I wish I had more definitive guidance to give you, @Jordan23ww, but the Discover formula is mysterious. My card is almost 29 years old and sits at $52K. Much of that growth has been in the past eight to ten years as my FICOs grew, my income grew, and my debts fell. I've never used anywhere close to that limit. My high balances were on some balance transfers, and I do think they like those. I had a couple many years ago with up to about $16K (when my limits were much lower) and paid them off. In the fall, I temporarily moved some large balances ($35K?) over there which may have helped my CLI's from $50K to $51K to $52K. I paid it off quickly, though.
I think they reward longer-term cardholders who use their cards regularly and pay responsibly. I believe the cards will grow (up to a point) in excess of what you're spending. And even with that, it took those profile improvements above to drive me up to $50K, along with persistent CLI requests.
On the other hand, I've always said that for someone who uses the Discover IT card only on 5% categories at $6K or less per year, you're not exactly motivating them to give you a higher limit. Sometimes, I think if higher limits is a goal that rewards optimization needs to take a back seat, even if just temporarily. JMHO. Most lenders, including Discover, appreciate when you give their cards some attention.
@Aim_High wrote:I wish I had more definitive guidance to give you, @Jordan23ww, but the Discover formula is mysterious. My card is almost 29 years old and sits at $52K. Much of that growth has been in the past eight to ten years as my FICOs grew, my income grew, and my debts fell. I've never used anywhere close to that limit. My high balances were on some balance transfers, and I do think they like those. I had a couple many years ago with up to about $16K (when my limits were much lower) and paid them off. In the fall, I temporarily moved some large balances ($35K?) over there which may have helped my CLI's from $50K to $51K to $52K. I paid it off quickly, though.
I think they reward longer-term cardholders who use their cards regularly and pay responsibly. I believe the cards will grow (up to a point) in excess of what you're spending. And even with that, it took those profile improvements above to drive me up to $50K, along with persistent CLI requests.
On the other hand, I've always said that for someone who uses the Discover IT card only on 5% categories at $6K or less per year, you're not exactly motivating them to give you a higher limit. Sometimes, I think if higher limits is a goal that rewards optimization needs to take a back seat, even if just temporarily. JMHO. Most lenders, including Discover, appreciate when you give their cards some attention.
@Aim_High Thank you so much for sharing this info! That all makes sense. Oh how I wish I could've gotten to my goal of 20K on my limit increase last year. Then I'd be set.
Down the road hopefully I can add more spend to the Discover It to help persuade them to increase me again. Currently working on 2 welcome offers, Amex Platinum and Citi Custom Cash, so they are occupying a lot of my current spending.
Congratulations on reaching such an awesome limit on your card! That's phenomenal!
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Jordan23ww wrote:I have been wanting to get a limit increase on my Discover Card but the last 2 times I've asked I was denied for having not spent enough of my current available limit. Now I'm curious if anyone has any data points on what Discover might deem an acceptable amount of one's limit to qualify for a CLI. Is there perhaps a certain percentage of one's current limit we should target spending?
I've had the card since June 2020. Starting limit was $13,500. At 12 months due to certain 2020 CLI Covid Rules (at the time you had to wait 12 months to be eligible for your 1st increase, this has now changed) I asked for my first limit increase. It was denied for my card not being old enough. After checking in on this forum it was recommended to try again after I got my 12th statement, so I did and I got denied for not spending enough of my current limit. So in month 13 I spent approximately $300 and I tried again and got a $4000 increase ($3500 automatically and did a phone call and double dipped for $500 more) making my limit $17,500. When I first got the card I had a goal to get the limit to $20,000. I am just $2500 away from this goal but I'm stuck.
