I would think it is a sliding scale.
50%+ should be optainable for decent income.
@Hoben02 wrote:In my experience barclay is very stingy with overall limits every time I got a different card with them I had to reduce my credit limit on another card. And the overall credit limit is far less then what I have with the major issuers
Barclay is a bit more reserved with limits. They started me at 19k initially though which wasn't bad. I did a HP increase a few years later to do a bigger BT. I think it was to 22k. Then once paid off they gave me an auto CLI of $4300. Card sits at 21% relative to my income. Last increase was in 2015. I think they cap at 30% but could be wrong.
@coldfusion wrote:criteria is different for lowish or really high income but for Chase general rule of thumb seems to be 30% of yearly gross, 40% if they really like you, 50% if you're a truly Top Tier client.
AMEX will go higher than that on revolvers but isn't shy about requesting a 4506-T authorization. Charge cards will factor in your recent spend and payment history.
BoA will make exceptions (there are a few of us on the site that are examples) but generally caps at $99,900 total CL across all cards.
+1 ... It can be all over the map between major lenders. Chase does seem to be dependent on profile and I know them well since they are my largest single lender. They would seem to like me "pretty well" per @coldfusion's definition since my high limits are still only about 38% of individual income. And that is without current banking or investment accounts with them. Bank of America seems to be pretty stict about whom they allow to break their glass ceiling of $99.9K and I'm not there yet even though much higher with Chase overall. Wells Fargo and US Bank are two of the other largest US banks that seem even more conservative about starting and overall limits. My understanding with CITI is that they are somewhere in-between Chase/Bank of America and Wells Fargo/US Bank for most clients. But as with most of the larger banks, if you're a private banking client (such as with Citi, their CitiGold program), limits may vary.
And then there are those like Navy FCU and some others that may allow your credit limits to exceed annual income, especially for lower income profiles as some have reported.
Some of the factors that influence individual and total credit limits can include:
- Assets with the financial institution
- Length of time as a bank client
- Amount of spend-and-pay you've demonstrated
- Credit Score
- Income
- Debts and Debt-to-income
- Type of cards you carry. (My personal opinion and observation is that cards that have higher AFs, travel cards, and sometimes business cards may be rewarded by lenders with higher SLs which could help bolster your total credit limits with them. For my own example, on five new cards with Chase over 18 months I was given my higher SL $35K on my highest-fee card (CSR), and my 2nd and 3rd highest SLs of $33K and $30K on my other two hotel travel cards (Marriott and Hyatt) with lower $95 AFs. My no-AF Chase Freedom only warranted a much lower $21.9K SL. I've observed this general pattern with other profiles on My Fico, but of course there can always be exceptions.)
@Anonymous, I've posted several times about credit limits, their data points, and general observations and theories about what influences them the most. You can read one of my postings at the link below and follow the other two included links for more reading if you prefer. Hope this is helpful!
