topic Re: Discover IT...need cli advice... in General Credit Topics

Discover IT...need cli advice...

Physh1 — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 18:38:51 GMT

Wednesday I will have had this card for 1 year. Started at $500...cli to $1000 in 3 months...$500 cli each month for the next 3. I've been sitting at $2500 for 6 months and Discover won't budge.

I've used the card heavily or used it rarely but always pif or keep reported util from 0%-15%. I have primariliy used the card for the quarterly categories.

My Fico scores are 770-780 via CCT and my TransUnion Fico through Discover is 781 as of 7/6/17. Major cards are Amex EDP @ 24k, PenFed Promise @22.4k, BofA Alaska @ 28k, BofA Cash @15k, Amex SPG @ 10k, Chase Amazon @6.5k.

My overall util right now is 5%, total available credit is $200k

What am I missing with Discover? I don't plan on closing the card but would really like a higher limit....any suggestions?

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

FireMedic1 — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 19:15:18 GMT

Join the crowd with the same problem. http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Discover-unOfficial-Data-Points/td-p/4802538/page/71

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 20:10:10 GMT

Welcome to the forums!

If I am reading your post right, Discover has mutliplied your original credit limit by a factor of five in the last year, via multiple CLIs (all without a hard pull). That's actually an example of a CC issuer being really responsive to a consumer's CLI desires. Some issuers do far less than that (maybe once a year say).

I am a bit curious about why you want a much bigger CL on this particular card in the next six months. You already have many cards with big limits and your utilization is low. The quarterly category right now is restaurants. Do you think you'll been spending thousands of dollars on restaurants each month? The answer may be yes... just curious.

Again, glad you are here and wish you all the best.

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Physh1 — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 00:07:09 GMT

I am in no way complaining about the cli's I've goiten. I do feel it odd every other creditor has rewarded me with larger cli's.

- Penfed in one shot went from $5k to $22.4k

- BofA Alaska went from $6k to $28k in one shot...

- Amex EDP went from $8k to $24k in one shot...

I think it odd than someone with nearly an 800 score with a diverse and responsible profile would be held to a $2500 limit. I do put roughly $3k through cards every month so I figure the cli would be simple to keep a consumer happy especially since they'd see more income from swipe fees.

I don't spend lots on fast foods and restaurants but I still like using my Discover cards and like they way treat their customers.

I don't plan on closing it...just wondering what might be so odd about my profile that they'd see it best to keep my limit low.

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 00:26:33 GMT

I would just keep doing what your doing and hopefully eventually they'll budge. Just out of curious what is your income ?

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/Discover-CLI-The-road-to-32k/m-p/4842730/highlight/true#M471022?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&q=The+road+to+32k

That was my CLI journey with discover. Take a look and see some data points.

Good luck !!

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 01:58:29 GMT

What is your income?

One thing to bear in mind is that Discover isn't making its decisions solely in a vacuum. They can see that your total credit limit (counting all your other cards) is going way up. They may feel like you already have a lot and don't want to give you more since you already have so much. Thus, if you didn't already have a 200k credit limit (!) you might be getting more CLI action from them. I experienced actual CLDs this year when my total CL got higher than my income. (And my FICO 8 varies between 805 and 830.)

There's probably a lot of speculation in that thread as to why Discover might not be aiming its products at people who want big credit limits. To me it kinda makes sense that they'd do that. Once a person actually begins to want/need a card that has a 10k or 20k limit, he's probably not going to be using a Discover for it.

As far as I can tell, there's no real adavntage to spending more than $1500 per quarter on a Discover (or a Chase Freedom, etc.) -- and even then only if 99% of the spending is in that quarterly category and is stuff you really want. That averages to $500 a month. That's why I was thinking that your $2500 CL will probably be just fine. I am sure you can get a CLI once a year if you really want it.

All that said, no reason not to ask folks here for their thoughts -- certainly not discouraging you from throwing the question out there!

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Gregory1776 — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 03:19:03 GMT

@FireMedic1 wrote:
Join the crowd with the same problem. http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Discover-unOfficial-Data-Points/td-p/4802538/page/71

Eww wee! Now ill be up all night. 🙄

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Physh1 — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 03:44:31 GMT

My income has been $80k to $90k the last 3-4 years. It's just a curious case...I understand the different ways creditors weight variables to make safe decisions...I can't imagine I'm on their radar as a risk but who knows.

