@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much for this post! I've been using my Discover it a lot more recently, however I pay it off multiple times a month in order to report low utilization (~5%). Do you guys think they determine usage by how much your statement reports, or how much you actually spend on the card every month? Wondering if I should just stop paying the card before the statement cuts, and just let it report the actual spend?
In theory it shouldn't matter, as spend is spend and of course Discover will see that no matter what. It's however not necessary to make multiple payments in order to keep your reported utilization at 5% or whatever number you're shooting for. All you need to do is pay your balance down to whatever your target is just before your statement cuts. So, if your payment due date is the 1st for example and your statement cuts on the 4th, whatever you pay your account down to on the 1st (or 30th, whatever) will be the amount that reports plus potentially any charges on the 2nd/3rd. Multiple payments aren't necessary unless of course your limit is the constraint and your spend in the cycle exceeds the limit. If that isn't the case though, rolling with 50% or even 95% utilization is fine so long as it doesn't report... so just make sure you pay it down right before statement cut.
Thanks! And yeah I need to pay it off multiple times a month since my limit's really low because I'm very new to credit, and I do sometimes put more spend on it than the limit. Lets see whether Disco shows me some luv next month 
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks! And yeah I need to pay it off multiple times a month since my limit's really low because I'm very new to credit, and I do sometimes put more spend on it than the limit. Lets see whether Disco shows me some luv next month
What is your current limit, what was your starting limit and how long have you had the card? It's arguable whether or not "high balance" plays any role in CLIs with any given lender, but IMO it doesn't hurt to report it [very] high at least once. With Discover, they'll also do an "off-cycle reporting" if you request it. So, what you could do is take your utilization up really high to (say) 95% and allow that balance to report on (say) the 4th of the month. Then the next day, pay it down to 5% utilization or whatever number you're comfortable with. Allow that payment to post, then contact Discover and request an off-cycle reporting of your new [lower] balance. In about 1-2 minutes they'll do this for you. Quick phone call and they'll have no problem at all making it happen. A couple of days later your new lower balance will report to the bureaus, so you'll only be at high reported utilization on the card for a couple of days, but you'll get the "high balance" on the account to show up as a very significant portion of the CL. This could potentially aid in a greater CLI; it definitely can't hurt.
It will also allow your other lenders that SP your CR to see that you've brought your balance up very high, but paid it down... a favorable look of decreased risk, which could also aid in them considering greater CLIs at some point. Once it reports, that high balance will remain visible on your account forever, or until you top it with a higher "high balance" at some point in the future after receiving a CLI that would allow you to do so. At that point you could repeat the above exercise in order to obtain a greater "high balance" reported on your account, but without keeping your [reported] utilization on the account at an elevated level for a full cycle for other lenders to see.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks! And yeah I need to pay it off multiple times a month since my limit's really low because I'm very new to credit, and I do sometimes put more spend on it than the limit. Lets see whether Disco shows me some luv next month
What is your current limit, what was your starting limit and how long have you had the card? It's arguable whether or not "high balance" plays any role in CLIs with any given lender, but IMO it doesn't hurt to report it [very] high at least once. With Discover, they'll also do an "off-cycle reporting" if you request it. So, what you could do is take your utilization up really high to (say) 95% and allow that balance to report on (say) the 4th of the month. Then the next day, pay it down to 5% utilization or whatever number you're comfortable with. Allow that payment to post, then contact Discover and request an off-cycle reporting of your new [lower] balance. In about 1-2 minutes they'll do this for you. Quick phone call and they'll have no problem at all making it happen. A couple of days later your new lower balance will report to the bureaus, so you'll only be at high reported utilization on the card for a couple of days, but you'll get the "high balance" on the account to show up as a very significant portion of the CL. This could potentially aid in a greater CLI; it definitely can't hurt.
It will also allow your other lenders that SP your CR to see that you've brought your balance up very high, but paid it down... a favorable look of decreased risk, which could also aid in them considering greater CLIs at some point. Once it reports, that high balance will remain visible on your account forever, or until you top it with a higher "high balance" at some point in the future after receiving a CLI that would allow you to do so. At that point you could repeat the above exercise in order to obtain a greater "high balance" reported on your account, but without keeping your [reported] utilization on the account at an elevated level for a full cycle for other lenders to see.
I got approved for the card with absolutely no credit history at all in January 2019 with a SL of $500. It was the actual Discover it cashback card (not the student/secured version), so I was really lucky and glad I got approved for it in the first place. I then got a CLI that I requested about a week after my 3rd statement closed in April from $500 -> $1,000 which is my current limit. I'll try letting it post a higher balance and see how that plays out. Will let you know the results! Thank you for your advice 
@Anonymous wrote:Have you requested any further CLIs? If you got it in January and requested a CLI after the 3rd statement, it sounds like it's been perhaps 2 months since then, which with Discover is plenty of time elapsed to obtain another CLI for many. There are people that have great success obtaining Discover CLIs ever 90, 60 or even 30 days. I've even seen outlier examples of some receiving SP CLIs as close as 21 days apart. It doesn't hurt to ask and ask often; I request a Discover CLI just about every Monday (weekly) but at max I ask once per month.
As has been stated earlier in this thread and in the massive Unofficial Discover CLI thread, there's little consistency on the end of Discover when comparing data across different accounts. What does matter though is how they view your account. So far, it sounds like you're at a 100% success rate (1 for 1) on CLI requests and that CLI was a 100% gain from $500 to $1000. Many have theorized that Discover prefers thin/young files at times and if one sees early success/growth on their card that the success may continue over the life of the account due to Discover "liking" that profile. If I were you and building your limit is one of your goals, I'd be hitting that CLI button often, as you may be leaving money on the table by waiting long periods of time.
I've actually hit the CLI button a few times. I probably do it on average once every 2 weeks or so, but keep getting the "not enough experience with current limit" letters in the mail 
I'm hoping July (statement #6) will be successful though!
The main reason I want CLIs is because I'd like to have at least one card with a $5000+ limit so that I can start applying for more premium cards like the CSP in the future because I do travel somewhat frequently, and I know they like seeing experience with limits which meet the minimum SL. In my short 5 months of credit history, I've already been approved for a CFU ($1700 in Feb 2019) and CF ($3200 in May 2019), so I've been pretty lucky & happy with Chase. I'm guessing the approvals were mostly because I've had my primary checking account with them since 2014.
The last big increase I received from discover was about 3 months ago in the amount of 6k. A couple days ago I asked for an increase and for the first time in about 3 years the descion went to a manual review. I end up receiving an increase of $500.00 pushing my limit to $50,500.