Fastforward 8 months to March 2022, I decided to ask for another increase and it was denied for not spending enough of my current limit. That was both fair and true. Because I was getting some better multipliers on other cards I have in Qtr 1 of 2022 for the categories they chose I barely used the Discover card at all the 1st qtr of 2022. I had racked up a lot of charges in 2021 Qtr 4 but that looked to have no impact on my request in Qtr 1. So March and April 2022 I tried to spend $300 to $400 each month and asked again both times I was denied a CLI for not spending enough of my current limit, so what worked last time wasn't working this time. I haven't asked again since April. I figured if I'm not spending more the result would likely be the same. Has anyone had any success in finding out how to get past this hurdle? Not sure if I need to spend 10% of my total limit, 30%, etc? Any data you can share is much appreciated!
*FYI: I follow AZEO so this is the card I use to report a balance each month. Other than that small balance I usually pay the card in full then pay the small balance off after the statement cuts. I usually only spend on the 5% categories so no more than $1500 in a 3 month period but usually closer to $300 to $400 a month. I checked the preapproval on the Discover website and I'm preapproved for another Discover card but I am not interested in a 2nd Discover card but just want to grow this one a little more. Thank you in advance for your insight!
Back in the day when Discover CLI's were the talk of this town, there were dozens of different theories being bandied about. People were having such different experiences. Some got big CLI's with heavy use, some got big CLI's with light use, some got big CLI's with no use. Some, like me and @AverageJoesCredit, couldn't buy a big CLI no matter what we tried.
I eventually came to the conclusion that Discover's CLI "policies" were written by a roomful of monkeys with keyboards.
In the years since, nothing has caused me to waver from that conclusion.
@SouthJamaica thank you for sharing this info!
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
@Jordan23ww wrote:
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
@Jordan23ww wrote:I have been wanting to get a limit increase on my Discover Card but the last 2 times I've asked I was denied for having not spent enough of my current available limit. Now I'm curious if anyone has any data points on what Discover might deem an acceptable amount of one's limit to qualify for a CLI. Is there perhaps a certain percentage of one's current limit we should target spending?
I've had the card since June 2020. Starting limit was $13,500. At 12 months due to certain 2020 CLI Covid Rules (at the time you had to wait 12 months to be eligible for your 1st increase, this has now changed) I asked for my first limit increase. It was denied for my card not being old enough. After checking in on this forum it was recommended to try again after I got my 12th statement, so I did and I got denied for not spending enough of my current limit. So in month 13 I spent approximately $300 and I tried again and got a $4000 increase ($3500 automatically and did a phone call and double dipped for $500 more) making my limit $17,500. When I first got the card I had a goal to get the limit to $20,000. I am just $2500 away from this goal but I'm stuck.
Fastforward 8 months to March 2022, I decided to ask for another increase and it was denied for not spending enough of my current limit. That was both fair and true. Because I was getting some better multipliers on other cards I have in Qtr 1 of 2022 for the categories they chose I barely used the Discover card at all the 1st qtr of 2022. I had racked up a lot of charges in 2021 Qtr 4 but that looked to have no impact on my request in Qtr 1. So March and April 2022 I tried to spend $300 to $400 each month and asked again both times I was denied a CLI for not spending enough of my current limit, so what worked last time wasn't working this time. I haven't asked again since April. I figured if I'm not spending more the result would likely be the same. Has anyone had any success in finding out how to get past this hurdle? Not sure if I need to spend 10% of my total limit, 30%, etc? Any data you can share is much appreciated!
*FYI: I follow AZEO so this is the card I use to report a balance each month. Other than that small balance I usually pay the card in full then pay the small balance off after the statement cuts. I usually only spend on the 5% categories so no more than $1500 in a 3 month period but usually closer to $300 to $400 a month. I checked the preapproval on the Discover website and I'm preapproved for another Discover card but I am not interested in a 2nd Discover card but just want to grow this one a little more. Thank you in advance for your insight!
No one can tell you how to get a cli from Miss Disco, spend or no. Doing BTs sometimes help but not always.
I'm surprised you don't want a double cash back card for a year lol. I would get the second card and after a year see if you are eligible for a cli then combine limits and close the new one
@AverageJoesCredit thanks for chiming in. Discover is ALWAYS sending me balance transfer offers. Since I pay in full I literally have nothing to even transfer. Last month I had my Amex BCP annual fee hit for $95 so my reported balance across my 21 cards was $110. Normally it is $15 from me doing AZEO.
