First - let me just say - awesome forum here. 
Just recently discovered this place as I was doing some research on credit improvement, and I've learned a ton from you folks! Thank you!
Now, on to the wall of text -
After having recently paid off both of the (somewhat sizeable) credit card balances I've been carrying since early college (about 6-7 years now), and disputing off a mistaken collection, I decided to go out and get some new credit to help my scores over the long-term and to take advantage of some of the great rewards programs out there for folks who PIF every month.
A little background information up-front; my "FAKO" scores prior to applying were EX 748, EQ 767, and TU 780 (not sure about my actual FICOs yet). I had two credit cards (well, only one that I actually kept open after paying off):
1. AT&T Universal Card - had a CL of nearly $17k, and was very nearly maxed for quite a long time with a carried balance (clueless college kid with a $10k+ CL - a recipe for disaster for sure). My longest-standing account, having been open since 2000 or so; I closed it immediately after paying the balance off in full in April (d'oh!). Wish I'd seen this site first!
2. AmEx Blue - had a CL of $3.7k. Immediately after paying it down to $0 my CL was reduced to $1.4k, and I have been unable to get them to budge on this. My fault for managing my finances so poorly for so long, I suppose; I can't say I blame them for it, so I have no problem waiting to earn their trust again.
Since I paid both of these balances off in April, I've been sticking to a strict budget and paying in full on both cards every month, often making multiple payments (in the case of the AmEx with its tiny CL specifically); I've resolved that won't be paying the credit card companies a red cent of interest ever again.
Additionally, I do have a single 30-day late payment on my report from January 2002 or so; mentioning it only in the interest of full disclosure, since I don't believe it should be affecting my scores much anymore. Other than this, my report is completely clean.
At any rate, over the last couple weeks I sent out some applications, and had the following results:
1. AT&T Universal Card - I called and asked them to reactivate the account, and to my surprise they were happy to help. The reactivated CL was set at $8k, less than 50% of its original; but beggars can't be choosers in this case, and I'm just glad to have this account back up and running since it was my oldest and has the most history (since 2000). I plan on asking them to convert this to a Diamond Preferred Rewards AmEx when I get it in the mail this week.
2. AmEx Blue - As I mentioned, no dice on the CLI; stuck at $1.4k for the foreseeable future.
3. B of A Signature Visa - Approved, although I got the "7 to 10 day" message and had to call in to follow up on the application. The credit analyst I spoke with approved me for an initial CL of $5,000, and tried to get me to sign up for a second card with them as well; when I receive it in the mail this week I'll probably try for an online CLI out of curiosity and see what they say.
4. Citi Diamond Preferred MC - Approved with an initial CL of $2,000; called in a few days later (before I'd even made a first initial payment), and they increased it to $5,000! Going to ask if they can combine this with #1 (once they convert it), which would give me a CL of $13,000 on that account and cut down on the number of cards to keep track of.
5. Citi PremierPass Elite - Approved with an initial CL of $6,000; a couple days after the card arrived I filed for a CLI online out of curiosity, and was approved for $2,500 additional, for a CL of $8,500. A couple days later and the CLI request link has reappeared - so, I figured what the heck! I asked for another $2,500, and should find out tomorrow whether or not that was approved as well.
So overall I went from $1.4k available credit to $27.9k, in the span of about two weeks; obviously a big chunk of that doesn't report ($13.5k of it is on no-limit cards that don't report the CL - d'oh!), but I am still rather pleased.
As far as I can tell it cost me 4-5 hard credit inquiries total (1 on TU, 3-4 on EX).
I would say that I have been exceptionally pleased with Citi's customer service levels so far. B of A has been rather hit and miss - the credit analyst I spoke with was great, but the other CSRs were not very helpful. AmEx, as always, has been great on the customer service side (aside from the CL reduction issue, but I can see that from their perspective so I'm not really too peeved about it).
Anyway - hopefully somebody finds some of this information helpful, if they're in a similar situation. Just wanted to thank everyone again for contributing to such an amazing resource, on behalf of clueless monkeys like myself everywhere.
Happy hunting!
