topic Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?) in Credit Cards

Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

SALEEN961 — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 11:28:31 GMT

At the end of the day today I will have hit the 6 month mark and 6th statement on my Discover More card making me eligible for a CLI. I've heard a few people say that getting the card paid off before requesting a CLI is a good idea which would seem to be common sense, but I've also seen a couple people post that they received auto-CLIs from Discover when they carried a balance that put them at a high utilization percentage, so I'm looking for a general consensus on what Discover likes to see.

I currently only carry a balance on my Discover and I only have one other card that reported utilization at the last statement cut ($279/$2000 14%). The balance on my Discover is in the 0% APR period and I plan to have that paid off in the next few months, I had a large purchase that qualified for 5% cashback which combined with the 0% APR is that reason I'm allowing myself to carry that balance. My usage was small transactions everyday totaling up to $200-$300 a month until I made that large purchase and after the purchase 2 months ago I've pretty much stopped using the card except for a handful of transactions and shifted my daily spending to another card. I've been paying a about 4x the minimum payment on my Discover for the time I've carried the balance and up until that point I pif'd every month.

So my question is what should I do to maximize my chances for a getting a CLI and what should I do to maximize my potential CLI?

Age: 23

Income: 46K

Inquiries: Less then 5 at each CRA

AAoA: 1yr9mo

Util: 14%

PayPal Extras MC: (0/7500) 2yr11mo

Discover More: (2500/3000) 0yr6mo

Chase Amazon: (279/2000) 0yr3mo

Chase Freedom: (0/5000) 0yr1mo

AMEX BCE: (0/2500) 0yr2mo

2 Student Loans: ($4700)

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

Themanwhocan — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 11:58:37 GMT

I hate to say it, but you look desperate for credit.

Sure the Discover is 6 months old. But in that time, you've also added 3 more credit cards in just the past 3 months, you've almost maxxed out the credit limit on the Discover (83.3% Utilization), AND you want to request a large CLI on the Discover just as soon as you could possibly request one.

Now I'm no banker. I don't even play one on TV. But you look risky.

Now, if you were Discover, knowing only what is on this persons credit report and what this person claims is their income level, would you give this person a large CLI, or would you postpone that decision for another 6 months to see how they used all those brand new credit cards?

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

SALEEN961 — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 22:17:51 GMT

@Themanwhocan wrote:
I hate to say it, but you look desperate for credit.

Sure the Discover is 6 months old. But in that time, you've also added 3 more credit cards in just the past 3 months, you've almost maxxed out the credit limit on the Discover (83.3% Utilization), AND you want to request a large CLI on the Discover just as soon as you could possibly request one.

Now I'm no banker. I don't even play one on TV. But you look risky.

Now, if you were Discover, knowing only what is on this persons credit report and what this person claims is their income level, would you give this person a large CLI, or would you postpone that decision for another 6 months to see how they used all those brand new credit cards?

I have to agree that from a bankers perspective I do look very risky for the exact reasons you mentioned, but with this being the case what would you recommend as a course of action on my part?

I could wait until my Discover balance is paid off but by that time only 3-4 months will have passed and my new accounts will still look fairly new but I will also have 2 additional cards maxed out (Chase Freedom and AMEX BCE) in the amount of $7500 next week after my new toolbox is paid for.

Over the next few months I plan to make reasonable payments in excess of the minimum required payment to the 3 cards that will carry balances while still paying off my daily spending card every month in full. All 3 cards carrying a balance will be in the 0% APR period while my student loans are still at 4.5% so over the next few months I will be putting all my discretionary income towards paying off my student loans and once they are paid off all my discretionary income will be put towards paying off my credit card debt which will still be in the 0% APR period long after the balances are paid off.

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

drew11 — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 00:45:00 GMT

I agree with the post above and also found myself wondering what I could do to improve my chances for a CLI. My Discover just turned 1 year old this month and I have yet to get anything but the "you are ineligible for a CLI at this time blah blah blah" since the 6 month mark without getting a hp.

I had similar stats to you and put a lot of expenses through the card, especially for the 5% holiday shopping. That didn't seem to work so maybe my recently opened larger CL cards/auto-CLI from Chase along with little use of the card might make them reconsider - otherwise it's less swipes for them!

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

FinStar — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 01:29:32 GMT

@Themanwhocan wrote:
I hate to say it, but you look desperate for credit.

Sure the Discover is 6 months old. But in that time, you've also added 3 more credit cards in just the past 3 months, you've almost maxxed out the credit limit on the Discover (83.3% Utilization), AND you want to request a large CLI on the Discover just as soon as you could possibly request one.

Now I'm no banker. I don't even play one on TV. But you look risky.

Now, if you were Discover, knowing only what is on this persons credit report and what this person claims is their income level, would you give this person a large CLI, or would you postpone that decision for another 6 months to see how they used all those brand new credit cards?

