Best time for BoA CR CLI-> declined.. next step?

[Taurus22]

@FinStar   Yeah, I know....I guess I tend to be overcautious with these things. I'm a fan of the tried-and-true, and having a pretty well-known result occur.  Here, I'm still a little out of my comfort zone to be ripping strange band-aids.....lol.

Just out of curiousity, I assume it's a 6-month wait between requests with BoA, or is it a 61-day thing?

[FinStar]

---

@Taurus22 wrote:

@FinStar   Yeah, I know....I guess I tend to be overcautious with these things. I'm a fan of the tried-and-true, and having a pretty well-known result occur.  Here, I'm still a little out of my comfort zone to be ripping strange band-aids.....lol.

Just out of curiousity, I assume it's a 6-month wait between requests with BoA, or is it a 61-day thing?

---

Understandable. Nothing wrong with being overly cautious since everyone can have a different approach.  But, given it's a SP for trying, sometimes there can be missed opportunitites the longer one waits, of course this all depends on the profile.  It's ok to start at the steps of the pool and work your way toward the deeper part when you feel comfortable

CLI intervals can vary for different profiles, but most folks could find some success around the 6-month mark from the last CLI approval.

[lowspender]

Sorry to bump this.. some of the responses took off after I'd gotten a key answer from this thread. Try as I might, still bouncing back and forth on this, missing a piece of info (or at least, thinking I am).. and don't feel I have enough info to make a good decision.

@FinStar wrote: Nothing wrong with being overly cautious since everyone can have a different approach.  But, given it's a SP for trying, sometimes there can be missed opportunitites the longer one waits, of course this all depends on the profile. 

Written to another poster in the thread, but.. feels pretty applicable here.. think my opportunity is only getting better, but how much better, relative to how long I've waited, is the question.

---

@Taurus22 wrote: I'm really wondering if I can get this card to $15k in one shot....that would be a $9k increase. But I think I also read somewhere that BoA CLI's cap at 2.4x your current limit.....which would be $8400.

My apprehension has simply been with the balance on the card....I was under the impression the UTI% needed to be under 10% for the card to get the best CLI result.

---

BOTH of the underlined portions are my questions. Keep trying to optimize my cc spend and util for a cli. It's frustrating. I pif again on my last statement, knowing a tiny charge would post just before the statement cut and I wouldn't take the $0 bal point drop.
I post a 1% util.. it hits the bureaus, score goes up.. my util is already ~30%. Bureaus don't know that.. but will BoA be less generous with a cli if I have a good sized balance, since the week before, when I pif?

Maybe that doesn't matter.. is there a cap at how much BoA will raise a limit, per time? Can't find this, guessing it's based on dp's and not necessarily an official number- do I need to pif again this month before trying for a cli? 
Feels like I'm trying to spend my way to a cli, while maintaining a minimal balance, while not sure if there's a glass ceiling I'm not aware of, for my first cli, regardless of how much activity it's used for..

Help!

[CreditMarathoner]

I don't know the answers to your questions, but if you're trying to get the biggest CLI possible, I'd optimize things best you can, as in getting/keeping utilization down (reported on CRs for non-BOA, and also current utilization on BoA cards), maximize scores, etc.

From what I've read, you can shoot for the moon in your request, and they'll counter with whatever they're willing to give you at the time, and since it's SP, there's no risk in trying.

It would be interesting to see if there's a CLI cap based on current limit (2.4x or otherwise).  I don't have data points to confirm or deny this, but go for it and see what you get.

I'd do it for science, but (a) my BoA card has a high (unreported) utilization at the moment, and (b) I don't want/need a high limit/CLI on it at the moment.  I may request a small increase after it's paid off, but that won't test any ceiling theories.

[lowspender]

---

@CreditMarathoner wrote:

I don't know the answers to your questions, but if you're trying to get the biggest CLI possible, I'd optimize things best you can, as in getting/keeping utilization down (reported on CRs for non-BOA, and also current utilization on BoA cards), maximize scores, etc.

