Credit Card Management...So many cards...So many limits

[longtimelurker]

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@alexgold9393 wrote:

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@Aim_High wrote:

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Quality over Quantity is my long-term goal.

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Amazing Answer! Thank you

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While I agree with most of it (perhaps the key difference being I don't agree with making decisions based on the long term!) my other piece of advice would be:

Don't view credit limits as a "real" asset.

Having $1M in TCL is very different  (and not nearly as useful!) as having $1M in deposit accounts.    As KDM says, it is the issuers to give and to take away.   IMO some people focus much too much on growing CLs: at the end of day success may not change anything (you still have to fit spending to income).

[wasCB14]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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While I agree with most of it (perhaps the key difference being I don't agree with making decisions based on the long term!) my other piece of advice would be:

Don't view credit limits as a "real" asset.

Having $1M in TCL is very different  (and not nearly as useful!) as having $1M in deposit accounts.    As KDM says, it is the issuers to give and to take away.   IMO some people focus much too much on growing CLs: at the end of day success may not change anything (you still have to fit spending to income).

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In principle, $1M at 0% for 20 or 30 years would be worth close to $1M in deposits...

...but, realistically, getting that much credit takes time...and more likely someone with $1M in TCL will have only a tiny share of it at 0% for a few months. Much harder to do anything with.

Very few cards are worthy of significant spend IMO. I like big CLs, but only care about them on a few select cards.

[SouthJamaica]

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@alexgold9393 wrote:

I have a question to the guys and gals who have over 10 credit cards with good limits (15K+), Im looking at your signatures and I see you have amazing limits and still requesting CLIs all the time and getting new cards. How do you manage these cards do you actually spend 20-25k/month on all different cards to keep these limits. 

I don't understand how banks can give a higher limit to people that are not taking advantage of the limits given to them. Can some of you "power users" share some thoughts on your strategies with these banks. 

Thanks in advance. 

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I don't spend much.

But I do use each card each month if it's a card I care about keeping.

[Anonymous]

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@alexgold9393 wrote:

How do you manage these cards do you actually spend 20-25k/month on all different cards to keep these limits. 

I don't understand how banks can give a higher limit to people that are not taking advantage of the limits given to them.  

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No one that I know of spends $20k-$25k per month on cards.  That's like $250k-$300k per year, which of course would take an income greater than that to achieve.  Those capable of that fall into under 1% of the population, no doubt.

I think it's very silly that banks extend monster limits to many people (myself included) that barely use even a small percentage of such limit(s). 

If banks actually set limits taking spend/usage into strong consideration, you'd see plenty of forum members around here with overall limits dropping to maybe 1/4 or even up to 1/10 of what they currently are.

[wasCB14]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@alexgold9393 wrote:

How do you manage these cards do you actually spend 20-25k/month on all different cards to keep these limits. 

I don't understand how banks can give a higher limit to people that are not taking advantage of the limits given to them.  

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No one that I know of spends $20k-$25k per month on cards.  That's like $250k-$300k per year, which of course would take an income greater than that to achieve.  Those capable of that fall into under 1% of the population, no doubt.

I think it's very silly that banks extend monster limits to many people (myself included) that barely use even a small percentage of such limit(s). 

If banks actually set limits taking spend/usage into strong consideration, you'd see plenty of forum members around here with overall limits dropping to maybe 1/4 or even up to 1/10 of what they currently are.

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Expenses can be lumpy for some people. Just because someone doesn't spend $25k every month doesn't mean they won't occasionally spend that much.

Common lumps:

- Home renovations

- Income tax payments for investors and the self-employed

- Property tax payments

- Tuition

- Automobile purchases (perhaps after some negotiation)

[Anonymous]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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Expenses can be lumpy for some people. Just because someone doesn't spend $25k every month doesn't mean they won't occasionally spend that much.

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I don't disagree with that, but even with the occasional big spend cycle (which would likely be limited to a card or two, not 10+) when you're talking $30k+ limits it's still pretty silly.  The smarter system and the way it should work IMO is that when one of those times comes someone requests a CLI since they actually "need" it.  Think about the number of CLIs granted that aren't needed relative to those that actually are.  If the not needed ones went away (or were dramatically reduced) it would free up far more dollars for the smaller percentage of those that did actually need them.