There's multiple reasons I don't want another Discover Card. I'm trying to get under 5/24 for the Chase Ink Cash, I already have 5 cards that give 2% back already, sometimes I struggle to max out the 5% categories as is due to what has been chosen lately so I wouldn't benefit from having 2 Discover cards/ $3000 available each quarter. I was hoping to grow this one card. Thanks again though for your input!
No worries my friend
. I'm so past thinking in terms of how much rewards I can get , it's fun just to get a new card for the collection..once you get past.....6.....lol it's on
😱 @AverageJoesCredit: how do u manage it all? Do you use them all throughout the yr? I just get approved for my 6th card, the PCR this week & I'm slightly wondering if I can keep them in good continuous rotation 😅
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
@SUPERSQUID wrote:
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
@Jordan23ww wrote:I have been wanting to get a limit increase on my Discover Card but the last 2 times I've asked I was denied for having not spent enough of my current available limit. Now I'm curious if anyone has any data points on what Discover might deem an acceptable amount of one's limit to qualify for a CLI. Is there perhaps a certain percentage of one's current limit we should target spending?
I've had the card since June 2020. Starting limit was $13,500. At 12 months due to certain 2020 CLI Covid Rules (at the time you had to wait 12 months to be eligible for your 1st increase, this has now changed) I asked for my first limit increase. It was denied for my card not being old enough. After checking in on this forum it was recommended to try again after I got my 12th statement, so I did and I got denied for not spending enough of my current limit. So in month 13 I spent approximately $300 and I tried again and got a $4000 increase ($3500 automatically and did a phone call and double dipped for $500 more) making my limit $17,500. When I first got the card I had a goal to get the limit to $20,000. I am just $2500 away from this goal but I'm stuck.
Fastforward 8 months to March 2022, I decided to ask for another increase and it was denied for not spending enough of my current limit. That was both fair and true. Because I was getting some better multipliers on other cards I have in Qtr 1 of 2022 for the categories they chose I barely used the Discover card at all the 1st qtr of 2022. I had racked up a lot of charges in 2021 Qtr 4 but that looked to have no impact on my request in Qtr 1. So March and April 2022 I tried to spend $300 to $400 each month and asked again both times I was denied a CLI for not spending enough of my current limit, so what worked last time wasn't working this time. I haven't asked again since April. I figured if I'm not spending more the result would likely be the same. Has anyone had any success in finding out how to get past this hurdle? Not sure if I need to spend 10% of my total limit, 30%, etc? Any data you can share is much appreciated!
*FYI: I follow AZEO so this is the card I use to report a balance each month. Other than that small balance I usually pay the card in full then pay the small balance off after the statement cuts. I usually only spend on the 5% categories so no more than $1500 in a 3 month period but usually closer to $300 to $400 a month. I checked the preapproval on the Discover website and I'm preapproved for another Discover card but I am not interested in a 2nd Discover card but just want to grow this one a little more. Thank you in advance for your insight!
No one can tell you how to get a cli from Miss Disco, spend or no. Doing BTs sometimes help but not always.
I'm surprised you don't want a double cash back card for a year lol. I would get the second card and after a year see if you are eligible for a cli then combine limits and close the new one
Mysterious Miss Disco. My first year ends in june, 10 pct back on gas is monster right now.
Lol you don't say
. I'm using Disco at 5% right now with occasional Citi CC
Used Disco It CB for gas 5% for travel in Ilinois and today bought $350 airbnb cards at Target(also 5%) and used it to book for San Diego in August 😁 1st yr anniversary is next February lol, a long way to go..
I opened a Discover card in September 2019 with an inital $5000 credit limit. What worked for me was, I started using the card for everything, maxing out the card, paying it down, maxing it out again etc. Then I started requested credit limit increases around 6 months apart and was approved each time I requested them. I am now at 14,500, and I also have a second Discover card at another inital $5000 limit.