Discover can be a very picky lender (all within their own underwriting reasons) as they tend to be very conservative. Discover tends to SP credit files frequently and determines an appropriate algorithm that leverages risk and spend among a variety of other factors for CLI. For any customer-initiated CLIs, and provided the account is elegible via SP, if the card isn't used much and the CR is not optimal, then most folks won't see the online option/feature to do a CLI or when contacting them via chat/phone. Hence, the HP route will need to be considered... and with no guarantee that a desired CLI will be approved.

Likewise, if your CR is decent (no derogs, good score, etc.) but don't spend much on the card (regardless if you revolve or not), then one can't expect a really high CLI. Their auto-CLI works in much similar fashion. The longer you have the card, the better the opportunity, which is also combined with your overall CR profile, etc. Typically, folks with excellent credit usually get higher CLIs, whether customer-initiated or assigned automatically during periodic account reviews.

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

Fresh-Start — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 02:22:15 GMT

It's been 10 months since my one and only CLI from Discover. I've had the card for 16 months......each time I hit the button it says the same thing....not eligble etc.. All my other credit cards have grown except Discover. It's a shame because I would love to use it more.

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

SALEEN961 — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 00:09:29 GMT

Well I can say that the online CLI request button works for me, but any request I make requires a hard pull and further review, probably because I'm being honest about my length of employment (1 month) I know that has to be a red flag. The computer won't bump me up to $7500 or to $5000 without a hard pull and with the recent changes to my CR that hard pull definitely doesn't guarantee anything so it looks like I might have to call in if I want to get anywhere.

Hopefully the following explanation will get me somewhere with a CSR "I decided to take advantage of your 5% cashback offer for home improvement purchases but now I'm so close to my low limit that I'm not comfortable using the card for daily spending as I feel the high utilization already reflects upon me poorly so I switched my daily spending to another card but I would like to start using my Discover again as the 5% Gas category is coming up soon"

I'm still open to any suggestions on what course of action I should take to maximize my chances of getting a good CLI.

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

SALEEN961 — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 00:39:23 GMT

You know the thought of looking at what my credit reports will show in the next 2 months from a bankers perspective is really starting to concern me, I guess knowing that I have the ability to pay off my debts very quickly has given me a false sense of how my actions will be interpreted by my creditors. Once my toolbox is charged to my Freedom and Amex my utilization would be at 51% across all credit lines with 3/5 cards essentially "maxed-out" for several months if I followed my initial plan to pay off my student loans first before paying off my credit cards.

Given my recent inquiries and credit seeking habits I have to admit that while that plan makes perfect sense from a financial standpoint at this point I'm not really comfortable following through with it as I feel it just makes me look way to risky. I just paid off my Amazon card so it will report 0% util, took a chunk out of the balance on my Discover; and in a continued effort to improve my perceived credit worthiness I think I'll pay down my credit cards to a util of less then 50% each (26% across all lines) before I start paying off my student loans again. This will cost me some extra money in interest on my student loans, but the headache that cost may allow me to avoid seems well worth it, $50 in interest is cheap insurance.

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

SALEEN961 — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 16:59:12 GMT

Well I just called in and took the HP for a CLI of 4K up to a total credit limit of $7000 with Discover. I was hoping for a SP but I wasn't eligible and I was assured that the HP wouldn't be a waste. I have a good handful of inquiries from the last few months but those are the only inquiries I have, so in total I still don't have very many and don't really feel like that one extra HP will effect my score much; however lowering the current util on my Discover from 70% down to 30% should have a pretty significant effect on my credit score, both currently and while I pay off my toolbox over the next several months.

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 17:46:44 GMT

Grats on the CLI. Becareful about the maxed out freedom and BCE. I understand you have a 0% APR offer right now, but all lenders get paranoid when you have more than 1 card that almost maxed out.

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

SALEEN961 — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 00:11:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Grats on the CLI. Becareful about the maxed out freedom and BCE. I understand you have a 0% APR offer right now, but all lenders get paranoid when you have more than 1 card that almost maxed out.

Yeah I'm not thrilled about having 2 maxed out cards but at least with this recent CLI it's only 2 and not 3. I had an amazing offer made to me on the purchase of a new toolbox that was only good for 3 days, and credit cards were the only financing option I had given that I had to get approved that quickly. Normally I just save up the money for these large purchases and pay them off in full at the end of the month, but the offer I got was unexpected and right after a previous purchase that wiped out my savings so that wasn't an option but the deal was to good to pass up.

Re: Discover CLI (Increasing Chances of a Good CLI?)

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 00:29:58 GMT

My experience with Discover----first off I'd like to say my scores are a touch lower than yours (lower 7"s across EX/ EQ upper 7's TU, our AAOA is similar, no lates, baddies, etc, similar lines of credit but mine are a little lower -- I still have a $500 Chase--LOL). I've had my Discover for just at a year now and had not had any cli's from them. I have carried a balance and PIF'd for months, carried a larger balance for months and consistently made 2+ payments a month of around 4-5x the min payment due, continued to use it, signed up for reward programs, used rewards on Amazon, etc.... At 10 months with the card I PIF'd a large balance and used for small purchases and had PIF before statement cut (several payments a month).... At almost 1 yr exactly I requested a cli by phone. It was a soft pulll and they increased from $1700 to $5700 instanly. GL