topic Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's in Credit Cards

People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Knice86 — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 17:13:49 GMT

I see people with 15-40 credit cards all with high limits. That is my goal but I wonder if there is a secret on being able to use them all in a rotation of sorts to ensure you get healthy CLI's whether automatic or manual. Basically, how do you have such a large volume of credit cards all with high limits and manage to use them to the point where your credit limit never decreases, rather increases.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

gdale6 — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 17:28:46 GMT

I use personal finance computer software for all my expenses and income, it also holds all the CCs I have and its easy for me to see who has use and who doesnt and I know the balances on all at all times this way.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

KLEXH25 — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 17:42:37 GMT

I imagine having a high income / high spend also plays a role.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 18:00:53 GMT

@Knice86 wrote:
I see people with 15-40 credit cards all with high limits. That is my goal but I wonder if there is a secret on being able to use them all in a rotation of sorts to ensure you get healthy CLI's whether automatic or manual. Basically, how do you have such a large volume of credit cards all with high limits and manage to use them to the point where your credit limit never decreases, rather increases.

When you have "enough" cards and CL, getting endless CLIs isn't necessarily a goal. Just keeping the cards that you need (and maybe looking for replacements where appropriate). Then it's just a case of keeping the needed ones active with purchases from time to time, which isn't hard as by definition these are the ones you need!

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

coldfusion — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 18:45:52 GMT

I know the cards I want and the ones I'm ambivalent about.

The ones I want get regular/regularish spend, the others are used when there are targets of opportunity.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

MrDisco99 — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 20:10:11 GMT

Yeah I don't really think about chasing CLIs... at least not anymore.

I got two triple CLIs from Amex and that was it. Most of my high limits with them are from applying for SUBs and transferring limits before cancelling.

BoA stopped giving me CLIs when my combined limits hit 50% of declared income. I tested this by bumping up my salary to a nice round number on the next application and they matched exactly 50%. Remarkable.

I never got any CLIs from Cap1. They told me I wasn't spending enough. They gave me high limits out the gate, so I'm OK with it.

Citi stopped giving me CLIs on any cards. I used to click the love button every 6 months. I never got the impression they cared much about how much spend they were getting. I think I just hit a ceiling with them, same as Amex and BoA.

And I don't spend HPs on CLIs so that covers everyody.

I've always just tried my best to optimize rewards and not think much about making banks happy. That seems to have worked out fine for me.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

staticvoidmain — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 20:14:31 GMT

I don't have a lot of credit cards, but I use an online spreadsheet that I can access anywhere. It's very easy to expand and add more cards/accounts to it. If you have a table of all your cards and their balances, then you'll know which ones you're not using. I do log all my spend though. When it comes to rotation, it can get tricky if your spending is too few (i.e. you don't pay for, or purchase a lot of things).

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

wasCB14 — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 20:28:45 GMT

I wouldn't have a problem with a few CLDs. I only care about maintaining my CLs on cards that at least occasionally get a lot of spend - and those get plenty of activity naturally.

A few card (IHG, Hyatt, Arrival) serve a very limited purpose and while I want to keep them open I don't need a big CL. My $20k Arrival gets under $10 a year in spend so a CLD seems likely there.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

notmyrealname23 — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 20:37:53 GMT

@Knice86 wrote:
I see people with 15-40 credit cards all with high limits. That is my goal but I wonder if there is a secret on being able to use them all in a rotation of sorts to ensure you get healthy CLI's whether automatic or manual. Basically, how do you have such a large volume of credit cards all with high limits and manage to use them to the point where your credit limit never decreases, rather increases.

I don't care very much about CLIs as long as I have reasonable CLs for my spend patterns on the card that make reasonable utilization non-problematic (and having AMEX NPSL charge cards means I have ways to work with utilization).

