topic Re: Ouch, Discover! in Credit Cards

Ouch, Discover!

isoldmyatlas — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:08:49 GMT

My 6th statement cut yesterday. Unlike a few members here, my CL wasn't bumped up today, so I decided to call in. I know they pull TU and I only have 2 inqs in the past year on that report. I wanted to get my line up to $5000 from $3000, so I figured I could burn a hard pull. I generally put anywhere between $100 and $1100/month on the card.

It couldn't be approved over the phone with a soft pull I said they could HP me and they forwarded me to a credit analyst. I only got a $500 bump She said it was because out of my 6 statements, only 4 months of them had a posted balance. I made charges the other 2 months but paid off before the statement cut. When I brought up that I still made charges on the card, she said they weren't really looking for purchases, they were looking for "balance activity."

Definitely bummed. Hopefully I'll have better luck with a CLI from Amex in July.

Re: Ouch, Discover!

Rhaeny — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:26:59 GMT

Sorry about that because that just sucks to have an HP for $500 CLI. Discover is unpredictable IMO.

Hmmm but on another note....I seriously have often wondered about this same thing of PIF by the reporting period for a zero balance. All that I've read seemed like it didn't matter but I've always still had a question about that in the back of mind. I was always wondering could they *see* anything with a zero statement. When I say *they* I mean any creditor. I guess this just reiterates the fact to only PIF just before you're ready to app.

Re: Ouch, Discover!

migliogiorni — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:34:02 GMT

ok so this my a seem like a stupid ?... but, so If I charge 500 on my card let the staement cut.. then PIF...then charge another 500 and do this over again... wont it seem like I haven't PIF;d and am making little payments?? Thanks for the information this is very useful to me for next time. Srry aout your CLI success, it's hard to think yur doing the right thing to maximize your total CLI andthen get a small amount.

Re: Ouch, Discover!

LS2982 — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:34:23 GMT

Hmmm......

I never leave a balance either.....I dont wanna leave a balance tho.

Re: Ouch, Discover!

isoldmyatlas — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:35:44 GMT

@LS2982 wrote:
Hmmm......

I never leave a balance either.....I dont wanna leave a balance tho.

And if I remember correctly, you haven't gotten love from Discover either, right?

Re: Ouch, Discover!

Rhaeny — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:37:24 GMT

@migliogiorni wrote:
ok so this my a seem like a stupid ?... but, so If I charge 500 on my card let the staement cut.. then PIF...then charge another 500 and do this over again... wont it seem like I haven't PIF;d and am making little payments?? Thanks for the information this is very useful to me for next time. Srry aout your CLI success, it's hard to think yur doing the right thing to maximize your total CLI andthen get a small amount.

Absolutely not because if you didn't PIF your balance would increase by 500 bucks per month. So after 1 year your balance would be $6K with 500 X 12.

Re: Ouch, Discover!

Rhaeny — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:38:58 GMT

@isoldmyatlas wrote:
@LS2982 wrote:
Hmmm......

I never leave a balance either.....I dont wanna leave a balance tho.

And if I remember correctly, you haven't gotten love from Discover either, right?

Well this very well could be the problem LS!!!

Re: Ouch, Discover!

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:46:19 GMT

@isoldmyatlas wrote:
My 6th statement cut yesterday. Unlike a few members here, my CL wasn't bumped up today, so I decided to call in. I know they pull TU and I only have 2 inqs in the past year on that report. I wanted to get my line up to $5000 from $3000, so I figured I could burn a hard pull. I generally put anywhere between $100 and $1100/month on the card.

It couldn't be approved over the phone with a soft pull I said they could HP me and they forwarded me to a credit analyst. I only got a $500 bump She said it was because out of my 6 statements, only 4 months of them had a posted balance. I made charges the other 2 months but paid off before the statement cut. When I brought up that I still made charges on the card, she said they weren't really looking for purchases, they were looking for "balance activity."

Definitely bummed. Hopefully I'll have better luck with a CLI from Amex in July.

This is definitely an important peice of information. I know you're bummed about the poor increase for an HP, but we have learned a valuable lesson here. Let balances cut, then PIF. Since there's a grace period you don't pay interest. You will take a hit with your scores, but that's just a util-related hit. easily fixed the following month or the month after by not leeting a balance report.

Re: Ouch, Discover!

webhopper — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:53:10 GMT

My Discover Card Activity looks something like this over the last 6 months

Balance Reported	Purchases	Payments
0	62.34	62.34
112	1097.30	985
1578	1578	112
193	1094	2480
53	4420	4563
0	1465	1554

In my opinion, Discover is not one of those lenders who rewards you for really paying before statement cuts. I got an awesome CLI in Feb. from 5k > 13.5k

Re: Ouch, Discover!

isoldmyatlas — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:54:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@isoldmyatlas wrote:
My 6th statement cut yesterday. Unlike a few members here, my CL wasn't bumped up today, so I decided to call in. I know they pull TU and I only have 2 inqs in the past year on that report. I wanted to get my line up to $5000 from $3000, so I figured I could burn a hard pull. I generally put anywhere between $100 and $1100/month on the card.

It couldn't be approved over the phone with a soft pull I said they could HP me and they forwarded me to a credit analyst. I only got a $500 bump She said it was because out of my 6 statements, only 4 months of them had a posted balance. I made charges the other 2 months but paid off before the statement cut. When I brought up that I still made charges on the card, she said they weren't really looking for purchases, they were looking for "balance activity."

Definitely bummed. Hopefully I'll have better luck with a CLI from Amex in July.
This is definitely an important peice of information. I know you're bummed about the poor increase for an HP, but we have learned a valuable lesson here. Let balances cut, then PIF. Since there's a grace period you don't pay interest. You will take a hit with your scores, but that's just a util-related hit. easily fixed the following month or the month after by not leeting a balance report.

