Background info is in order so bear with me. I have a Discover card and wanted to apply for another card (MILES) due to the uncapped 1-year match, effectively 3% on everything in year one after the base 1.5% is matched. I normally spend several thousand a month on cards plus I also have some large single expenses coming up that I wanted to take advantage of the 3% cash back on. I had almost abandoned applying for MILES but learning of those large expenses brought me back to it. A check of the Prequalification Page showed I was preapproved for all their cards. Sweet. 
My Discover IT (currently Chrome version) is my oldest currently-active card at 26.5 years. High Balance on it was a few years ago with a BT offer of $14.4K. Credit line on the Chrome was gradually increased in the past two years to $50K per SP requests. It has gotten regular but low usage in the past couple of years. The MILES application had a secondary motive as well. My last CLI request was denied and it appeared I had hit a ceiling with Discover on this card. I wondered if I might be able to work around that by getting a new card and later combining the limits, but keep the old card history?
Okay, so I'm ready to pull the trigger ...
Card Approved ... but with a $1K limit. Say WHAT?!? Talk about bittersweet. Can't say that some on the forums didn't speculate this might happen: approval but with a toy limit. (Believe it was either or ... or both??)
My FICOs are 800+. My income is well into six figures. Low DTI.
30+ year thick file. Long-time Discover customer.
With recent grooming, my other personal credit lines
stood at $10K minimum to $70K max, average over 30K.
While I didn't expect another $50K limit, I did hope for at least a usable $5K to $10K limit or for them to do an automatic reallocation of my existing line like many banks would do. Some of my upcoming charges INDIVIDUALLY are well in excess of this limit. Woefully inadequate for my needs. *At least they did give me the lowest APR at 13.49%.
Called customer service immediately and spoke with three reps, including a supervisor. I did not know this, but Discover is like Capital One in that all card approvals and limit increases are totally done automatically by computer algorithm and the CSR's are not ever allowed to override. Once the card was approved, the earliest they could consider a CLI would be 3-6 months. As for reallocating, and I think I've read this on the forum before, the only time you can even reallocate is if the automatic system approves you for an increase, don't act on it and call customer service to reallocate. So I am either stuck with the $1K limit, or have the option to just take the HP hit and never activate the card. Also, since moving the limits is difficult, I'm not inclined to diminish my $50K limit to a card I don't plan to keep open indefinitely.
I have to give her credit (pun intended) but even though she's not particularly credit-savvy, DW made a suggestion while I was still in shock. Why don't we apply with her credit profile and see what happened? I could be AU. Not my planned scenario, but okay, that sounded interesting. Her income is much lower than mine, credit score is good but lower than mine, file is much thinner with limited open lines of credit including NO Discover card (and she was not AU on my other card.) Hmmmm ... this could be a good comparison. We enter her info (Individual, not Joint application), push the button and ....
APPROVED!!! For a $9K Limit ... 9x my SL!!! 
While my MILES card could grow over time, I did not plan to put significant spend on any Discover cards for the long-haul. So I suppose I'll just close (or not activate it), as much as I hate to do that. I have other cards I want to pursue in the next year and that low limit is not worth nursing to health. It will just be in my way of other cards since it will show up as another "new account." I do think it's important for us to share our credit journeys, for better or for worse, so that we can all learn from our experiences together. While some of you that are new in credit or rebuilding may not understand me not wanting to keep an approved card after wasting a pull, it seems to be the best choice in my situation. We will probably just use DW's $9K card for the next year and I will help her work on increasing that limit as time goes on.
Congratulations on you and DW approval!
CONGRATS on both apporvals!
Congrats on DW approval.. Ya regarding yours I could of told you would get a small SL. Alot of higher CL cards, high income and high scores all things discover doesn't really look for in a customer. They prefer people that carry a balance have little other options to goto and well basically all that type of stuff since they are backed by ABS (asset backed securities). Least you can make the 9k limit usable. Ya discover I didnt obtain until I have had a decent amount of credit and has been extremely slow to grow been about 3 years now and between combination of cards and cli's, etc I have been able to get it to a decent, but by no means a high CL for me of 18k. So clearly they didn't like my available credit meaning what my profile has in it. I am keeping it for the 5%'s and maybe BT offers although i have better offers on other cards with better terms for BT's.
You have been on a little slow app spree lately looking forward to the PR approval in a few more months from you thread. I just opened up a merrill edge account today along with the checking I have had for about 3 months to let them take me a bit more seriously about the PR myself lol
Wow , congrats and sorry @Aim_High .
Im not sure closing it or not activating will matter, it should still teport as a new account. I would just use it for any charges you deem not 1k+ worthy because 3% is better than 0%
Plus it may help you get auto luv. Lol if it makes you feel any better i got 5 cli rejection letters in mail today...at once
Im not sure closing it or not activating will matter, it should still teport as a new account. I would just use it for any charges you deem not 1k+ worthy because 3% is better than 0%
Plus it may help you get auto luv. Lol if it makes you feel any better i got 5 cli rejection letters in mail today...at once
@CreditCuriosity wrote:Congrats on DW approval.. Ya regarding yours I could of told you would get a small SL. Alot of higher CL cards, high income and high scores all things discover doesn't really look for in a customer. ... I am keeping it for the 5%'s and maybe BT offers although i have better offers on other cards with better terms for BT's.
You have been on a little slow app spree lately looking forward to the PR approval in a few more months from you thread. I just opened up a merrill edge account today along with the checking I have had for about 3 months to let them take me a bit more seriously about the PR myself lol
Thanks for the empathy, @CreditCuriosity I knew it would be a smaller limit; just didn't ever imagine it would go as low as $1K and then not allow reallocation. I do still find having a Discover card useful and don't plan to close my old account, if nothing else for the age. But I understand how they don't want people with stronger income and profiles. They aren't seriously competing for that share of the market.
Yes, I app'd a whole bunch of Chase in past year and a half, and have been plotting my next wave. Until I got the trifecta, I had no 2% or better uncategorized spend cards. While I am still eyeing a 2% card or two as a backup, yes I am moving methodically towards the BofA PR. It's just hard to beat! This Discover MILES was a gap-filler until I felt I was fully ready to apply for PR with excellent approval odds. But slow is a good description. I don't want to spook Chase and my profile is thick enough to weather some constant slow, steady app'ing.
Congrats on the ML account! I just opened checking to get on Preferred Rewards after 90 days and plan to open ML soon also. My PR will probably come in the spring after a short spell of gardening. With some cards, it's almost like planning a battle! LOL 
@M_Smart007 wrote:
@Aim_High ..what a shocker!!!, I would say bittersweet? ..
but I'm leaning toward bitter taste in mouth .. that just flat out stinks!
I had an approval like that once, called they would not Recon .. let me think this in a TOS form.
told them "where the sun does'nt shine."
Thanks @M_Smart007 ! Yes, that was sort of what we were thinking when DW app'd and got approved for $9K limit. Not really worth fooling with my $1K limit card and doubt it will grow substantially in the near future. With that low CL at my spend, it becomes a ball-and-chain on utilization instead of a cushion like I have been planning my high limits. I don't need a regular card that dictates multiple payments a month just to stay under my CL! Too much hassle.