topic Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs in Credit Cards

Info Regarding Income vs CLs

improvingmycredit — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 04:11:19 GMT

For posterities sake- I'm posting to give some insight into CLs and income. I recently requested a 6 month CLI with Amex. Denied. The reason- income vs available credit obligations. I have +160K available CLs. Income just above 110K. Utility = 4% reported. Always PIF Amex with no balances left at statement cut. I've read many threads regarding CLs vs income. Just giving food for thought. I thought I was getting close to maxing out what some banks would consider reasonable for my income. Apparently- Amex thinks I have enough. :-)

Another note: no Info regarding a CB pull referenced so no FICO score given.

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

SnackTrader — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 04:13:18 GMT

Great data point! Thanks for sharing.

Would you mind expanding this to share an estimate of your other monthly obligations? The ones on your credit report are probably most important since that is likely all Amex has access to. So mortgages, cars, installment debt?

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

improvingmycredit — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 04:38:48 GMT

@SnackTrader wrote:
Great data point! Thanks for sharing.

Would you mind expanding this to share an estimate of your other monthly obligations? The ones on your credit report are probably most important since that is likely all Amex has access to. So mortgages, cars, installment debt?

Hey SnackTrader!

Sure: No mortgage. Single - House paid off. Car payment $684.- and 2nd Car $491. No installment debt. Spend about $2500-3500 monthly on all cards for all bills like cell- insurance-groceries-gas- utilities- dining -things I want and fun- fun- fun ...etc...unless I have a big purchase or vacation expense. Bank the rest. The 160K+ is all unsecured.

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

SnackTrader — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 04:55:22 GMT

Wow!

First of all, I'm jealous. But secondly, I can see why you were able to get up to $160k no problem to begin with. Your financial picture (at least as it stands on your credit report, which typically includes the biggest expenses) is really promising. $160k is still a lot of potential trouble if it gets maxed out, but your ability to handle that much credit is rather good given your housing situation and the fact that cars can be bought and sold rather easily. I am always curious how high lenders will go with me since my student debt load is rather hefty and I live in a very expensive part of the country when it comes to housing (both rental and ownership).

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

improvingmycredit — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 05:03:16 GMT

@SnackTrader wrote:
Wow!

First of all, I'm jealous. But secondly, I can see why you were able to get up to $160k no problem to begin with. Your financial picture (at least as it stands on your credit report, which typically includes the biggest expenses) is really promising. $160k is still a lot of potential trouble if it gets maxed out, but your ability to handle that much credit is rather good given your housing situation and the fact that cars can be bought and sold rather easily. I am always curious how high lenders will go with me since my student debt load is rather hefty and I live in a very expensive part of the country when it comes to housing (both rental and ownership).

SnackTrader

Thanks. :-) I don't think you will have any issues getting to your net income at the very least if your FICO is high. I found that once I got the first high limit card, every card there after either matched it or got bigger. I was a little surprised to see a straight out denial and not a counter offer to be honest, but really I didn't need the increase at all. LOL. I was just seeing if I could get the Amex to 25K from 18.3K. A lot of my other cards now are above 20K already. With your 13+K card already, you are well on your way to 20K cards. :-)

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

youngandcreditwrthy — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:23:10 GMT

Bah. I hope this doesnt happen to me. Im about at my income in credit lines.

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

improvingmycredit — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 01:05:42 GMT

lol. Well I hope not for you either. I should say that I feel very comfortable that if I hard apped another card from another lender, I'd be approved instantly for a pretty high limit. I think that I am just at my limit with Amex. unless I either increase my income or get rid of some of my other cards. I'm curious if I were to app another revolver from them, if I would be approved. Maybe I'll test this for informations sake, but I really don't want another Amex right now. Already have 4. 2 chargers- 2 revolvers. Unfortunately, you are bound to eventually hit your internal limit with some of your creditors too. Might even be there now with some. :-(

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

youngandcreditwrthy — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 03:00:31 GMT

Does Amex count store cards?
An Analyst at Chase told me they didnt look at store card limits. Prob half of my avail credit is store limits.
If they don't count store limits, then I'm golden! Haha

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

improvingmycredit — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 03:28:06 GMT

I honestly don't know. I only have 3- RTG 8K- Walmart 9K and Chevron 2.5K. That makes up near 20K of available credit. Don't know if that was considered or not. They are on my CRs though.