At some point I'll have to think about how I want to shape some of my future CLs and apps. I'm fairly happy with what I have now, mostly what's left are tweaks like having less of my tradelines be in the Discover/Capital One/Synchrony/Petal subprime buckets and more in the bank/credit union prime buckets, plus getting some travel cards as I lightly surf some SUBs and benefit packages, but that can only come over time as my credit rebuild improves.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

cashorcharge — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 21:24:02 GMT

I like getting the extra love from CLI's whether it's an account with a High CL I use a lot regularly or small ones that I've had a long time as they help my AAoA. I like to use them for indiviual things each month for a tank of gas, lunch somewhere or even at the carwash. I also have gotten into the habit of setting up the alert for when the charge goes through and a lot of my accounts allow the payment before the charge even hits so I pay it back that same day so I don't forget. A zero statement generate and I'm happy with that.

I was reading a few days about a guy on here that takes all his cards to the gas station and buys gas $5 or $10 at a time to fill the tank. Probably takes him 20 minutes to fill the tank but accomplishes the same goal.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 23:44:11 GMT

I now have 47 credit cards. I only pay an annual fee on one of the cards, the Barclays Luxury Card. I keep a steno book with each card listed for the due date and the closing date. Once a card statement closes. I use that card for a day, sometimes three cards in a day. It then goes back away until next month. It is a very easy process but can be time consuming.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 00:13:13 GMT

I use a big spreahsheet. lol

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 00:19:17 GMT

Great question! I've wondered the same thing. I barely squeeze into the criteria you set. With a total of 19 cards I have a spreadsheet where I keep opening date, SCL, and track CLI. Unfortunately, once a HP is removed I delete the CB. My highest CL is my AmEx at $29.5K.

I utilize my lesser cards by for streaming channels. Other cards for Wi-Fi, cell phone, and utilities. Those cards get taken out now and then for a tank of gas or a lunch.

I'm not one to try very often for a CLI. My total CL is approximately $184K. I check my balances once a week on Monday.

For those with 30 cards and more, I give you credit for maintaining your cards! No pun intended.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Viva-LV — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 01:18:29 GMT

@Knice86 wrote:
I see people with 15-40 credit cards all with high limits. That is my goal but I wonder if there is a secret on being able to use them all in a rotation of sorts to ensure you get healthy CLI's whether automatic or manual. Basically, how do you have such a large volume of credit cards all with high limits and manage to use them to the point where your credit limit never decreases, rather increases.

Constant cli opportunties vary with the lender, and I would say they're all different. Some will let you build up limits (BOA, Am Ex) to their "limit threshold". Others will, after some history, may give a generous line (USB, Chase). Speaking for myself, I'm topped out with most of my card accounts, with Discover still growing. Unless my income and/or spend increases, I'll be at my siggy limit. Congrats to the higher achievers, there are quite a few here.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 02:28:22 GMT

I have 17 cards, not a ridiculous TCL (around $65k), and I carry my Gold charge, BCP, CU Visa, and Disco cards daily. The rest are accessible for when their intended uses arise. The ones I listed are my daily used cards, where the vast majority of my spend goes. I use all of my cards at least every couple months though, except Firestone which I used today for an oil change on one of my cars but which hadn't been used in five months (statement cut today and thankfully it is still open).

Like another poster up above, I use a spreadsheet to track everything. I track balance, limit, available credit, aggregate and individual usage percentages, statement and due dates, CLI dates and amounts, a running tally of how much my total required payments are at any given moment, and reward balances. The spreadsheet calculates everything based on balance and limit, including a separate table that shows the balance on each that equates to a scoring threshold, and one that shows the paydown amount needed to cross the next lower threshold. (I'm an engineer, can't help it - I like numbers). It even color-codes cells based on how soon payments are due, usage, whether or not that month's payment has been made, etc.

All that being said, I typically pay as soon as the statement cuts on the 2-4 cards per month that post a balance, so the requirement is handled immediately, and then I'll throw extra money at them before the due date as the month goes on. The majority are all paid to zero before the statement cuts. It makes it pretty easy to manage it all as long as my spending stays under control and I don't start to amass balances on multiple cards, which I used to do (hence all the calculations and such in the spreadsheet), but which is a thing of the past as of this year. My reported usage stays between 4-6% now, typically under 5%.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 02:28:39 GMT

@staticvoidmain wrote:
I don't have a lot of credit cards, but I use an online spreadsheet that I can access anywhere. It's very easy to expand and add more cards/accounts to it. If you have a table of all your cards and their balances, then you'll know which ones you're not using. I do log all my spend though. When it comes to rotation, it can get tricky if your spending is too few (i.e. you don't pay for, or purchase a lot of things).

