Does the gap between apps

[Anonymous]

affect the approved SL. Is it better to wait 6 months rather than let say 3 months?

[ChemE_Bear]

Interested to hear what others say but I think it depends on a lot more than just your last hard pull.  How many inquiries do you have in the past 24 months? I got a SL of $13,400 from AMEX BCP (with a high APR after the first year) applying 4 months after I got my Discover IT with a CL of $2000 but I had no other inquiries other than 2 from >18 months before.  I think the score penalty for a hard pull stops affecting your score after 6 months but that may not necessarily change your starting limit and the penalty depends on how thick your file is. Other factors that will impact starting limits are debt-to-income ratio and utilization.

[Anonymous]

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@ChemE_Bear wrote:

Interested to hear what others say but I think it depends on a lot more than just your last hard pull.  How many inquiries do you have in the past 24 months? I got a SL of $13,400 from AMEX BCP (with a high APR after the first year) applying 4 months after I got my Discover IT with a CL of $2000 but I had no other inquiries other than 2 from >18 months before.  I think the score penalty for a hard pull stops affecting your score after 6 months but that may not necessarily change your starting limit and the penalty depends on how thick your file is. Other factors that will impact starting limits are debt-to-income ratio and utilization.

Actually it's 12 months. Agreed that many factors go into the various parts of an approval and it would be nearly impossible to try and nail it down to one factor.

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[AverageJoesCredit]

Id say only if there was major improvement in your credit report and even then as stated orher factors still play . I think it might be better say it might help on chance  of approval  but not the starting limit, imo.

[Heatt99]

Imo your other limits, DTI, income stated would factor into limit provided. The distance between apps factors into credit seeking behaviors. If a person doesn't have a thick file, one would want to wait 6 months between apps for better approval chances.

I always apply 2 at a time for cards every 6 months so they grow together.

[Aim_High]

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@Anonymous wrote:

affect the approved SL. Is it better to wait 6 months rather than let say 3 months?

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IMO, I think it does help but of course it may depend on the lender.  I did notice that even with high scores and income, my SLs started declining last year after several apps even though they continued to give me the best APR.  I think lower limits may be the first sign that the credit spigot is starting to dry up.   That may be followed with denials, which is what I experienced even after I gardened for six months.  So yes, I believe that spacing out apps (may) help with getting better limits.  Right now, though, all the SLs may be suppressed due to the economy so all bets are off.