@Anonymous wrote:Appreciate the detailed reply. In my case $55K is a short of half my income and I've heard before that Amex religiously uses 50% of income as a hard limit for the total lines they give you. Of course YMMV too so it may not be as consistent
I don't have a huge expense coming up I just want higher overall limit to build credit and get better utilization in general in case there is one in the future. From what I saw in the comments though it looks like I might be stuck for a while around 55K unless I get a substantial bump in my annual documented income. Applying for a new card may also be a little risky as I don't want my credit to just be rearranged between my revovling CCs.
If there's any other pro tips I can get more limits from Amex I'd really appreciate it, thanks!!
No problem. 50% isn't a definite policy, but like I said earlier that seems to be where many land up to about the $35k mark. I've been an Amex cardholder for 20 years, but didn't start really using their revolving products until just shy of 5 years ago. I wrongly assumed that would scale up with income, and at one point I was a bit flustered comparing my situation to others, not just with income but with spend: if I was for instance spending $75k+ on my Starwood (now Marriott) card alone annually and tens of thousands on other Amex cards, and was stuck at around $60k in total credit lines at the time, why were others able to get $35k when they only bought a pack of gum once a year? For me it's not really an issue anymore, but there was a point pre-Starwood/Marriott merger where I was truly running over the Starwood card's limit month after month and it was a bit frustrating.
Amex still gets probably 80-90% of my spend each year, yet they are not my most generous lender and technically they cut me off on CLIs $20k ago (as I mentioned earlier, I have since been approved for two additional $10k cards while still being denied CLIs) when I was still under 30% of income.
I don't know whether this applies to you, @Anonymous, but it's worth a try if it does.
I have a very low income [compared to when I was working], and although I've never been denied credit based on income, I've had something in my back pocket I plan on using if it ever comes up: my assets. I figure that if/when that day comes when my income causes a denial, I'll offer proof of my assets--which includes owning a 7-figure house outright. All we ever hear about regarding credit granting is income, income, income....debt to income ratio, blah blah blah...but I'm hoping that a bank I have an established relationship with would be willing to take assets into consideration in the case of a denial.
If you have substantial assets, it could be worth a shot to ask Amex for a reconsideration based on your overall financial health.
Just to be clear, as I'm sure someone will point this out, I'm NOT talking about using your assets as collateral! I'm merely saying that Amex *MIGHT* reconsider if they're aware of substantial assets.
@Anonymous wrote:Amex still gets probably 80-90% of my spend each year, yet they are not my most generous lender and technically they cut me off on CLIs $20k ago (as I mentioned earlier, I have since been approved for two additional $10k cards while still being denied CLIs) when I was still under 30% of income.
Good point. Maybe your case was an outlier given your history and $100k+ spending with them each year but I think the best course of action for me specifically is to just wait it out for now and maybe ask for 2-3K CLIs every 90 days or something?
In the meantime, curious if you had experience with other cards? I have three chase cards (freedom unlimited 18K, CSP 12K and southwest 12K) and as you know chase is notoriously strict about CLIs so never had a good experience with them. Also have a Citi costco at 15.5K and discover at 18.5K. I'm trying to bump all of these to 25K+ limits but haven't had much success lately.
Unless you are prompted with income verification, Amex will immediately counteroffer if their computers deem you eligible for an increase. I would ask for what I really wanted from them. If prompted with IV, either submit it and wait or just hit the back button a few times and ask again for a lower amount until you're either approved or denied (which would usually take the form of "we're reviewing your request"). Just don't be that myFICOer from about 5 years back that stepped down like $500 each time and then got like 20 4506-T forms in the mail in one day. LOL (They do actually mail one every time you see that screen.)
As for other card issuers, every bank has their own underwriting criteria. My Discover card 5.5 years later is just barely over $16k while I'm an AU on another Discover card with a $49k limit. BOA has been most generous to me with $99.9k of revolving credit (and I am an AU on another card with a $99.9k limit). With $42k of combined limits, I wouldn't say you're doing badly with Chase at all - I'm not much above that 17 years after opening my first card with them. They do allow reallocating credit lines at any time and it's a fairly quick call or SM to them to do so.