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

improvingmycredit — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 03:30:46 GMT

If I were you though- just looking at your profile, I'd nix almost all the store credit cards and focus on getting higher limits with the Prime Lenders. If any of the Primes do take into account store credit limits, you are severely limiting your CL potential with them. Just an after thought. :-)

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

youngandcreditwrthy — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 03:46:05 GMT

See... I would love to do that. Most of my primes arent ever two years old though, and I can't bring myself to close five digit store card limits that Ive had opened for four or five or six years...
I won't even consider actually doing that until I get a denial for too much credit LOL.
I have began the transition though and willl see where the next year or so takes me ib terms of credit lines/prime lenders! :-)

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

FinStar — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:05:07 GMT

@improvingmycredit wrote:
If I were you though- just looking at your profile, I'd nix almost all the store credit cards and focus on getting higher limits with the Prime Lenders. If any of the Primes do take into account store credit limits, you are severely limiting your CL potential with them. Just an after thought. :-)

Most sizeable lending institutions (BofA, WF, Chase, AMEX, etc.) take into consideration your overall credit picture which includes the store and private label credit lines. So for the above poster who stated Chase doesn't consider this into account is an inacurate statement. It is acurate in the sense that certain accounts that are coded as "charge accounts" on credit bureaus (example: Von Maur or similar creditor) which would behave/report as AMEX charge cards.

So, for folks who have accounts with Comenity or GECRB (etc) those report their respective credit lines (and balances as applicable) and count in the overal utilization factors. For the above poster, the "tap out" factor will eventually be reached whether he uses his HHI or personal income.

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

improvingmycredit — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:33:01 GMT

Thanks for the info. I was pretty sure that lenders take into account all CLs and utilization but couldn't confirm. I will on occasion use the Walmart card for example for a small purchase to keep the account active. Typically I will get a small FICO bump up with the reason being- "recent use of inactive account". "Displaying use of responsible credit habits improves your FICO and displays to lenders ability to handle different types of credit." or something to that effect. The point being- if FICO takes into account all TLs, so should and probably do the big lenders. Anyway- stands to reason that any TL that could potentially increase debt load should be taken into account. I am closing the Chevron and RTG here in the near future. Just no need for them and will only reduce my available credit marginally.

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

FinStar — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:46:44 GMT

@improvingmycredit wrote:
Thanks for the info. I was pretty sure that lenders take into account all CLs and utilization but couldn't confirm. I will on occasion use the Walmart card for example for a small purchase to keep the account active. Typically I will get a small FICO bump up with the reason being- "recent use of inactive account". "Displaying use of responsible credit habits improves your FICO and displays to lenders ability to handle different types of credit." or something to that effect. The point being- if FICO takes into account all TLs, so should and probably do the big lenders. Anyway- stands to reason that any TL that could potentially increase debt load should be taken into account. I am closing the Chevron and RTG here in the near future. Just no need for them and will only reduce my available credit marginally.

Correct. Plus, on the upside, when you close the above mentioned accounts that history is still retained for 10 years on file. The utilization hit will probably be small depending on the closed credit lines and the overall open accounts on file. Almost like a fruitfly on a grapefruit.

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

youngandcreditwrthy — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:48:17 GMT

Well, Im the one who mentioned that.
A Credit Analyst at Chase told me they do NOT consider store cards...
That is what I was told by a Credit Analyst on my recon for Freedom because I mentioned to them that I had larger, very well managed store lines. The reality is that all of my store lines are at zero bal, except a $200 0% offer bal on my Amazon Store card :-)

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

youngandcreditwrthy — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:50:24 GMT

I know FICO doesn't discriminate but an analyst on a manual review does, at least ime with Chase specifically. I believe they should consider it. Store card debt is very dangerous in my view... Looking at 22%+ aprs! Eek

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

navigatethis12 — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:52:24 GMT

@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:
Well, Im the one who mentioned that.
A Credit Analyst at Chase told me they do NOT consider store cards...
That is what I was told by a Credit Analyst on my recon for Freedom because I mentioned to them that I had larger, very well managed store lines. The reality is that all of my store lines are at zero bal, except a $200 0% offer bal on my Amazon Store card :-)

I was told the same thing by M&T and Sallie Mae. In my opinion, it's a huge load of rubbish. It's just as easy to default on an Amazon or Macy's card as it is to default on a card with a payment network. I never had the problem with Chase because they approved the cards anyway. The lady did include a store card when she mentioned how much available credit I had for a young person.

Re: Info Regarding Income vs CLs

youngandcreditwrthy — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:57:07 GMT

Yeah, I got that Freedom approved with a near maxed out Barclay's Trav Amex. I noted to him that my overalll util was like 15%, and he said they didnt count store lines in that...but he essentially approved me on that basis... I mean FICO considers store lines, Chase should too.