I don't like making multiple payments every cycle...I think that raises flags for MS and would prefer 1 larger payment before or after the closing date. I'm hoping when my cashback match hits in the next few days I'll hit the button and try again. If not, I may try calling Discover and talking to an analyst.

Thanks for the input guys...it's appreciated.

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 05:23:51 GMT

Sounds like your total credit limit is more than double your income. Discover may not like that.

Your $2500 CL should work ok with your idea of 1 payment shortly before the statement prints.

Best of luck regardless...

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Asilomar — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 06:19:03 GMT

I find this thread fascinating. I'm with the OP in that I don't understand why he's being held to such a low CL given his stats.

Take me for example. I opened an It card in March of this year. The SCL was 7,500 and I recieved a CLI of 3,000 less than 2 weeks ago. It's my card with the highest CL yet I have a lower reported income, lower scores by far and a much, much thinner credit profile than the OP. Go friggin figure.

Personally, I'm on a CLI mission just because. I'd like to see how much credit I can get for no reason at all. LIke when I was 14 and spent one summer trying to see how tan I could get.

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 16:13:48 GMT

@Physh1 wrote:
I am in no way complaining about the cli's I've goiten. I do feel it odd every other creditor has rewarded me with larger cli's.
- Penfed in one shot went from $5k to $22.4k
- BofA Alaska went from $6k to $28k in one shot...
- Amex EDP went from $8k to $24k in one shot...

I'll give my take on the discussion here. First, Discover is not known to ever give a CLI like any that have been referenced above. Discover is one of those cards that will grow over time. For some it can grow quickly, for others it takes longer and there are periods that go stale without a CLI. It's also important to understand that CLIs are often granted and considered expressed as a percentage. Too often we think just in dollars, as the dollar limit is what "matters" in most cases. As suggested earlier in this thread, your limit has increased 5X in your first year with Discover. That growth is actually greater than the growth on all 3 of the cards you mentioned above. Sure the dollars aren't as great, but your Discover SL was only 6%-10% of the SL of those other cards. Had those other cards started at $500 limits, you can be sure that they wouldn't have grown anywhere near as much as you saw with those already solid SLs.

The question to ask here IMO is why was your SL with Discover only $500 a year ago? The two most common reasons I can think of are that you were relatively new to credit (thin file) or your file/scores a year ago were in worse shape than your 780 profile today. Whether either of those reasons is true, or it's something else, Discover felt that starting you at $500 based on your profile was acceptable and accounts that start low almost always take longer to grow.

I think this perspective above is 90% of the "reason" and answer to your question as to why your limit is where it is now. I do think that your total credit limits of $200k may be playing into it some, but doubt it's all that impactful.

One final thing, many people (myself included) have reported Discover CLIs "stalling out" at the 6 month mark or so. While my SL (and current limit) on my Discover card are greater than yours, the CLI pattern was almost identical and the time frame was nearly identical as well. I opened my Discover account in June 2016 and just received my CB match last week about 2 weeks after my anniversary date. In my first 6 months with Discover I received 4 CLIs totaling $11,800 ($4k two times, $3800 once) and then a final $500 CLI which to me was a sign that they were pumping the brakes. Sure enough, I've gone over 6 months now without a single CLI, just like you. I still hit the CLI request button often. I'm thinking since my account is now over a year old and I haven't received a CLI in over 6 months that at some point relatively soon they'll grant me one and that's probably the same boat you're in right now was well.

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 13:46:14 GMT

Thoughtful, balanced, inightful post by BBS. Very helpful.

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Asilomar — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 21:28:18 GMT

Duplicate

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Asilomar — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 21:27:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

One final thing, many people (myself included) have reported Discover CLIs "stalling out" at the 6 month mark or so. While my SL (and current limit) on my Discover card are greater than yours, the CLI pattern was almost identical and the time frame was nearly identical as well. I opened my Discover account in June 2016 and just received my CB match last week about 2 weeks after my anniversary date. In my first 6 months with Discover I received 4 CLIs totaling $11,800 ($4k two times, $3800 once) and then a final $500 CLI which to me was a sign that they were pumping the brakes. Sure enough, I've gone over 6 months now without a single CLI, just like you. I still hit the CLI request button often. I'm thinking since my account is now over a year old and I haven't received a CLI in over 6 months that at some point relatively soon they'll grant me one and that's probably the same boat you're in right now was well.

