topic Re: Discover in Credit Cards

Discover

coachbeau — Fri, 05 May 2023 06:48:11 GMT

Five years ago I got a Discover secured card that graduated at 10 months but no CLI. During those 10 months, I was approved for another unsecured Discover with a $750 limit. Since then I have not received a CLI on either card. My scores have gone up over 150pts, but no love. I have multiple cards with $25K limits and my Amex that I received at the same time as the Discover has gone from $1K to $12K. I've read the term "bucketed" not sure if these fall in that category.

Re: Discover

JoeRockhead — Fri, 05 May 2023 11:28:37 GMT

Discover isn't one I would say buckets cards, as there are several around here with 50k+ CLs, but they do like to see heavy spend, or feel like they are your daily driver. I've seen many people here have success with them by charging up to 70 or 80% of their CL, pay it off when the charges post to the account, rinse and repeat. I've also seen it suggested to pay balance in full prior to requesting a CLI. I'm sure others will chime in with their experiences.

Re: Discover

M_Smart007 — Fri, 05 May 2023 12:28:23 GMT

^^^ This +1

Heavy spend and daily driver needed. No buckets necessary

Re: Discover

FireMedic1 — Fri, 05 May 2023 13:50:54 GMT

JMO of course. I'd shut down the graduated card which may carry that tag and keep the newest one. Agree with others. As it worked for me yrs ago. They are the jealous type. Abuse it for a while. Once the CLI's start coming in. Its keeps going. I started at $1200 5 yrs ago. Mouse over below.

Re: Discover

nelson_xxiii — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 13:58:05 GMT

I'm on the same boat. Currently on a $200 secured card just to get my foot in the door and been using it up to 90% CL and PIF every month and currently 4 months in. Hoping to get my deposit back by month 6 and get a CLI of at least $1k to start. Just doing this month over month as some have stated here and hoping my heavy usage helps me continue to grow with Discover. Best of luck and please report back when something changes.

Re: Discover

SouthJamaica — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 15:44:47 GMT

@coachbeau wrote:
Five years ago I got a Discover secured card that graduated at 10 months but no CLI. During those 10 months, I was approved for another unsecured Discover with a $750 limit. Since then I have not received a CLI on either card. My scores have gone up over 150pts, but no love. I have multiple cards with $25K limits and my Amex that I received at the same time as the Discover has gone from $1K to $12K. I've read the term "bucketed" not sure if these fall in that category.

There are as many theories as to how to get CLI's from Discover as there are MyFICO forum members. E.g.

-use it heavily

-use it just a little

-don't use it at all

Users have reported success with every one of the above tactics.

The only theory that works for me is:

-CLI decisions are made in a room full of monkeys with keyboards

Re: Discover

Rogue46 — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 18:29:42 GMT

I was getting regular CLI up until about a year ago with very modest spend then nothing, My guess is the current financial climate has some bearing on that.

Re: Discover

ways2go — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 06:58:45 GMT

as someone else said, spend, pay , repeat. All I can say from experience with me, I started with a 2.5K SL, I used it alot, spent alot , pay on it. I have always carried a balance, which I don't want anyone to do, and my balance is about 6800. I went from 2.5K to 21.5K. Majorly it was from Auto-CLI. What I see from personal experience is they like to see alot of spending on it.

Re: Discover

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 20:12:31 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:

The only theory that works for me is:
-CLI decisions are made in a room full of monkeys with keyboards

Actually, this is where a lot of FinTechs went under in the credit card experiments: primate upkeep can be very expensive. And they can get through an almost unbelievable number of keyboards, as biting occurs almost as often as a key press. Turns out it is much cheaper, and just as effective, to hire low-wage humans, give then minimal and hopefully contradictory training and live with the results.

Re: Discover

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 20:17:07 GMT

More seriously, I echo @SouthJamaica major point. Lots of people have achieved "success" with different methods. Perhaps it would have been faster if they had tried something else but probably not. There isn't always One True Way, and the best way may vary as the issuer deals with different market conditions.