It would be interesting to see if there's a CLI cap based on current limit (2.4x or otherwise).  I don't have data points to confirm or deny this, but go for it and see what you get.

---

Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, asking big is encouraged, for the reasons you mentioned. I can pay the card off again now, well before my end of month date- my question is if BoA is ok with a "healthy" util when applying, or if they want it as low as possible/near $0.
I'll have to payoff some purchases in advance of making them. with how quickly the card fills. That quickly turns into overplanning, unless I just throw a chunk at the card as overpayment, and try to apply asap after it processes, before using that over the next few days.

I also find the idea of the cli cap relative to current limit, interesting. Not sure there's a reason to think my result would tell the limits of the cap, just what BoA is comfortable with, for my profiles stats. Scores are good, only have 3 cards, they'd be my largest limit, so who knows what the luv button will offer me. I'm sure I've affected it to a degree with my spend, but not sure if more would help and if so, how much.

@coldfusion  any insights you might have about cli's relative to current limits would be appreciated, @K-in-Boston very much the same.
Read somewhere else on here that however much you could payoff in a month is what the algo can allow, at max, fo a new cli. Not sure if that's true, if it bypasses a different and lower/more traditional cap, etc.

[FinStar]

@lowspender - this is a lot of over analyzing over a CLI request. I believe both coldfusion, K-in-Boston and other members have provided plenty of feedback on the overall topic.  I get the overly cautious approach to get the best bang for your buck, but it's an algorithm that's going to make the decision unless it goes to manual review which has its own paradigm.

Bottom line, there isn't a concrete scale or hard-and-fast rule on CLIs relative to current limits, whether that applies to your existing limits elsewhere or those with BoA.  If you have sufficient BoA exposure relative to your income and/or other obligations, they'll let you know.

The best thing you can do, as echoed by several comments upthread, is optimize your profile the best you can. Then, submit the CLI request (aim as high as practical), then wait for the results. Since the CLI process is done via SP, you have nothing to lose by trying.  So, there's no need to struggle.

At this point we're beating a dead horse per se and the thread is just going in circles.

[coldfusion]

---

@FinStar wrote:

@lowspender - this is a lot of over analyzing over a CLI request. I believe both coldfusion, K-in-Boston and other members have provided plenty of feedback on the overall topic.  I get the overly cautious approach to get the best bang for your buck, but it's an algorithm that's going to make the decision unless it goes to manual review which has its own paradigm.

Bottom line, there isn't a concrete scale or hard-and-fast rule on CLIs relative to current limits, whether that applies to your existing limits elsewhere or those with BoA.  If you have sufficient BoA exposure relative to your income and/or other obligations, they'll let you know.

The best thing you can do, as echoed several comments upthread, is optimize your profile the best you can. Then, submit the CLI request (aim as high as practical), then wait for the results. Since the CLI process is done via SP, you have nothing to lose by trying.

At this point we're beating a dead horse per se and the thread is just going in circles.

---

+100

Paralysis by analysis will get you nowhere. 

[lowspender]

---

@FinStar wrote: this is a lot of over analyzing over a CLI request. I believe both coldfusion, K-in-Boston and other members have provided plenty of feedback on the overall topic.  I get the overly cautious approach to get the best bang for your buck, but it's an algorithm that's going to make the decision unless it goes to manual review which has its own paradigm.

---

Definitely being more cautious, perhaps unnecessarily so. Hard to know which direction to take, without knowing what data to consider. Thinking I can align with the algorithm's ideal, either in spending pattern, current util, etc, is what keeps bugging me. Every time I fill the card and pif, wonder if I should do that a few more times, if that's shifting odds in my favor, etc.

---

@FinStar wrote: Bottom line, there isn't a concrete scale or hard-and-fast rule on CLIs relative to current limits, whether that applies to your existing limits elsewhere or those with BoA.  If you have sufficient BoA exposure relative to your income and/or other obligations, they'll let you know.