Just recently discovered this place as I was doing some research on credit improvement, and I've learned a ton from you folks! Thank you!Now, on to the wall of text -
After having recently paid off both of the (somewhat sizeable) credit card balances I've been carrying since early college (about 6-7 years now), and disputing off a mistaken collection, I decided to go out and get some new credit to help my scores over the long-term and to take advantage of some of the great rewards programs out there for folks who PIF every month.
A little background information up-front; my "FAKO" scores prior to applying were EX 748, EQ 767, and TU 780 (not sure about my actual FICOs yet). I had two credit cards (well, only one that I actually kept open after paying off):
1. AT&T Universal Card - had a CL of nearly $17k, and was very nearly maxed for quite a long time with a carried balance (clueless college kid with a $10k+ CL - a recipe for disaster for sure). My longest-standing account, having been open since 2000 or so; I closed it immediately after paying the balance off in full in April (d'oh!). Wish I'd seen this site first!
2. AmEx Blue - had a CL of $3.7k. Immediately after paying it down to $0 my CL was reduced to $1.4k, and I have been unable to get them to budge on this. My fault for managing my finances so poorly for so long, I suppose; I can't say I blame them for it, so I have no problem waiting to earn their trust again.
Since I paid both of these balances off in April, I've been sticking to a strict budget and paying in full on both cards every month, often making multiple payments (in the case of the AmEx with its tiny CL specifically); I've resolved that won't be paying the credit card companies a red cent of interest ever again.
Additionally, I do have a single 30-day late payment on my report from January 2002 or so; mentioning it only in the interest of full disclosure, since I don't believe it should be affecting my scores much anymore. Other than this, my report is completely clean.
At any rate, over the last couple weeks I sent out some applications, and had the following results:
1. AT&T Universal Card - I called and asked them to reactivate the account, and to my surprise they were happy to help. The reactivated CL was set at $8k, less than 50% of its original; but beggars can't be choosers in this case, and I'm just glad to have this account back up and running since it was my oldest and has the most history (since 2000). I plan on asking them to convert this to a Diamond Preferred Rewards AmEx when I get it in the mail this week.
2. AmEx Blue - As I mentioned, no dice on the CLI; stuck at $1.4k for the foreseeable future.
3. B of A Signature Visa - Approved, although I got the "7 to 10 day" message and had to call in to follow up on the application. The credit analyst I spoke with approved me for an initial CL of $5,000, and tried to get me to sign up for a second card with them as well; when I receive it in the mail this week I'll probably try for an online CLI out of curiosity and see what they say.
4. Citi Diamond Preferred MC - Approved with an initial CL of $2,000; called in a few days later (before I'd even made a first initial payment), and they increased it to $5,000! Going to ask if they can combine this with #1 (once they convert it), which would give me a CL of $13,000 on that account and cut down on the number of cards to keep track of.
5. Citi PremierPass Elite - Approved with an initial CL of $6,000; a couple days after the card arrived I filed for a CLI online out of curiosity, and was approved for $2,500 additional, for a CL of $8,500. A couple days later and the CLI request link has reappeared - so, I figured what the heck! I asked for another $2,500, and should find out tomorrow whether or not that was approved as well.
So overall I went from $1.4k available credit to $27.9k, in the span of about two weeks; obviously a big chunk of that doesn't report ($13.5k of it is on no-limit cards that don't report the CL - d'oh!), but I am still rather pleased.
As far as I can tell it cost me 4-5 hard credit inquiries total (1 on TU, 3-4 on EX).
I would say that I have been exceptionally pleased with Citi's customer service levels so far. B of A has been rather hit and miss - the credit analyst I spoke with was great, but the other CSRs were not very helpful. AmEx, as always, has been great on the customer service side (aside from the CL reduction issue, but I can see that from their perspective so I'm not really too peeved about it).
Anyway - hopefully somebody finds some of this information helpful, if they're in a similar situation. Just wanted to thank everyone again for contributing to such an amazing resource, on behalf of clueless monkeys like myself everywhere.
Happy hunting!
Congrats - and in a couple of months, when everything is reporting, use one of them to pull all 3 FICO scores to see where you are! 
Hey, thanks for the kind words everyone.
You know, I never quite understood this either, until just recently. Though I had a pretty decent-paying job for a college kid (did some network and software consultation), it was only part time, so my yearly income was only $20k, and I did not report my parents' income. To be honest I don't think they really cared, though; from what I have seen a lot of the CC companies seem to target college kids with pretty liberal CLs to get them hooked and paying for life. So - the good news is that if you're smarter than I was at the time, you can probably use that to your advantage.