Yup, that's exactly why I shared it. Even if I didn't really benefit from this, it can definitely help someone else who's wondering how to get an increase from them!

Re: Ouch, Discover!

09Lexie — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 21:02:18 GMT

Thank you for this tidbit of information! My 6 mos will be in June and I've never PIF, I have heavy usage on this card but always keeping it below 20%. hopefully, I'll get a nice CLI.

Re: Ouch, Discover!

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 21:06:24 GMT

I plan on maxing this out and paying it down to 0 by my 15th statement to take advantage of intro apr. August is my 6th statement cut. I won't if they will give me a CLI for carrying the balance. haha

Re: Ouch, Discover!

Mailak — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 21:09:38 GMT

I do not let any card go for an extended period without letting it reporting a balance. Even if you like only one card reporting a balance, rotate them through so that all them show periodic activity. Purchase activity can be drilled down but unless someone has a specific need to look into it, they are not going to do it - that too when it is being done manually. Similarly, your monthly payments COULD be looked at but it will be the monthly balance that is programmed into evaluating activity - especially by others through a credit report.

There are advantages and there are disadvantages of letting a zero report. There are people out there who have had accounts closed because of zero activity when they kept on letting a zero report for extended periods of time.

Re: Ouch, Discover!

Lambo23 — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 21:11:50 GMT

This is great information! Thank you so much for sharing it!

Re: Ouch, Discover!

phillyguy12 — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 22:41:23 GMT

discover is very much YMMV, Dec was my 6th statment i got a small $300 auto love on my 1200 line, was hoping for more but let it be because i didn't want any hard pulls because i got a barclay card shortly around that time,so i wasn't expecting anything till 1 yr mark and out of the blue earlier this month i got 400 auto love at 9 months so now im at 1900 line. i have the more card and not sure if this is normal or they have me in some kind of program, because i had an account before w/ them that they closed due to lates that was 4k line. they worked with me to pay it off in full and i waited a few months to reapply and they only gave 1200 line to start as long as they keep giving me some auto love every few months im happy. edited to add also don't know if this made any difference i updated my income to current level in my profile on the website slightly before getting the last auto cli. im hoping the next one will be at least 600 to get me to the 2.5 mark. my last few months look like this

month	prev bal	pmts	purchases	statement bal
nov	450	900	450	0
dec	0	99	256	157
jan	157	374	427	210
feb	210	530	320	0
apr	0	59	175	116

Re: Ouch, Discover!

Themanwhocan — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 22:52:23 GMT

@isoldmyatlas wrote:
My 6th statement cut yesterday. Unlike a few members here, my CL wasn't bumped up today, so I decided to call in. I know they pull TU and I only have 2 inqs in the past year on that report. I wanted to get my line up to $5000 from $3000, so I figured I could burn a hard pull. I generally put anywhere between $100 and $1100/month on the card.

It couldn't be approved over the phone with a soft pull I said they could HP me and they forwarded me to a credit analyst. I only got a $500 bump She said it was because out of my 6 statements, only 4 months of them had a posted balance. I made charges the other 2 months but paid off before the statement cut. When I brought up that I still made charges on the card, she said they weren't really looking for purchases, they were looking for "balance activity."

Definitely bummed. Hopefully I'll have better luck with a CLI from Amex in July.

Hmm, this sounds like what I was planning to do. My 3rd statement was 10 days ago, and no auto cli. I let the 3rd statement balance drop to zero, and the first was only 12 days long so didn't have much money reporting. I'll just change my payment plan for the next 3 statements and see where that gets me. I still plan to HP after 6 months, since I'm still where I started at $2000.

Who was that wise man who said the reason we're requesting an increase should be "because I'm embarrased to mention how low my Discovercard Credit Limit is"...

Re: Ouch, Discover!

youngandcreditwrthy — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 03:38:50 GMT

I always have a balance hahahah!

Re: Ouch, Discover!

youngandcreditwrthy — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 03:39:59 GMT

I pay a few hundred a month on a balance that fluctuates between 800-1500 a month. It's at 0% currently until January

Re: Ouch, Discover!

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:19:20 GMT

I think a lot of this has to do with the credit card company.

Discover cards seem to be aimed at mid-tier credit people who are likely to carry a balance, maybe charge too much, and don't pay off the cards every month. Their model for highest profitability seems to NEED the cardholder to carry balances. On the other hand AmEx tends to be targeted more toward those who will treat the cards like debit cards, pay them off very quickly and AmEx seems to be most happy when people do pay them off and not carry a balance. AmEx is relying on swipe fees for profitability, so carrying a balance is unimportant to them.

It would seem in the grand scheme, folks who frequent sites such as this have FAR more credit knowledge than the average Joe. The average Joe gets targeted offers in the mail for someone with income like his, credit scoring like his, spend patterns like his, etc. The company knows that Joe isn't likely to pay off the card every month. Joe is happy someone extended him $2500 of credit, and the company is happy earning interest off Joe.

Along comes Mr. Savvy, gets a card for the reward points, doesn't fit anything LIKE the common profile of a carrier of that card, and just does everything "wrong". Calling for CLI's, paying in full, doing BT's and paying it to zero just before the cut off. The company's worst nightmare. And Mr. Savvy get's incensed when the company won't "work with him". So I guess the way to make this work is to either get cards that work with how you spend your money and pay your bills, or learn the game of the credit card you have and play it the way they want it played.

Just my thoughts on the matter, and hopefully I've not offended anyone with my remarks.

Re: Ouch, Discover!

youngandcreditwrthy — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:29:35 GMT

I also just got an auto cli from 4000-4750. I won't be utilizing > 30% of my cl. It seems like Discover might like balance carriers!?!?