@SimpleFogey wrote:
@FinStar wrote:
@SimpleFogey wrote:Greetings all:
Kid's school now uses provider that will accept CC payments. I sense a UR opportunity here! 6 month anniversary with CSR is May. SL $12,500 / 16.49% APR*. It's a $15k charge. To keep utilization below 30%, planning on seeking increase to $57k. Any suggestions to improve odds of such a large CLI? Wait ~2wks until anniversary date and visit in branch, or phone?
High water mark is ~$3400, 27% for sub benefit. Current utilization 16% $2k / month in recurring spend, PIF. Daily checking & mortgage with Chase ~15yrs. Two other cards at or near zero: Amex Clear (Blue?) (22yrs) $19200, credit union (23yrs) $12500. INQ: 1(CSR)/6 2(PLOC,CSR) /12. FICO 8 Bankcard EQ:821 TU:833 EX:797
Future card plans: Samsclub World Mastercard Elite for 5% gas. Amazon Card for DW for 3-5%. Late to the earning rewards benefit drill.
*Interestingly app screen in branch showed 15.something% before crash and session reload.
Hi @SimpleFogey - welcome to the forums.
That's a pretty high CLI aspirational goal for Chase. Unfortunately, it's doubful they will CLI to $57K with your present limit even if you decide to wait until your card has hit its anniversary. Keep in mind it will be HP if you're ok with that.
I see that you've listed some CCs with fairly decent limits, do you have any others (not listed above) that are above $30K, $40K or even $50K?
Thank you for the welcome. Been lurking a while trying to take it all in. I am very grateful for everyone's lessons.
No, those are it. Take home income $90k. Mortgage bal <10k. No other debts.
HP would be 3/24. Only planned Chase involvement in the future might be the Amazon Visa, unless there's a better choice for cashback with Amazon. If I may ask, what are the tiers of credit score impact for the utilization percentages? As you wrote, +45k is, politely stated, aspirational. Let's say they double it on the low end. That's 60-68% utilization on a single card and ~30% TCL for a day or two while payments post. What might that look like in terms of score impact for how long?
Welcome to My Fico Forums, @SimpleFogey. 
Yes, +$45K is probably, politely stated, aspirational. For most of us, Chase has been found to limit TCL with them across all cards to about 35% to 50% of income, dependent on overall profile. With $90K income, I would guess you'd cap out with them at somewhere between $31.5K and $45K.
And yes, it would entail a hard pull to get an increase. Generally, Chase seems to reward moderate-to-heavy usage of existing limit except for a few recent unexpectedly-high auto-CLIs that were reported on the forum.
Remember that utilization is temporary and has no memory, so how long scores would be impacted is directly related to how long you carry higher utilization and then allowing a little time for it to report and scores to react, perhaps 30 days. Consequently, unless you are planning to apply for new credit (and need the higher scores), there isn't a scoring reason to fear some increased utilization. Just keep in mind that carrying high sustained utilization for a prolonged period and making only minimum payments may spook some lenders on whether you are in crisis. Over the long term, adverse action may follow.
Here is >>a link to another posting I made<< referencing some community data points about utilization. There is also a link to an older master thread that discusses it in depth. In general, of course, the higher the utilization the greater the impact. Since scores are affected by both individual and aggregate utilization percentages, the impact for you with only three cards and a lower overall credit limit would be greater than for someone with a dozen cards and a much higher overall credit limit. Because of the number of variables in scoring, it's difficult to estimate exactly how many points a specific utilization will affect a profile.
@SimpleFogey wrote:@Aim_High wrote
Generally, Chase seems to reward moderate-to-heavy usage of existing limit
May I ask if persons would elaborate "moderate" and "heavy" usage in rough percentages?
Moderate usage and heavy usage is a very subjective term, just like when someone on My Fico claims a "high income" or asks about a "high credit limit." Perspectives vary widely. Personally, I think using 100% of a credit limit annually is fairly heavy usage but others might think you need to use 100% monthly for it to be truly heavy. Likewise, my perspective is that moderate usage would be using roughly +/- 50% of credit limit annually but others might think you need to do that more often. The definition may also be complicated by what benchmarks an individual lender would consider moderate or heavy. And some lenders aren't sensitve to the amount of usage on their card when you request a CLI. When I have sought CLIs on my cards, I will often increase my spending over a few months before the request to a heavier usage which sometimes helps to boost approval odds, IMO.
@imaximous wrote:If you go with a charge card, you don't need to worry about UTIL.
True @imaximous, but something OP should consider is that as a new charge card customer, the spending limit may be inhibited for larger charges like the plan for tuition. So a charge card might not work for this purpose until a relationship and spending habits are established.