Thank you, BrutalBodyShots (hockey fan?). I find these kinds of posts incredibly helpful as I attempt to navigate first-year CLI's out of Discover.

I have to wonder if hitting the button often, even though they're soft pulls, has any effect on how quickly Discover "pumps the breaks".

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 01:27:49 GMT

@WhiteCleats wrote:
Thank you, BrutalBodyShots (hockey fan?). I find these kinds of posts incredibly helpful as I attempt to navigate first-year CLI's out of Discover.

I have to wonder if hitting the button often, even though they're soft pulls, has any effect on how quickly Discover "pumps the breaks".

Hardcore boxing fan, although I find hockey entertaining as well.

My opinion is that hitting the button more often than the next guy has zero impact on Discover stalling on giving out CLIs. There are people that hit the button every week that get a CLI every 60 days (every 9 times hitting the button) and there are people that hit it once every 60 days and get the same CLI. I think when the system has a CLI waiting for you, it's just a matter of when you claim it. By hitting the button more often, IMO you simply ensure that you aren't leaving that money on the table any longer than need be. Also from what I've seen, whether you hit the button rarely or regularly, the end result in terms of CLIs usually seems to work out to about the same amount. For example over a 1 year period, one person may hit the button twice and get two $4000 CLIs, or $8000 total for the year. Another person may hit the button once per month and get 4 denials and 8 approvals for $1k each. End result = $8k in CLIs either way. I'm not saying this is always the case, as there are certainly exceptions to everything. From what I've read, though, hitting the button more often with Discover doesn't adversely impact anything.

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Asilomar — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 06:22:52 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

My opinion is that hitting the button more often than the next guy has zero impact on Discover stalling on giving out CLIs. There are people that hit the button every week that get a CLI every 60 days (every 9 times hitting the button) and there are people that hit it once every 60 days and get the same CLI. I think when the system has a CLI waiting for you, it's just a matter of when you claim it. By hitting the button more often, IMO you simply ensure that you aren't leaving that money on the table any longer than need be. Also from what I've seen, whether you hit the button rarely or regularly, the end result in terms of CLIs usually seems to work out to about the same amount. For example over a 1 year period, one person may hit the button twice and get two $4000 CLIs, or $8000 total for the year. Another person may hit the button once per month and get 4 denials and 8 approvals for $1k each. End result = $8k in CLIs either way. I'm not saying this is always the case, as there are certainly exceptions to everything. From what I've read, though, hitting the button more often with Discover doesn't adversely impact anything.

You know, I could have noticed your boxing gloves avatar. My powers of observation are deeply impressive.

Very interesting. And it makes good sense. At this point, unless I discover (no pun intended) a reason not to, I plan on a CLI request monthly. I feel as if I've gotten lucky so far -- as compared to so many other It users on this board -- but if I start getting rejected then I'll know I've hit a wall.

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

AverageJoesCredit — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 15:06:01 GMT

This is Discovers World, we are all just little fish swimming along either hoping not to be eaten by bigger fish or to be asked to swim with the big boys

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 18:23:26 GMT

@WhiteCleats wrote:
Very interesting. And it makes good sense. At this point, unless I discover (no pun intended) a reason not to, I plan on a CLI request monthly. I feel as if I've gotten lucky so far -- as compared to so many other It users on this board -- but if I start getting rejected then I'll know I've hit a wall.

Sounds like a good plan. I was hitting the button on the first Monday of every month from January through April this year and received no CLIs. Then I heard that in the last few days of March that Discover "broke" something and reset everyone's clock. At that point since about mid-April, I've been hitting the CLI button every Monday. Nothing but 3-5 day message denials. Denied on Monday and I always receive my denial letter on Saturday, stating "not enough experience with current credit limit." I will continue to hit it weekly though, as I really do want to know what date they have in store for me as far as my next CLI since it's been > 6 months now since my last one and my account has crossed the its 1 year anniversary.

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 20:22:42 GMT

As a quick aside, I have never had a CC issuer be more persistent about trying to give me a card. Although I do not have a Discover, I get in the mail an average of three offers a month from them. It would be ironic if after all that begging me to sign up, they gave me a $500 credit limit.

Re: Discover IT...need cli advice...

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 21:13:09 GMT

That would be something else, wouldn't it! My Ex-GF used to get a Discover offer in the mail just about every week as well. It seems once they have you in their crosshairs, they won't let you out of them until they get you. Have you ever considered apping for the card, or does it not suit you at all?