Accepting low account limits?

[Anonymous]

It is absolutely an ego driven thing, I admit. But it's a little more nuanced than that. I also strive for simplicity, so I want to have fewer cards with higher limits. In order to get my limits increased, I have to have the right credit conditions to do so, and that's really what it's about. I don't really "care" as I said, but I want to keep my conditions improving for when I want those periodic credit increases. If I have this card at 10k, which I don't really want long term, I worry that it will impact my credit conditions in such a way as to keep me from reaching my goals of only a few, like 3 plus a charge card, of high limit cards. I could always close the account, but then I'm reducing my overall available credit etc. So I'm just confused is all. I want to know how I can best accomplish what I'm after. Is this a step backwards, or just a negligible step sideways? Regarding ego, yeah, for sure, because my credit report will show my Amex bills go up in the 60's and 70's sometimes and I now owe nothing, and within this same bank, I have another card with a 30k limit (but I want a 100k limit), so I was surprised. It isn't ego in that I think I'm just so rich and awesome and should get whatever I want, because I'm assuredly not particularly wealthy, but I feel like my ego is bruised merely because with all my credit info and my payment history within their bank they "only" trusted me with a 10k limit, which I think is a bummer. It doesn't matter though if it's not going to make a negative impact, but I just want to know if I'm making a strategic error.

[Themanwhocan]

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@supercreditgirl13 wrote:
Card limits are not part of the FICO scoring are they? I wish I had thst problem!.

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Card limits are a part of FICO scoring.

If you don't have enough Premium Bankcard Accounts, that can be a negative on your FICO score. in 1998, a Premium Bankcard Account was a card issued by a bank with a $10,000 limit or higher. We don't really know if the limit required for a card to be considered 'premium' has increased in the 17 years since then, and we don't know just how significant the impact is of not having enough of those, or even how many is enough.

We don't even know for sure if 'bank' in this case includes Credit Unions.

[Themanwhocan]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It is absolutely an ego driven thing, I admit. But it's a little more nuanced than that. I also strive for simplicity, so I want to have fewer cards with higher limits. In order to get my limits increased, I have to have the right credit conditions to do so, and that's really what it's about. I don't really "care" as I said, but I want to keep my conditions improving for when I want those periodic credit increases. If I have this card at 10k, which I don't really want long term, I worry that it will impact my credit conditions in such a way as to keep me from reaching my goals of only a few, like 3 plus a charge card, of high limit cards. I could always close the account, but then I'm reducing my overall available credit etc. So I'm just confused is all. I want to know how I can best accomplish what I'm after. Is this a step backwards, or just a negligible step sideways? Regarding ego, yeah, for sure, because my credit report will show my Amex bills go up in the 60's and 70's sometimes and I now owe nothing, and within this same bank, I have another card with a 30k limit (but I want a 100k limit), so I was surprised. It isn't ego in that I think I'm just so rich and awesome and should get whatever I want, because I'm assuredly not particularly wealthy, but I feel like my ego is bruised merely because with all my credit info and my payment history within their bank they "only" trusted me with a 10k limit, which I think is a bummer. It doesn't matter though if it's not going to make a negative impact, but I just want to know if I'm making a strategic error.

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Which bank are you talking about? Some allow reallocating credit limits between cards, some do not. In ether case, having a $30K card from a bank is going to make it harder to get a second card of that limit from the same bank. There are even some banks that you can request a credit limit increase as soon as you get the card. I went from a $5400 limit to a $21300 limit with Citi on the day the card arrived in the mail, for example...

So, we really do need a few more details.

[Anonymous]

Well I don't want everyone to yell at me lol. These are both Citi cards. My Citi Exec has a 30k limit, today I applied for the Citi Platinum Select at that's what got the 10k approval. I both wanted the miles but also thought I could get my miles and close the account later moving my credit over to my Exec card, working my way up to my desired 100k limit. My Chase and Barclay cards each have 25k, but I would like them to eventually be 50k. Amex definitely allows me to spend the most, but it's because it's a charge card. 

[FinStar]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It is absolutely an ego driven thing, I admit. But it's a little more nuanced than that. I also strive for simplicity, so I want to have fewer cards with higher limits. In order to get my limits increased, I have to have the right credit conditions to do so, and that's really what it's about. I don't really "care" as I said, but I want to keep my conditions improving for when I want those periodic credit increases. If I have this card at 10k, which I don't really want long term, I worry that it will impact my credit conditions in such a way as to keep me from reaching my goals of only a few, like 3 plus a charge card, of high limit cards. I could always close the account, but then I'm reducing my overall available credit etc. So I'm just confused is all. I want to know how I can best accomplish what I'm after. Is this a step backwards, or just a negligible step sideways? Regarding ego, yeah, for sure, because my credit report will show my Amex bills go up in the 60's and 70's sometimes and I now owe nothing, and within this same bank, I have another card with a 30k limit (but I want a 100k limit), so I was surprised. It isn't ego in that I think I'm just so rich and awesome and should get whatever I want, because I'm assuredly not particularly wealthy, but I feel like my ego is bruised merely because with all my credit info and my payment history within their bank they "only" trusted me with a 10k limit, which I think is a bummer. It doesn't matter though if it's not going to make a negative impact, but I just want to know if I'm making a strategic error.

