I have had my Barclaycard Rewards Mastercard for 18 months now and have waited patiently for an auto CLI without any luck. After my 18th statement cut last week and I was still without an auto CLI, I got frustrated and decided to call them today because I read that if you call in for an interest rate reduction, sometimes they will do a CLI without a hard pull. I asked the first rep if I would qualify for a lower interest rate and after looking at my account, she transeferred me to someone who could help me and tell me if I qualified. I explained to the second rep that I had the account for 18 months without any CLI's and wanted to see if I qualified for a lower interest rate and possibly a CLI without a hard pull.
She was very nice and told me I qualified for a 4% interest rate reduction, bringing it down to 20.99%, which was great. Then she checked and told me I did qualify for a CLI without a HP. She only gave me a small increase from $1300 to $1900, but at least that is something in a positive direction. She said that after I accepted the new credit limit, it would make way for more offers in the future and pretty much get the ball rolling. I asked how long this offer had been available and she said she was not certain when it became available but that it had probably been there waiting for me for a while. So, I was given a SP CLI and a 4% interest rate reduction by simply calling and asking for it.
I also have a Upromise Sallie Mae Mastercard that I opened in Feb. of 2015, so it is only 6 months old, but I decided to ask about that one as well. I was given a 4% interest rate reduction on that card, bringing it down to 13.99% and a small CLI on that card from $500 to $750, which is better than nothing. She said I can try again in 6 months if I don't receive something automatically but that once I have my first CLI, it usually starts the ball rolling for them in the future without having to call.
BTW, I asked the first rep about a CLI with a SP and she said I would only have the option of a HP CLI but when she transferred me to the second rep (the one with the actual power to do something, lol) the second rep said I did in fact qualify for a SP CLI on both cards, so please don't even bother asking the first rep, they are useless in that area. LOL.
Just FYI: I know my increases are small but I am disabled and have a very small personal income. Although my combined income with my husband is well above the average household income in America, my personal income is minuscule in comparison to our combined income so that may have quite a bit to do with why the CLI was so small.
I hope this info helps some of you who may be waiting for a long time without an auto CLI and do not want a HP for an increase. Also, a 4% rate reduction doesn't hurt much either, LOL. I will wait for 6 more months and try again. At that point, if I am only given tiny increases again, I will probably combine them to just one card because these small limits make it hard for me to use them without having to pay several payments a month to make sure I am not going over 25% of my limit.
I have used both cards heavily and most of the time I have PIF'd them every month, I tried leaving a small balance, I tried everything to get an auto CLI but nothing helped. My husband opened his rewards card the same day I did and his 2nd card (Priceline Visa) with them the same day I opened my Upromise card, and he has received 3 auto CLI's on the rewards card from a starting limit of $1500 to $8500 currently, and his first auto CLI on his 6 month old Priceline Visa was this month, raising his limit from $2000 to $5000, so our CLI experiences are definitely different. We both use the cards about the same, have the same BK discharged in Aug of 2013, almost identical credit files, DTI, other credit lines, AAOA, etc. but he has a much higher personal income than I do, that is the only thing I can figure out that has made such a big difference in how we have received CLI's.
I sure hope this is the start of both my cards getting the CLI's that I think they deserve. :-) Capital One has been so great since my BK, I have over $25K in total credit lines with them and my husband has over $30k. Our Capital One cards started with lower starting limits than our Barclay cards but the subsequent CLI's have been worlds apart.
Chap 7 BK Discharge Aug 2013 (Initial CL/Current CL): Discover IT ($5.5K/$32.5K) Cap1 QS ($500/$30K) Amazon ($700/$8K) Barclay's MC ($1,300/$10.3K) Upromise ($500/$33K) Lowe's ($900/$13K) Sportsman's Visa ($17K) WF Amex ($13K) AMEX BCE ($10K) AMEX Gold NPSL - FICO's: All 740+