As best I can recall they started me in the $2k-$4k range, and then CLI'd me up all the way to about $17k within a year or so after graduating.
I've heard that the World MC cards are fairly picky as far as credit rating goes - so if you were able to pick up one of those it seems like you should have a pretty fair shot at the Visa as long as you get your util down.
Oh - and if anyone's interested - I just checked, and they approved the 2nd CLI on the PremierPass that I've requested in the span of 4 days! Up to an $11,000 CL now, and I haven't even had the card for a month yet.
I'd always heard that you were supposed to wait 3-6 months for CLI's on new cards - the responses I have gotten were really surprising to me. Interested to see if B of A is as flexible with that as Citi has been!
Crazy.
@Anonymous wrote:
This sounds absolutely amazing. May I ask, how did you get a 10K+ line of credit as a college student? If you don't mind me asking, what kind of HHI were you reporting at the time - did you report your parents' income along with your own as a basis for repayment of the debt or did they just auto-CLI you all the way up until 17K? Where did they start you at?
You know, I never quite understood this either, until just recently. Though I had a pretty decent-paying job for a college kid (did some network and software consultation), it was only part time, so my yearly income was only $20k, and I did not report my parents' income. To be honest I don't think they really cared, though; from what I have seen a lot of the CC companies seem to target college kids with pretty liberal CLs to get them hooked and paying for life. So - the good news is that if you're smarter than I was at the time, you can probably use that to your advantage.
As best I can recall they started me in the $2k-$4k range, and then CLI'd me up all the way to about $17k within a year or so after graduating.
@Anonymous wrote:
I'm very interested in the possibilities for the Citi HHonors Visa Signature and BoA Signature Visa and how to score high credit lines with them. My only line with Citi is a Dividend World MC with a credit line of $3560 (not enough given my high utilization of the card).
I've heard that the World MC cards are fairly picky as far as credit rating goes - so if you were able to pick up one of those it seems like you should have a pretty fair shot at the Visa as long as you get your util down.
Oh - and if anyone's interested - I just checked, and they approved the 2nd CLI on the PremierPass that I've requested in the span of 4 days! Up to an $11,000 CL now, and I haven't even had the card for a month yet.
I'd always heard that you were supposed to wait 3-6 months for CLI's on new cards - the responses I have gotten were really surprising to me. Interested to see if B of A is as flexible with that as Citi has been!
Crazy.
Well - my curiosity got the best of me again - I went ahead and ordered ScoreWatch and all 3 FICO scores, even though I know it would've been best to wait until the dust settles, heh.
Turns out the PLUS scores I had from Experian were fairly in the ballpark; FICO has me at 718 EX, 771 TU, 773 EQ.
As expected, all the recent inquiries and new credit lines are starting to tank my scores a bit - I have a feeling they'll drop further once everything is reported to all three agencies. Does that generally take long to recover from?
I'm not too worried either way - headed off to grad school next year, so I won't be applying for a mortgage or anything for at least four more years.
Hopefully that should be plenty of time to pump up my scores.
Turns out the PLUS scores I had from Experian were fairly in the ballpark; FICO has me at 718 EX, 771 TU, 773 EQ.
As expected, all the recent inquiries and new credit lines are starting to tank my scores a bit - I have a feeling they'll drop further once everything is reported to all three agencies. Does that generally take long to recover from?
I'm not too worried either way - headed off to grad school next year, so I won't be applying for a mortgage or anything for at least four more years.
Hopefully that should be plenty of time to pump up my scores.
You're doing fine -- keep up the good work!
Out of curiousty, what kind of graduate degree are you planning to get? MBA maybe? 
Law - don't hate me. 
Hoping to be a prosecutor one day - civil stuff isn't really my bag.
Although - the more research I do about credit and lending practice, the more appealing consumer advocacy is starting to look. Going after some of the more predatory lenders out there looks like it could be fun.
Hoping to be a prosecutor one day - civil stuff isn't really my bag.
Although - the more research I do about credit and lending practice, the more appealing consumer advocacy is starting to look. Going after some of the more predatory lenders out there looks like it could be fun.