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I see your point and the ego part, sure -granted your profile and mine are vastly different.  For instance, in July, I was approved for two Capital One cards at $50K each.  And, just recently last month, I was approved for $70K with UNFCU - one tradeline alone.  And, it's not for bragging rights or an ego stroke for me.  It's an accomplishment as I gorw and evaluate my portoflio, but even with other lenders also approving me for $10K or $15K in between I certainly wasn't turning them down nor did it bruise my ego thinking the limits were "beneath me", "subpar" or more of the common word used on these forums "paltry".  Perhaps our backgrounds are different when it comes to specific disciplines or perspectives.  But, in no way, shape or form have those $10K or $15K CLs made any negative impacts whatsoever in my experience.  My scores are still above 800.

Now, it's understandable if you want only 3-6~ cards with highest possible CLs for the sake of simplicity, but you need to be strategic from a lender's perspective to accomplish the desired results since some can allow account/CL combinations where that $10K of yours can grow another tradeline and so forth.  Then, as you do this, it becomes more flexible for other lenders to growth your current tradelines.  Just my .02c

[FinStar]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Well I don't want everyone to yell at me lol. These are both Citi cards. My Citi Exec has a 30k limit, today I applied for the Citi Platinum Select at that's what got the 10k approval. I both wanted the miles but also thought I could get my miles and close the account later moving my credit over to my Exec card, working my way up to my desired 100k limit. My Chase and Barclay cards each have 25k, but I would like them to eventually be 50k. Amex definitely allows me to spend the most, but it's because it's a charge card. 

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Optionally, if you have received your Citi AA Platinum Select card, you can request a CLI online upon activation to determine whether they can increase the CL.  Success would depend on your overall profile and income and overal exposure with Citi (seems to be there is still room).  The request will be HP however, just FYI.

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Well I don't want everyone to yell at me lol. These are both Citi cards. My Citi Exec has a 30k limit, today I applied for the Citi Platinum Select at that's what got the 10k approval. I both wanted the miles but also thought I could get my miles and close the account later moving my credit over to my Exec card, working my way up to my desired 100k limit. My Chase and Barclay cards each have 25k, but I would like them to eventually be 50k. Amex definitely allows me to spend the most, but it's because it's a charge card. 

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Ok, so you are at $40k exposure overall with Citi, $25k with Barclays and $25k with Chase?

What is your annual income? That is the most significant stat in determining your ability to meet your objective.

With Chase cards, the best strategy to increase the limit is to app for a card you will use to move the limit over.

If you really want big limit cards, have you apped for Capital One Venture yet?

[Anonymous]

I haven't applied for Capital One Venture, but I could I suppose. I really like the AA rewards with Citi and Barclay and the airline transfer rewards with Amex, so I tend to use those for most everything. My Chase card has a British Airways benefit that kicks in at 30k spend, so I usually stop after I hit it. Regarding my income, my current income is around 400k. But it fluctuates dramatically-- I've had years twice that, and three years ago, I had a huge loss and only showed 65k income-- I expect that pattern will continue, but in most years I expect around 400k. Of course this hasn't been going on for decades; I've only been earning this kind of money for about 6 years, and only been concerned with credit cards and scores etc for about 3.

[NRB525]

Have you requested your CCC to go through an income verification review and HP to enable them to do a full analysis to see about raising your CL? With Citi I have an image from an earlier post here (2011) where the cardholder went through this and lists a Citi Advantage WEMC at $50k limit.

Chase may also do this, Chase will do a HP for the CLI request, but you can set a high goal like $60k, offer to provide income verification, and let them counter.

[Anonymous]

I haven't ever taken that step to provide income verification. I suppose I could-- is there a semblance of the formula that is known to us regarding how income affects how credit lines are determined? I realize there are many factors. I'm not in a super rush to get this done, I just want to make sure I'm taking the correct steps which is why I posted this thread; I was concerned I would me taking a misstep by taking the new 10k card. Should I wait until I have a "big" year to offer income verification? And do you know if that's something I would have to continue to do periodically?