[wasCB14]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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Expenses can be lumpy for some people. Just because someone doesn't spend $25k every month doesn't mean they won't occasionally spend that much.

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I don't disagree with that, but even with the occasional big spend cycle (which would likely be limited to a card or two, not 10+) when you're talking $30k+ limits it's still pretty silly.  The smarter system and the way it should work IMO is that when one of those times comes someone requests a CLI since they actually "need" it.  Think about the number of CLIs granted that aren't needed relative to those that actually are.  If the not needed ones went away (or were dramatically reduced) it would free up far more dollars for the smaller percentage of those that did actually need them.

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True. I have 17 cards, but there are currently only 5 I would put significant spend on: CFU, CSR, BBP, Costco, and BCP during the no-fee Plan It promo.

Keep in mind a lot of people with significant spend/income/assets have:

- NPSL Amex charge cards

- Soft CL Amex revolvers (sometimes very soft)

- "Wealth management" tier cards (with special underwriting and 6+ figure CLs)

Major CLI requests can take time, as there is often income/asset verification or a tax return transcript involved. A CLI isn't always needed, though.

I don't think there is any shortage of capital for low-risk high-spend customers.

[FinStar]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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Expenses can be lumpy for some people. Just because someone doesn't spend $25k every month doesn't mean they won't occasionally spend that much.

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I don't disagree with that, but even with the occasional big spend cycle (which would likely be limited to a card or two, not 10+) when you're talking $30k+ limits it's still pretty silly.  The smarter system and the way it should work IMO is that when one of those times comes someone requests a CLI since they actually "need" it.  Think about the number of CLIs granted that aren't needed relative to those that actually are.  If the not needed ones went away (or were dramatically reduced) it would free up far more dollars for the smaller percentage of those that did actually need them.

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True. I have 17 cards, but there are currently only 5 I would put significant spend on: CFU, CSR, BBP, Costco, and BCP during the no-fee Plan It promo.

Keep in mind a lot of people with significant spend/income/assets have:

- NPSL Amex charge cards

- Soft CL Amex revolvers (sometimes very soft)

- "Wealth management" tier cards (with special underwriting and 6+ figure CLs)

Major CLI requests can take time, as there is often income/asset verification or a tax return transcript involved. A CLI isn't always needed, though.

I don't think there is any shortage of capital for low-risk high-spend customers.

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Pretty much the highlighted items IME.  It's not unusual for a variety of some monthly expenditures to be upwards of $25K (or higher) in many instances where having such higher CLs (>$50K) provide the extra flexibility in addition to advantageous rewards.  And, I'm certainly not an exception nor outlier since there are plenty of individuals who have significant spend patterns as well. 

[Aim_High]

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@Anonymous wrote:  I think it's very silly that banks extend monster limits to many people (myself included) that barely use even a small percentage of such limit(s). 

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I agree that it's silly but I'm glad they do since FICO penalizes us for using more than a tiny fraction of our credit lines.  To keep from lowering your scores, utilization needs to stay under 10%.  That's ridiculous.   So to me, it's only right that they give monster credit lines to offset the detrimental affect on our scores for using the credit we are granted.   On the other hand, if they want to change the system where we can actually use our credit with no negative impact, I'm fine with 10% of my credit lines. I'll use much less than that at one time anyway.

[Aim_High]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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Expenses can be lumpy for some people. Just because someone doesn't spend $25k every month doesn't mean they won't occasionally spend that much.

Common lumps:

- Home renovations

- Income tax payments for investors and the self-employed

- Property tax payments

- Tuition

- Automobile purchases (perhaps after some negotiation)

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+1 ^ ^ ^

And I would add to that potential "big ticket" list even more ...

    - Vacations

    - Holiday

    - Weddings

    - Medical expenses

    - Moving expenses

    - Redecorating a new home expenses

And it could be a combination of the above, plus maybe higher than routine expenses for car repairs, home repairs, holiday gift-buying, and other smaller than $25K but larger than routine expenses.