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I have a Visa card with Bank of America that is almost 19 years old. I converted it several years ago from a regular visa to the Cash Rewards. (I don't even think they offered this card in 2000.) I banked with BoA several years ago but no longer have active accounts with them.
I haven't even used this card very much in last few years but just enough to keep it active. This is one of my oldest accounts, however, so I want to keep it open. The last big use for it was about 5-10 years ago when I had a big balance transfer offer that I took advantage of for most of my existing credit line at that time.
My credit line for past couple of years was sitting at $32.6K and that was after a hard pull, back when they used to require that. My credit score and my income have substantially improved in recent years, and I also read that they now do soft pulls. I decided to try my luck. Reading about others' successes with initiating credit line increases gave me more confidence to request it myself. As I've learned, the squeaky wheel definitely gets the grease.
Imagine my surprise when they notified me by email a few hours later that I had been approved for a 53% increase on my credit line from $32.6 to $50.0K !!!
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Data Points:
FICO Bankcard Score 8:
(TU) 843 (04/19/19)
(EQ) 840 (04/23/19)
(EX) 803 (05/09/19) > *more HPs from recent Chase apps
AAoA: 10 years +
AoOA: 25+ years
Income: High (well into six figures)
Total Credit Card lines: $374.9K after recent increases on 3 accounts
Credit Card debt: PIF mostly before due dates
Utilization rate: 01%
*My highest three Credit lines are now $50K, 50K, and 49.5K.
*My lowest CL is $21.9K. I closed all my smaller store accounts.
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Note: I am definitely seeing how leveraging credit lines between accounts
over time helps to raise your overall limits. It appears when banks see
other high limits, they are more willing to raise your account to stay competitive!
WOW!!!! You have impressively high limits. I can't believe your lowest CL is that high, if I even had one card with a limit that high I would be over the moon! CONGRATS! Also interesting point on banks seeing other high limits! Does anyone else have experiences with this working in their favor?
@Aim_High - so, what did you ask for? e-mail later on usually means they countered you back on it based on a manual review. Online or phone?
@creditslug - high limits make credit analysts more willing to bump you up from an initial approval. i.e I apped Uber a couple of weeks ago with an auto approval of 11K and then called them to bump it to 25K and within a minute it was 25K w/o many questions. Of course he mentioned the fact that I PIF each month and don't carry balances so, he was digging around my report a little bit to see that much detail but otherwise no questions about the bump.
I have a couple of high limit cards at 65K/ea and a couple more at 50K/ea so, yes, it makes things easier when trying to push up those lower level approvals or existing cards to the next level.
Congrats on your increase
NIce!!! Congrats
@creditslug
" ... WOW!!!! You have impressively high limits. I can't believe your lowest CL is that high, if I even had one card with a limit that high I would be over the moon! CONGRATS!"
Thanks creditslug! I've had credit cards for over 35 years and my oldest current card will be 26 years old next month, so I've been doing this for awhile longer than many of you on this forum. Age tends to be favorable to credit scores and limits for various reasons. You'll get there one day, probably sooner than I did.
I've come to realize in recent years that I probably wasn't "AIMING_HIGH" enough when it came to my limits and scores. Heck, when I first got credit, there wasn't any such thing as a "FICO SCORE". LOL. That didn't come around until about 1989, I think? Credit scoring has changed a lot since then and the average consumer has gotten a lot smarter. A lot of the web-based credit-monitoring sites and online information about credit scoring have helped me to better understand what the lenders are looking for. My Fico Forums is a great resource too.
I also went through a rough credit patch a few years ago due to some career changes. Being on this forum has made me appreciate how much you need to push for those higher limits, but you have to have the track record and credit score to put yourself in the position for the lender to want to give you more credit.
I purposely closed some of my lower-end cards a few years ago to try to simplify my credit and shift more into cash-back mode rather than balance-transfer mode. I've also been working for years to raise my lowest limits. It takes time. One card went from $1K to $22K over those years in slow steps. I think having fewer low CL accounts and more high CL accounts may help you to get the higher limits. IMO, a lot of low-limit accounts makes you look more like a rookie to lenders. I think it's better to have more high-limit cards if you want the high limits. Just my thoughts on it. Who knows what those guys are thinking?!? LOL I just know it was only about ... 8? ... years ago that I first got a $25K limit and I was udderly amazed at such a high limit. Now, I'm shooting for that to be my LOWEST card limit.
Lesson: Don't close your older cards! Some may close or fall off your report for different reasons. Hang onto those old accounts when you can. Two of my three highest limits are on my oldest cards. Even with my high scores and high income, the highest SL I've ever received is $35K.
"@Aim_High - so, what did you ask for? e-mail later on usually means they countered you back on it based on a manual review. Online or phone?"
I asked for $50K and they gave me $50K. I probably should have asked for more but I didn't want to be too greedy at one time and have them just deny me.
I applied online through my account. They acknowledged and said they would let me know in something like 5-7 days, I think?? But a few hours later, I got an email confirming they approved my new $50K credit line. I talked to no one.
Congrats!!!
Why do I feel like you left some on the table ... ?