Testing method to get 25k CL on each new credit card

[Anonymous]

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@SBR249 wrote:

While Capital One is a generous lender to some, that may not be true for all, even those with excellent credit. There have been enough reports of people with excellent credit being turned down or receiving low CLs on CapOne to lead me to suspect that Capital One has been tightening up their lending. There have also been reports of CLDs on high CL accounts for low spending as well as denial of CLIs for the same reason (myself included). 

All this leads me to believe that CapOne is generous to those who they believe will actually put spend through their cards and they are now becoming more strict about handing high CLs to people who they think will just let it go unused. After all, they have to account for allocation of lending capital to their investors and giving $30K to a person who will use 5% or less regularly is much less efficient than giving $3K to ten people who will likely use more of their CL. 

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In short, keeping utilization too low on any single card may actually be self-defeating if you're trying to grow that card. I've thought and said as much in the past, but this puts it neatly. In fact, it seems to be the kind of thing that goes without saying, or should, that lenders will be more generous to people who actually use their cards actively.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous

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In short, keeping utilization too low on any single card may actually be self-defeating if you're trying to grow that card. I've thought and said as much in the past, but this puts it neatly. In fact, it seems to be the kind of thing that goes without saying, or should, that lenders will be more generous to people who actually use their cards actively.

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The majority of the time I agree, but as with anything there are exceptions.  Take my most recent Amex CLI for example.  I've now got a $50k limit with them (without income verification) and I use less than 1% of my CL per cycle (usually around .5%)  Without fail though, I've received four different $5k CLIs to bring my limit from $30k to $50k with essentially no use.  Why Amex does this I have no idea, as from a business perspective it makes absolutely no sense.

[LunaBuna]

Credit Card Companies are a fical bunch.  If anyone ever truly figured out they make determinations as to credit and or limits, you would become wealthy overnight.   With that, I personally believe, that although FICO scores are important, in the end, it is your income which is weighed most heavily with SL's.   The FICO score may get you in the door, but your income, the ability of you to repay the money governs your limits the most.

[Anonymous]

I think a better test of your theory is to lower all your limits to 1k and then apply for cards and see what you get.  I don't think your theory is valid.  If your income and AAOA, your FICO score support high limits and you have mortgage for a while you are going to get high limits.  Amex gave me 1k starting limits when my score was in the 690's even though I had some other cards that were in the 20ks.  Soon as my Experian got to 760's they gave me 25k starting limit.  

[Anonymous]

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@LunaBunaWith that, I personally believe, that although FICO scores are important, in the end, it is your income which is weighed most heavily with SL's.   The FICO score may get you in the door, but your income, the ability of you to repay the money governs your limits the most.

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FICO scores are secondary to credit profile.  Yes, scores and profile are usually closely related, but as we all know you can have two equal scores with dramatically different credit profiles.  That being said, there's no way that income plays a greater role in a SL than does the credit profile of the person applying.  Someone with a strong credit profile and low income will 9 times out of 10 receive a greater SL than someone with a poor credit profile and high income.  You also draw a correlation between income and the ability to repay money.  There are plenty of people out there with sufficient income that simply don't meet their financial obligations.  Such people may have credit profiles littered with late payments and other negative items.  The payment history slice of the FICO pie is King here to income.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@LunaBunaWith that, I personally believe, that although FICO scores are important, in the end, it is your income which is weighed most heavily with SL's.   The FICO score may get you in the door, but your income, the ability of you to repay the money governs your limits the most.

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FICO scores are secondary to credit profile.  Yes, scores and profile are usually closely related, but as we all know you can have two equal scores with dramatically different credit profiles.  That being said, there's no way that income plays a greater role in a SL than does the credit profile of the person applying.  Someone with a strong credit profile and low income will 9 times out of 10 receive a greater SL than someone with a poor credit profile and high income.  You also draw a correlation between income and the ability to repay money.  There are plenty of people out there with sufficient income that simply don't meet their financial obligations.  Such people may have credit profiles littered with late payments and other negative items.  The payment history slice of the FICO pie is King here to income.

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As I prepare for joining NFCU and applying for one of their cards, I've been reviewing my profile, and I notice that as my payment history has improved over time (notwithstanding that, as noted elsewhere, I don't earn as much as some of the other MyFICO regulars!), my SL's have improved significantly over the past calendar year counting from the end of last August: $4K Care Credit, $10K Quicksilver Visa, $5.5K Discover IT, $6K PayPal MC, which works out to $6,375 average SL over 4 cards opened in the past 12 months. Before that, $4K on Overstock was the highest CL I'd gotten on any card from the period December 2015 - August 2017, an average of $1,894 SL over 8 cards opened during that period. DP as to how important it is to establish a good payment history again after past problems, and how much paying on time and over minimum counts in one's profile.

[Anonymous]

When I started my rebuild and my profile was a weak a few years back due to negative items on my credit report, the SL on the only card I applied for was $3k. 

The following year my profile was probably 50% better and my SLs were $3k, $6k, $10k and $12.5k

The year after that my profile was top-notch and my SLs were $10k, $7.3k and $18.4k.  I will note that with these 3 approvals though, the $10k was on a Chase Amazon which I believe doesn't often get approved much higher than that and the $7.3k was a Citi DC, also a known card to start with low SLs.  Had I gone with a different Chase card like a CSR and a different Citi card no doubt they would have been $15k+ approvals.

My income during this span of 3 years remained unchanged, so the only difference here was a strengthening credit profile.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

When I started my rebuild and my profile was a weak a few years back due to negative items on my credit report, the SL on the only card I applied for was $3k. 

The following year my profile was probably 50% better and my SLs were $3k, $6k, $10k and $12.5k

The year after that my profile was top-notch and my SLs were $10k, $7.3k and $18.4k.  I will note that with these 3 approvals though, the $10k was on a Chase Amazon which I believe doesn't often get approved much higher than that and the $7.3k was a Citi DC, also a known card to start with low SLs.  Had I gone with a different Chase card like a CSR and a different Citi card no doubt they would have been $15k+ approvals.

My income during this span of 3 years remained unchanged, so the only difference here was a strengthening credit profile.

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In my case, my annual income has increased by a cumulative total of close to $10,000 (average raises of about $3200 per year) in the 32 months since I got my secured Cap One Platinum at the end of 2015, so I think that's helped some, though not nearly as much as re-establishing a good payment history.

[FinStar]

There have been reported DPs that confirm Chase Amazon approvals higher than $10K, similarly for Citi DC.

The anecdotal and collective evidence on these forums (or other sources) is a fairly small fragment relative to what most lenders typically originate on a daily basis. We only know what we see.

For instance, I was approved for Chase Amazon Prime for $19K last June and Citi approved the Double Cash for $18K earlier this year. I don't believe I'm an outlier either ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Peteyglad]

I think there will always be lenders who are more conservative than others. So even though you my have every card at or above $25k, that is not a guarentee. But, saying that. If you have several cards at that limit then others are more likely to follow suit, just not uarenteed though.