---

So there isn't a concrete scale or general guideline like this, for BoA? That's what I wanted to know- how much more activity might move me closer to the limit of what they'd be willing to offer, if there is one. Certainly have more room for exposure from them, from reading on here. 

---

@FinStar wrote: The best thing you can do, as echoed by several comments upthread, is optimize your profile the best you can. Then, submit the CLI request (aim as high as practical), then wait for the results. Since the CLI process is done via SP, you have nothing to lose by trying.  So, there's no need to struggle.

I appreciate that guidance and agree, several helpful comments earlier on, that I learned from. Those were members with thicker profiles, so whether there's a lower initial ceiling for a low sl card, on a younger profile, and how much my activity can shift that, hadn't been addressed. The limit multiple per cli was brought up by another member..not something I'd even considered, initially. So I don't think we're going in circles.. but moved on to what seems to be a final relevant piece, for a less aged profile. If you're saying there's no concrete limit, that answers my question.

While it's true there's nothing to lose in terms of a hp, there is a significant time factor, in waiting between cli's. Knowing what I can do to maximize the cli and make the card more useable, rather than being limited by it for the next few months, is important, to me.

[CreditMarathoner]

I don't think there's any way for us to know for certain.  Much like the nuances of FICO scoring, which is only known by FICO themselves, the algorithm an institution like BoA uses to approve CLIs is only known to the programmers that wrote the code and the analysts and underwriters who set the criteria the code uses (which I'm sure they tweak constantly as market conditions change).

But, my thoughts are, BoA knows all activity on your BoA accounts.  Every time you make a payment, every time you make a purchase, what your balance is day-to-day, and how much you've spent and paid over the past few months.  Your credit reports only show a snapshot at the time the account is reported to the bureaus.  So, I would think they'd weigh the actual activity they have on record more than what was reported.  They just SP your report to see what your other (non BoA) tradelines look like.  If those look good, and your current-at-this-very-moment utilization isn't crazy, I'd go for the CLI, especially if the account's reached 6 months and you see the link.

I wouldn't sweat the increase being less than you wanted, as even a small increase is better than none at all, and you can always get more in 6 months.  Worst case is you get a denial, and will have to try again in a month or so (I don't know if a denial resets any clocks forcing you to wait to try again... it's not 6 months in that case AFAIK).

[lowspender]

---

@CreditMarathoner wrote:

But, my thoughts are, BoA knows all activity on your BoA accounts.  Every time you make a payment, every time you make a purchase, what your balance is day-to-day, and how much you've spent and paid over the past few months.  Your credit reports only show a snapshot at the time the account is reported to the bureaus. So, I would think they'd weigh the actual activity they have on record more than what was reported.  They just SP your report to see what your other (non BoA) tradelines look like.  If those look good, and your current-at-this-very-moment utilization isn't crazy, I'd go for the CLI, especially if the account's reached 6 months and you see the link.

---

Good thoughts, thanks! Certainly can't expect anyone to know a BoA algo. Guess I figured with all the specific details I read on here, who's best for thin/thick profiles, average approval limits for different card models, etc, it seemed like knowing whether BoA had an initial max they were willing to extend relative to your current cli (separate from an income related ceiling) might be common knowledge.
From what FinStar said, there may be no cap! That encourages me to wait slightly longer, to put some more spend and pif through the card.

Rather wait a week or 2 more.. if I have to go through another 6 months of dealing with this pif every couple weeks..it bugs me to the point where the card feels useless.

I don't see a denial happening, as the link has been there for a couple months now.. that said, I just pif this morning, as it's at 1000 (of 2500). Another 1700 being spent next week I can pif. I'll have paid off an average of a little over 50% of the card, each week, for 2 weeks. If I knew they'd only extend me a grand more, I'd just click the button now. If they haven't predetermined my max and could 3-5x it (income warrants it), thinking that spend could alter their thoughts on my profile.

edit- all non boa tradelines are at $0, except for the 5 yr ssl. Cleared them off in prep for the final sp showing.. usually they're being used, to support when boa gets full.