Discover CLI Denial

[Anonymous]

to medicgrl: 700-900 bucks.....CL @ 6600...think I'm not putting enough $ through?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Just wanted to add some data..Last CLI 6 months ago...have asked every month....nada...Scores 780's, Utilization 1%..AAoA 5-6 yrs, 2 hp's in last two years. Same denial letter everytime, not enough experience with current limit--

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I'm in the same exact boat as you, same denial letter every time and my profile data is nearly identical to yours with a TU score of 768 (EX and EQ are 823/832 but I don't think Discover sees those), AAoA 7 years, 2 inquiries, 1% util.  My last CLI was the first week of the New Year, so I'm at 7+ months now without anything.  I request a CLI every Monday morning, so I've got probably 25 denial letters with that same denial reason every time.  I've put anything from $2500 in a month through the card down to $10-$20 in a cycle through it.  Currently due to my lack of a CLI recently, I've been giving Discover "tough love" and only use the card for a 2-digit spend per month.  I may try a cycle coming up where I give it ZERO spend, something I have yet to do since having the card.

[Anonymous]

Hi Brutalshots....when I called the "backdoor" account analysts they said no point in really trying more then once every 30 days...30 days actually since your last cli request...just letting you know since you said you try every Monday. Having said that, I could be wrong, the person I was talking to could be wrong. Non-the-less, somethings up with them if they are giving out all these denials....

.I dunno, think maybe on their end they see us with such little utitlization they must think whats the point of giving more credit if we dont use what they alredy gave to begin with?

[DeeBee78]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi Brutalshots....when I called the "backdoor" account analysts they said no point in really trying more then once every 30 days...30 days actually since your last cli request...just letting you know since you said you try every Monday. Having said that, I could be wrong, the person I was talking to could be wrong. Non-the-less, somethings up with them if they are giving out all these denials....

.I dunno, think maybe on their end they see us with such little utitlization they must think whats the point of giving more credit if we dont use what they alredy gave to begin with?

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It's actually incredibly obvious, what brought the Discover CLI train to a screeching halt. They (along with Capital One) have seen the largest increase in the number of charge offs in the last 2 quarters, and they're a little spooked.  

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-26/us-consumers-tap-out-credit-card-defaults-surge-4-year-high-and-its-getting-worse

Capital One responded by taking significant AA on people with unused 30 - 50K credit lines. There are many MyFICO Forum posts where similar patterns emerged:

Community members were obtaining large limits on Capital One cards, with scores and history that didn't line up with the limits given. Example: Several people with 650 - 670-ish FICO scores were able to obtain Venture, VentureOne, or Quicksilver limits of 10 - 30 K. They would then app another Venture, VentureOne or Quicksilver a couple of months later, and get another 10 - 30 K line. Additionally, some of these members had recently discharged bankruptcies, giving Capital One quite the reputation for a forgiving rebuilder with decent limits. When Capital One allowed account combinations, several members were able to combine those two (sometimes three) lines into one massive limit. I don't blame anyone for this but Capital One.They were simply following the market trend of lowering approval standards to get their cards in more wallets. Every major lender has done this recently, because the credit card market has become more competitive than ever before. 

Discover hasn't seemed to start taking AA on people yet, but they have slowed down CLI's drastically, even for qualified people, but this shouldn't be looked at as new behavior. Before the Discover train was a thing a couple of years ago, they had a solid reputation of being a slow-growing and stingy lender. I would guess they went back to that algorithm, since it was working just fine for the past few decades. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi Brutalshots....when I called the "backdoor" account analysts they said no point in really trying more then once every 30 days...30 days actually since your last cli request...just letting you know since you said you try every Monday. Having said that, I could be wrong, the person I was talking to could be wrong. Non-the-less, somethings up with them if they are giving out all these denials....

.I dunno, think maybe on their end they see us with such little utitlization they must think whats the point of giving more credit if we dont use what they alredy gave to begin with?

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Requesting CLIs with Discover and getting denials has no bearing on when your account will be able to receive its next CLI.  If their internal equation says that my next CLI based on my profile will be available on the 15th of September for example, if I only request a CLI every 60 days and did it on September 1st, I'd go 6 weeks without getting the CLI that I could have in 2 weeks if I continued to request a CLI every week.  Hopefully that makes sense.

I'm not so sure about the utilization thing.  Yes, in general, spending more on a card is going to yield better CLI results.  A former member of this forum austinguy907 posted in a thread titled something along the line of "my first year with Discover..." illustrated how he took his Discover $4500SL to something like $48k in 1 year with constant SP CLIs and his monthly spend wasn't significant. 

It's also worth bringing up again that it's commonly believed that Discover "broke" something on or about March 29th when fixing a secured card issue, which has resulted in unfavorable CLI results as a whole since that date.  Prior to late March and their "fix" everyone was getting CLIs much more regularly.

[Anonymous]

to brutalshots: interesting, so you think when you get a cli there is automatically a new date set of when you would be eligible for your next cli? Thus negating what they said to me about only trying every 30 days? Shrug, I certainly have no idea and yes your examples of people with high cli's that only put a monthly directv bill or something small on their card every month prob suggests a low monthly utilization isnt the real reason they arent giving more credit. 

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's necessarily set at the time of a CLI, but rather can be influenced by behavior following a CLI. For example, if someone puts a spend through their card that's near their credit limit and does a PIF the following month, perhaps that would prompt discover to allow for a CLI sooner. Conversely, perhaps someone goes from 1% aggregate utilization to 60% in one month, if discover was going to open the door for a CLI opportunity possibly this profile change would negate it.

[Anonymous]

Yep, if your usage of a card doesn't make financial sense for a creditor, no CLI for you.

Remember that the creditor isn't just inventing a limit for you out of thin air: they have to have the funds available to back that limit up.  If other members are using their limits (meaning, spending the bank's reserve cash), they may not have enough to cover huge limits for everyone.  And if you're a cardholder who never uses the card, it's too risky for them to let you have huge limits that you never use, only to have you run them up if you lose your job and get sick and then charge it off.

There are a lot of analyses that go into your credit limit.  I consulted with a huge mega-creditor for a long time many years ago, and they even use things like your zip code to decide on what to offer.  If a lot of your neighbors are going through financial trouble, it reflects poorly on you as well.  Same is true with things like your overall spending habits on your credit report -- if you don't play the PIF before statement game well, it might flag you internally as a growing risk.