@Anonymous wrote:
I will soon hit my one year anniversary with Discover. I started at $2500 and am currently at $17.5k. I tried running more through it and pifing weekly the first 4 months and was offered $500 for my first cli (which is extremely common). I turned it down. I waited and tried again after the next statement and was offered $1500. Discover loosens the purse strings around the 6 month mark on new accounts.
I quit using the card for several months because I had no use for the quarterly categories. I was getting $3-$4k increases without a single card swipe. These increases started when my TU score hit the 750 mark. For my account, it isn't about usage. It seems to be driven by my TU profile which is clean, low inquiries and higher score.
I am hoping for an apr decrease in lieu of cli's at the one year mark. I am remodeling my kitchen and will soon max out the home improvement category reward. If Discover doesn't budge, Blispay will be in my future.
Thanks for sharing that feedback. This post shows that things can certainly vary from profile to profile.
I think once your scores hit that "excellent" range with many creditors that any "tips and tricks" for CLIs sort of go out the window as clearly the superior profile is the driving force of the account.
IMO, the "tips and tricks" matter more to those with less than excellent credit... be it "fair" in the 600's or "good" in the low 700's. Less than perfect profiles I believe would benefit more to showing heavier usage and stronger payments as those individuals would be exuding a trait often seen by those with "excellent" scores. No doubt that it's a good look.
Again, though, "all things being equal," who knows what your $3-$4k increases may have been had you actually been putting a hearty spend through your card during those months were you weren't showing it a single transaction. Maybe they would have been $5-$6k increases? Maybe still $3-$4k. No way to ever know and it's impossible to ever know as no one can rewind their account and try different data under the same circumstances ever again. One thing I can say though with 100% confidence is that if you were putting a hefty spend through your card during those months you didn't use it at all, there's no way you would have been awarded smaller increases than the $3-$4k you saw. And I think that's the point here. While some may argue that usage/payments don't matter, no one will argue that they can hurt.
Slightly unrelated here, but I was approved for Discover a little over a month ago with a $12.5k SL. I'm planning on asking for my first CLI at the 91+ day mark in late September. My score pulled at approval was in the 740's and more than likely will still be in the 740's at the time I request my CLI (essentially staying the same). Any idea from a worst case to best case scenario what type of initial CLI I may be looking at? I'm showing the card moderate usage for months 1 and 2 with around 10 swipes and $500-$600 spent each month, but in the final month before my CLI request I'll put probably 30-40 transactions and $3000+ through it.