I basically do the same thing. I also total the balance of all cards so that I know what's remaining to move to a MM account or brokerage account before paying cards in full each month, which basically is used to earmark for payment (CC balances are like check amounts that haven't cleared my checking account). I make sure all cards get activity every month, except for Lowe's, to minimize CLDs or closures. It's very easy to see on the spreadsheet which cards have activity and which ones do not. Each transaction turns green when I make an entry.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Shooting-For-800 — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 11:08:24 GMT

It can be a lot to manage.

I have almost $400k TCL.

I started closing and combining low CL cards before Covid.

Right now I am not closing anything and rotating cards for purchases so they don’t close for me.

GL!

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 14:04:14 GMT

It's not as difficult as you might think. Just throwing a $1 charge on each card every couple months is enough to keep the card open and you can accomplish that through Amazon gift card reloads.

For CLIs, sometimes that $1 is enough. Comenity shot me down for not using my card, I put a $1 on it on Amazon, got a 2X CLI the next month. A buddy of mine has over $90K in limits with Comenity and he only does $1 charges on his cards every 6 months. Synchrony gave me almost twice my income in limits with less than $200 spend a month averaged across all of my cards. Capital One and Discover are the only two that shoot me down for not using my cards enough but I have high limits with both of them close to my income anyway.

The real key is to make sure that you have a calendar reminder to sit down and do keep alive charges for cards in the SD.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

wasCB14 — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 15:12:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's not as difficult as you might think. Just throwing a $1 charge on each card every couple months is enough to keep the card open and you can accomplish that through Amazon gift card reloads.

For CLIs, sometimes that $1 is enough. Comenity shot me down for not using my card, I put a $1 on it on Amazon, got a 2X CLI the next month. A buddy of mine has over $90K in limits with Comenity and he only does $1 charges on his cards every 6 months. Synchrony gave me almost twice my income in limits with less than $200 spend a month averaged across all of my cards. Capital One and Discover are the only two that shoot me down for not using my cards enough but I have high limits with both of them close to my income anyway.

The real key is to make sure that you have a calendar reminder to sit down and do keep alive charges for cards in the SD.

Credit so casually extended may also be quickly withdrawn. If you add up the waves of Comenity and Synchrony shutdowns over the last few years, I expect a fairly significant chunk of the "$100k Club" have gotten significant AA.

Just anecdotally...not keeping statistics here.

Re: People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 15:28:46 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
It's not as difficult as you might think. Just throwing a $1 charge on each card every couple months is enough to keep the card open and you can accomplish that through Amazon gift card reloads.

For CLIs, sometimes that $1 is enough. Comenity shot me down for not using my card, I put a $1 on it on Amazon, got a 2X CLI the next month. A buddy of mine has over $90K in limits with Comenity and he only does $1 charges on his cards every 6 months. Synchrony gave me almost twice my income in limits with less than $200 spend a month averaged across all of my cards. Capital One and Discover are the only two that shoot me down for not using my cards enough but I have high limits with both of them close to my income anyway.

The real key is to make sure that you have a calendar reminder to sit down and do keep alive charges for cards in the SD.
Credit so casually extended may also be quickly withdrawn. If you add up the waves of Comenity and Synchrony shutdowns over the last few years, I expect a fairly significant chunk of the "$100k Club" have gotten significant AA.

Just anecdotally...not keeping statistics here.

Yes both Synchrony and Comenity are "easy come, easy go" lenders. Although to be fair, despite having almost 5X my income in credit limits, I haven't experienced any AA and in fact got a CLI from Target, Comenity, Synchrony, and also got my AOD card since April. It really is profile dependent. My buddy has never had Comenity touch his accounts despite the fact he has multiple cards around $30K and never puts more than a few bucks a year on them. Its totally profile dependent.