Breaking the Threshold

[odjohnson3]

My journey has been pretty amazing.

Ive been in the garden almost 2 years and I recently pulled the trigger on the Citi Diamond perferred. (I chose this card because of its 21 month no interest charge on balance transfers)

..Approved for 4k

I also applied for a line of credit with Chevron Credit Union, approved for 7.5k

I have other cards in my wallet

Navy federal Flagship rewards 8k, credit limit increase was denied

Capital one Quicksilver converted to Savor but credit limit increase denied. Stcuk at 3800

Capital One Venture Credit Limit Increase Denied...stuck at 2000

Care Credit 800

Barclays U Promise was at 5,800 but I moved 2000 from another product to make 7,800

Barclays Rewards was 2500, moved the 2000 to the UPromise card

Walmart at 5000

Its been hard to get increases because my utilization has been through the roof before I could finally pay down my balances...(I was young and excited to finally be able to obtain credit again after a long hard fought battle of cleaning up my reports)..I waited till I got almost all of them paid off to apply for increases and Havent gotten any...But even with new card approvals like the Citti Diamond Perferred, I cant seem to break 10k...My income is about 85k a year. While I can make sense of the denials ont he credit limit increases, I dont know why the current approvals I get are for cards that just cant seem to break the limits I already have....Anyone wanna chime in with some ideas on when the next time to apply for an increase would be, of course now id try to keep my balances low....I jus bought my first house but used the line of credit as the down....So i gotta work that back down....If I keep my balances low, when would be a good time to ask for an increase, 3 months? 6 months?

[K-in-Boston]

Citi is not known for large starting limits in most cases. Mouse-over my cards and you’ll see that my Citi limits (hard to type those two words together without chuckling) are some of my smallest. They can and do grow given time. Sounds like you’re bouncing back from high utilization and if you used a significant portion of your new LOC that’s counted the same as a credit card for scoring so you may still be using more of your credit than some lenders are comfortable with.

[odjohnson3]

Oh I agree with you, but it wasnt until after I got the card that I used the line of credit. During the time I was approved, everything had a balance of less than $20 except walmart which was maxed out at the time

I wish I had known citi had small starting limits lol...It doesnt allow me to utilize the promotion of zero interest for 21 months on balance transfers...My last card, walmart, still has a higher limit...I can try paying some down and then balance transfering the rest...But i was hoping for a starting limit that would cover the whole balance

[Anonymous]

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@odjohnson3 wrote:

Oh I agree with you, but it wasnt until after I got the card that I used the line of credit. During the time I was approved, everything had a balance of less than $20 except walmart which was maxed out at the time

I wish I had known citi had small starting limits lol...It doesnt allow me to utilize the promotion of zero interest for 21 months on balance transfers...My last card, walmart, still has a higher limit...I can try paying some down and then balance transfering the rest...But i was hoping for a starting limit that would cover the whole balance

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I got my Double Cash when they first opened the card(2014 I think) and they started me with a relatively low limit comparatively to my other cards(I think around 6k). Just last month I got my limit over 10k on the WEMC version. Most of my other cards are in the 15-20k range. Keep paying off debts and limit increases will come. The only thing with Citi is they take time. 

[K-in-Boston]

Exactly. You may not get to use as much of the 21 months as you want, but the 0% offers should keep coming. As soon as you go to the CLI page for Citi and see the “it’s easy to see if... a credit report will not be pulled” language, go for it! Mine started at $5600 in Nov. 2016 and is over $12k now. Once approved for a CLI you can ask every 6 months.

[odjohnson3]

Thank you for that inspiring reply. Ill try to keep my balances low and manage my accounts properly

[HeavenOhio]

Never apply for a new card while a current card is maxed. You may be approved, but the terms may be less than desirable.

Also, try to have zero balances on at least half of your cards as "too many accounts with balances" can be used as a reason to either deny or to issue a card that has less than desirable terms.

[FinStar]

Your DTI can definitely be one of the main key factors.  Try not to carry too many balances on several cards btw.  Other than CCs and your recent mortgage, do you have any other loans?  What are your FICO scores and AAoA?  What are the main reasons being cited by your lenders with the recent CLI denials?

[odjohnson3]

Thank you for all the responses. When applying for the increases and new card ALL but one of my balances were less than 1% of the total. I think what you guys are indicating is the history of the utilization is what played a factor. It certainly wasn't the current.

The reason for denial with capital one were something to the nature of what were all in agreeance on. The history of utilization.

Barclays I didn't pull the trigger bcuz in previous times that was the reason and I didn't want a hard pull.

Navy federal...well the reason given was I forgot to send in a copy of my promissory note for a new auto loan I was approved for and also bcuz its not a late being reported but I was 3 days late with a payment 8months ago. I think it was due on the 22nd and the payment didnt get made until the 26th so it said something to the effect of recent delinquent performance

Does my history of utilization play a part in a new application for credit tho? And also how long should I rebuild my payment and utilization history before reapplying for an increase?