Just closed my Citi DC because of the same thing. Same $3K CL for over three years, put decent spend on it each month and the reward was a $500 CLI. Buh-bye.
Starting Score: 469Current Score: 819
Goal Score: 850
Highest Scores: EQ 850 EX 849 TU 850
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@micvite wrote:
@Junejer wrote:Just closed my Citi DC because of the same thing. Same $3K CL for over three years, put decent spend on it each month and the reward was a $500 CLI. Buh-bye.
I guess it just depends what you consider decent spend... I had 2k CL on my DC, open for about a year, got a CLI to 4k, during the 6 month wait I put around 6-8k per month on the card and leaving it with a statement balance of a few hundred dollars and I got bumped from 4k-8k CL. Last 3 months before my cli is due I'm gonna put around 12-15k on it each month and see where that takes me in terms of CL.
It is great that you have no issue doing this because it requires multiple monthly payments. And if you are rebuilding or new to credit then yes, that might be necessary. But once you are 760+ nobody should get a low 1k or 2k limit if everything else is great as well. I want to take full advantage of grace periods and just refuse to have to make multiple monthly payments just to make a card usable in the hope this will trigger an auto cli. So yeah, I am with @Junejer on that one. I rather see a denial than a token credit limit that is useless. We just closed my DW Freedom Flex because they gave her a $1600 limit, just crazy.
@micvite wrote:
@Junejer wrote:Just closed my Citi DC because of the same thing. Same $3K CL for over three years, put decent spend on it each month and the reward was a $500 CLI. Buh-bye.
I guess it just depends what you consider decent spend... I had 2k CL on my DC, open for about a year, got a CLI to 4k, during the 6 month wait I put around 6-8k per month on the card and leaving it with a statement balance of a few hundred dollars and I got bumped from 4k-8k CL. Last 3 months before my cli is due I'm gonna put around 12-15k on it each month and see where that takes me in terms of CL.
That's what I would call heavy spend. By decent spend, I'm talking about $800-$900 on a card of $3K CL. To me, that's a decent spend on that card. Sorry, but I'm not going to put myself through all of those gyrations for a card of that limit. I should've turned it down when they offered $3K. I didn't, so I rectified the situation now. I make one payment per month on each card. That's enough for me.
Starting Score: 469Current Score: 819
Goal Score: 850
Highest Scores: EQ 850 EX 849 TU 850
Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
@micvite wrote:
@Junejer wrote:
@micvite wrote:
@Junejer wrote:Just closed my Citi DC because of the same thing. Same $3K CL for over three years, put decent spend on it each month and the reward was a $500 CLI. Buh-bye.
I guess it just depends what you consider decent spend... I had 2k CL on my DC, open for about a year, got a CLI to 4k, during the 6 month wait I put around 6-8k per month on the card and leaving it with a statement balance of a few hundred dollars and I got bumped from 4k-8k CL. Last 3 months before my cli is due I'm gonna put around 12-15k on it each month and see where that takes me in terms of CL.
That's what I would call heavy spend. By decent spend, I'm talking about $800-$900 on a card of $3K CL. To me, that's a decent spend on that card. Sorry, but I'm not going to put myself through all of those gyrations for a card of that limit. I should've turned it down when they offered $3K. I didn't, so I rectified the situation now. I make one payment per month on each card. That's enough for me.
Ah fair enough, like I said I didn't know what you considered decent spend. For me I personally don't mind, it's my daily spend 2% card for stuff that doesn't fit into flights hotels and dining lol... when it's time for a cli on cap 1 I take the loss on .5% to try to get higher limits on that card nowadays.
I suppose I figure that if I spend close to the limit over the course of a few months, that is a good spend. I don't have unlimited income, so I have to determine which cards are going to give me the best bang for my buck. The last couple of years, it was on my SW card. This year, I will focus on my spend across several cards. These cards all have decent limits though. I will take that spend and put it towards my CapOne card for the first few months of the year. If it doesn't result in a decent CLI, then it will be relegated to the "pack of gum per month" treatment.
Starting Score: 469Current Score: 819
Goal Score: 850
Highest Scores: EQ 850 EX 849 TU 850
Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
I am in FULL agreement. I don't have time for these banks that won't raise my limits. My Chase Amazon limit is still at $1000 for years... like 6 years or so, I can't remeber. Are you kidding me? I'm gonna be closing everything under $9,000 except for my REI MC and Amex BBP, which I just haven't requested a CLI on as of yet. Can't be bothered and I've got WAY more cc's than I can manage so... Simplicity. They can jump in the lake. My apologies for sounding like I'm ranting. 
Offered for data points -
opened my Citi about a decade ago. Don't recall the original product. Went through two product changes. Had to fight like Hades to get the product change to the DC.
Original limit was 5 or 6K. Over the years, $500 here, $2K there, and the limit is now $20K.
They extended 9.4K when I opened the Custom Cash 5 months ago. (Why '.4' I'll never understand.)
@Crowhelm wrote:
@lgtwriter wrote:I was approved for a Citi Costco card in August and they gave me a very small credit limit, $1,200 which was way way less than all of my other credit cards. I tried for a cli a couple of times, but decided to close the card because it was not very useful to me with that cl.
The same day or next day (I can't remember exactly) I applied for the Citi Simplicity card and was given a $14,600 credit line. Same datapoints. I had paid off a bit of utilization in the several months since I opened the Costco card, but there was no way that there were any changes in my profile to cause a difference of over ten times the credit limit.
Citi is weird, at least in my situation. YMMV of course.
All big banks are like that. If they start you off low even though you have great credit scores you are better off closing the account. Two very important things are communicated that way. You are not desperate for their card and most important you are not willing to play by their rules if the rewards don't outweigh their ridiculous limits. Can't wait to have my wife close the Freedom Flex card right after we cash in her latest points. $1600 limit with a 784 score pulled and 6 digit income is nothing but insulting and we won't stand for it.
I feel the same way, if they insult me with a ridiculous CL, I will close it. A low CL card will never get used by me because I will not let a card go above 10% utilization, and a $3k card (think Discover) would only get $300 and that is too much headache to deal with.
