over the years. From my experiences, it takes time to get the high limits. I Paid all of my bills on time, used credit responsibly, etc, and saw my limits steadily rise over the years. I found that after I bought my house in 2000, the banks started increasing me to the crazy 25-50K limits.

My experience is similar, though even when my wife and I rented before getting our condo in 2002 the limits on all our credit cards already were close to $20K, I don't recall exactly. I do have specific memory of asking the loan officer whether a total balance on credit cards of about $2K would make any difference in the mortgage interest rate and being told that would not affect my rate (we were deciding whether to use a little of our savings to zero-out all CC balances, which we could easily have done if it made any difference).

My first card was an AMEX which I got shortly after getting my undergraduate degree in 1982 (back then it was utterly unheard of for a full-time student to have a credit card unless it was an additional card on a parental account). My other cards I got various times, I don't recall exactly but all my cards I've had for at least 15 years. I have never requested any credit line increases, the limits reached their current levels gradually over the years from automatic increases. At present my Chase and Citi cards are between $20K and $30K, my AMEX Gold Card has no prespecified limit, and my smallest limit is a little over $10K on my Discover card. I believe the limit on my wife's Citit card is between $15K and $20K.

Edited to add: none of the credit card companies knows our current household income because the only time any of them ever asked me for that information was at the time of applying over 15 years ago. The only lender ever to have verified my income with my employers has been for the mortgage (and a later refi when rates dropped), I would know because my employers will not do verifications without my permission. In my experience car lenders always approved based on credit history and what I told them, none ever asked permision to verify. One landlord twenty-some years ago did an informal verification of employment in a brief phone call to my boss (I was sitting there while she made the call, it was something like "Hi, this is Foobar Apartments, Matt H. is sitting here next to me, he says you're his boss..."). Other landlords haven't done even that much verification.

Message Edited by MattH on 06-14-2009 09:01 AM

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:45:23 GMT

NFCU gave me my 1st big limit of 10k. I had about 6% util. My EQ was 665 but I have a 6 yr old charge off and dismissed ch13 from 2001. I make 50k/yr. I did have to send in verification of income but I'm pretty new to NFCU. They are one of the few still giving big CLs

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

wmarat — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:48:00 GMT

I have cards with Amex, BOA, Chase, Citi, Discover, HSBC, US Bank and PenFed.

I have no slightest idea why my CLI requests were approved.

@Anonymous wrote:
Wmarat, would you mind telling me what cards do you have and how did you get those limits? did you get them initially or got CLI's?

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:30:05 GMT

In my experience it weighs more on your income than your payment history. My first CC was an Amex. I got it with virtually no credit history. No loans, no credit cards, nothing on my report. It was a 10k limit. Within 6 months it was at 20,000. The APR dropped from 13% down to 5.2% during that time. Now its up to 29,900 and I have a few other cards that high as well.

Re: How do people get 10k Credit Limits on a single card

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:15:25 GMT

I have

Discover Miles - 25K CL - 17K used at 0%

Chase Disney - 39K CL - 25K used at 0% - balance transfer capped at $75

Chase Amazon - 16.5K CL - use occationally when rewards are right

BOA Mastercard - 30K CL - 29K used at 0% - balance transfer capped at $75

Citi forward - 7.3K - New - but will charge full amount - 0% for 6mths

A bunch of smaller stuff - about 12 more cards

Wife has

Citi forward - 7K - New - but will charge full amount - 0% for 6mths

Discover 18.6K - our default CC when no other card makes sense

BOA Visa - 10K - was 0% - now PIF

A bumch of smaller stuff - about 10 more cards

I have scientific idea how we qualify for so much when others get so little - but here is some background and suggestions.

Most of the time we were building that portfolio we had one income - mine. Income is decent and improved to good - but not setting the world on fire or anything. My wife was bad with credit and we paid a bunch of interest early on - a bunch - but we we never late for a payment ever. A couple years ago I got smart on this stuff and now I am killing the CC companies - but they probably do see us a a very profitable/low risk customer - although they are going to catch up eventually. I am now in my second cycle of max out BT's at 0% and PIF before I pay any interest.

Apply for credit seperate from spouse. Alot of CC companies ask for household income - so you can get 2 seperate cards from the same company with the same income - essentially doubling you household income by virtue of two seperate applications.

Look for 0% balance transfers with 0 fees or capped fees (getting harder and harder to get). If you get a BT check - call and ask to cap fee. If they do - move all you CLs with that company onto that account and max it out. PIF before its due obviously.

Look for 0% apr teasers and take full advantage by charging everything. Look for sign-up bonuses. My Chase protfolio is so huge cause I kept applying for 0% aprs when one would roll-off - then I would combine balances with other chase cards. BOA is the same thing. App for something everytime your score gets 720+. Get a $100 sign-up, a 0% apr, a few K extra in CL, another card to ask for a CLI, or another card to combine the CL when you get a capped BT offer, and another set of reward options. Citi forward has some nice terms right now - 6mth 0% apr - 11000 points sign-up, 5% at resturants.

Never be late - ever.

Pay everything with a CC. Actively look for ways to build up your balances if you can get the cash right back.

Actively look to make money from this stuff. Open up bank accounts for bonuses. Find the highest interest rates you can, be a rate chaser. If you work somewhere that you can easily manipulate/split your direct deposit - that is a very powerful tool.