Direct Deposit: does the amount matter?

[leo187um]

Does the amount of the direct deposit make a big different to the lending institution when they calculate limits for new cards or CLI requests? I want to boost relationships with BoA (long banking relationship); US Bank (sweet business credit cards); NavyFed (high limits on personal side); Penfed (Gold card); and Amex (sweet business credit cards).

I already have ~10k in the bank with NavyFed but not much at the other institutions (have a savings account and CD at Amex). Ideally would like to have a DD of $250 across all four but would the limits be higher the bigger the DD amount per paycycle (assuming all else equal)?  

[SUPERSQUID]

I can only speak for Navy fed, I have a small monthly 250 dollar direct deposit with them and its enough to raise my rewards on the cash rewards card to 17 pct.

I havent had my cards with navy very long, first one in dec/2021 so im not sure if that 250 dd helps the limits. my dd only started 2 months ago.

[Chazzay12]

From what I've read on the forums, the amount of money you're depositing in the bank doesn't matter. 

Unless you are depositing 6 figures or more, I don't think it makes a difference.  Ymmv 

[nytokyobred79]

I can only speak to BoA but I was able to obtain 2 cards with them recently without any previous banking relationships. Your profile at the time of application and overall income would likely be the biggest factors to determine your limits. Also, with Amex, although I didn't get a big limit on my first card out the gate, the limits on my next 2 cards were quite good. I think if I didn't have an absolute young thin profile when I applied for my first Amex, there's a possibility I could've landed a decent limit out the gate( assuming I had a not too young profile with some established credit history, clean file as well). 

[Yasselife]

@leo187um  I'm already at $33k CL(could be higher if I would've asked for more) with NFCU in less than 2 yrs and only $5 on a share savings/$0 on checking. (No DD)

[leo187um]

comparable credit? pay off balance in full? i mean it's hard to give opinion on things when you don't have all the data points..

[AutisticPretzel]

Generally speaking, monthly direct deposits aren't much of an issue when dealing with of the bigger banks. Alot of the time consumer lending departments and banking departments seem to work independently of each other anyways. There are a few exceptions here and there - Wells Fargo would be one. I've seen someone denied for a CLI due to their account balance. Was this just a generic reason the computer algorithm spit out? Possibly, but the fact that this was even a viable reason for denial within their system is enough reason to give me pause when dealing with them.

Where monthly DD's and deposits DEFINITELY tend to matter is when you're dealing with most credit unions, especially the small to mid sized institutions. These lenders often ask for P.O.I before granting new lines of credit anyways, so they definitely look at your deposit history. You don't necessarily have to deposit $1K+ a month, but it is important to be consistent and to actually build transactional data by actually using the account.I deposit $500/month on the 1st of every month into a CU I plan on borrowing from in the near future to establish a relationship.

PenFed and NFCU are definitely outliers as they could care less but as I said, most other CU's want to see consistent income, however big or small, before they will open up the purse strings.