There is a tendancy to believe what worked for me must be the way to do it (especially if we have been unsuccessful doing something else) but in credit that is rarely the case, and what we identify as the change ("Aha, I spent 90% of my CL and they gave me a CLI") may just be noise, with the change being due to the account aging/changing market conditions for the issuer/some other account changing/etc

But ALWAYS post as if you know the absolute truth!

Re: Discover

K-in-Boston — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 20:48:49 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@coachbeau wrote:
Five years ago I got a Discover secured card that graduated at 10 months but no CLI. During those 10 months, I was approved for another unsecured Discover with a $750 limit. Since then I have not received a CLI on either card. My scores have gone up over 150pts, but no love. I have multiple cards with $25K limits and my Amex that I received at the same time as the Discover has gone from $1K to $12K. I've read the term "bucketed" not sure if these fall in that category.
There are as many theories as to how to get CLI's from Discover as there are MyFICO forum members. E.g.
-use it heavily
-use it just a little
-don't use it at all
Users have reported success with every one of the above tactics.

The only theory that works for me is:
-CLI decisions are made in a room full of monkeys with keyboards

The other two important factors:

Use it for a balance transfer and you will likely see a big CLI when it is paid off.
Never use the card for a balance transfer.

Discover is the definition of YMMV when it comes to CLIs. I have definitely seen that mine gets CLIs with larger spend, but it's hard for me to do that since their 5% quarters overlap more often than not with other cards in my wallet (i.e. I wouldn't want 5% back on restaurants or grocery since I value 4X on Amex Gold much more, or a Chase Freedom 5X category would be worth at least 7.5%), and I also use the card for BTs half the time. During the promo period or when the BT is paid off, I always get denied for not having enough spend on it. Player 2, on the other hand, is the poster child for use it for a BT and pay it off (while never actually using the card for anything else) with a limit north of $60k and still growing.

Re: Discover

Adkins — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 16:30:31 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@coachbeau wrote:
Five years ago I got a Discover secured card that graduated at 10 months but no CLI. During those 10 months, I was approved for another unsecured Discover with a $750 limit. Since then I have not received a CLI on either card. My scores have gone up over 150pts, but no love. I have multiple cards with $25K limits and my Amex that I received at the same time as the Discover has gone from $1K to $12K. I've read the term "bucketed" not sure if these fall in that category.
There are as many theories as to how to get CLI's from Discover as there are MyFICO forum members. E.g.
-use it heavily
-use it just a little
-don't use it at all
Users have reported success with every one of the above tactics.

The only theory that works for me is:
-CLI decisions are made in a room full of monkeys with keyboards

The other two important factors:
Use it for a balance transfer and you will likely see a big CLI when it is paid off.
Never use the card for a balance transfer.
Discover is the definition of YMMV when it comes to CLIs. I have definitely seen that mine gets CLIs with larger spend, but it's hard for me to do that since their 5% quarters overlap more often than not with other cards in my wallet (i.e. I wouldn't want 5% back on restaurants or grocery since I value 4X on Amex Gold much more, or a Chase Freedom 5X category would be worth at least 7.5%), and I also use the card for BTs half the time. During the promo period or when the BT is paid off, I always get denied for not having enough spend on it. Player 2, on the other hand, is the poster child for use it for a BT and pay it off (while never actually using the card for anything else) with a limit north of $60k and still growing.

I'll add a data point to this. My first discover card I increased my limit when I combined an old and new account. I applied for a second discover card and got a $1K limit. I transferred almost the maximum to that card and have paid it off slowly. My first, combined limit card doesn't get any CLIs. I do use it pretty heavily in the right quarters. The second card, with the balance transfer, got a $2K increase after six months to $3K, which is more than half my limit on my first combined card. 🤷