@Aim_High wrote:
@markbeiser wrote:Interesting thread, but as a blue collar skilled tradesman working stiff who just barely makes 6 figures, I'm thinking I'm in no danger of running up against any of these hard CL caps with any lenders.🤣
Getting close, but I've yet to hit a $15k SL on a single card.😥Understood, @markbeiser, and income is a crucial piece of the credit limit puzzle. However, I think you might be surprised how generous your lenders will be over time as credit file thickens and ages, FICO rises, and overall debt-to-income falls for you (hopefully). While you may not be close to hitting $75K+ TCL with any of your lenders now, that income could eventually justify limits much higher than your current >$15K. Keep working it and the higher limits will come to you.
I only just emerged from a really bad credit situation caused by an injury and some poor decisions handling the financial fallout in 2015, just the age of new accounts and inquiries in the past 12 and 24 months hurting me now.
CC utiliztion is <5%, and DTI is <20%, will be <15% by January, so I'm good there, just need some time.
I'm on Team Cashback, so don't really need super high SLs, but it would be nice if they were high enough that I didn't need to worry about making payments before statement dates to keep my utilization <9%.
I've played around with the pre-approval tools at some CUs and have been suprised at some of the SL and APR offers. Most don't offer much in the way of cashback utility, but i may revisit them after I have all my cashback pieces in place.
I may nab one of the NASA fcu cards as soon as I can get a 20k offer out of them, because NASA! Currently pre-qualified for $14.5k, last month I didn't qualify for anything with them, but had some inquiries and new accounts pass the 12 month mark since then.
I've accepted the physical limitations of middle age, gotten accedent and short/long term disability insurance for non workplace injuries, and a 6 figure HELOC, so no repeats of the 2015 financial disaster in my future.🙄
@Traveler101 wrote:As far as amex, 1 card here, bcp. 85k+ income a year originally approved for 32,600 and at 6 months 40k. Almost 50% of income and no request for income verification. No desire for another of their cards
Good to know it is possible to get that kind of limit with Amex without making $150k+ a year.
I got my BCE card before all my old collections and lates fell off my report, and I still had 9/12 inquiries and 9/12 new accounts on my TU report, so I barely qualified for approval, and got a $1k SL starting out, so will take time to work it up. At $3k now, hopefully they will 3x it again next time I'm eligible.
I may PC to the BCP after my next SL increase, unless a PC would possibly get me a higher SL sooner.
To respond to the original posting, I wanted to include some datapoints on lower incomes.
Total Reported Income: $24,000
My first accounts were opened in May 2022 and I'm currently a college student. I seem to be an exception to some rules all around the place but I just wanted to put in these datapoints.
I did have two AU cards, a Chase FU ($4k) opened in 2016 and Citi Sears card ($9) opened in 2011 but only showing data on my report since 2016 but both of their utilizations are both always around 20-30%.
Amex:
Opened Gold in September 2022 ($2k POT), BCP $20k limit approved this month (May 2023)
I think I spent around $5,500 on the Gold card and now about $100 on the BCP.
Chase: (I've had a Chase checking account since 2019 and savings since 2021)
Opened Freedom Flex in May 2022 ($2,200 and cli to $4,400 in April 2023)
Spent around $4,000 on the FF card since opening.
@Mones wrote:To respond to the original posting, I wanted to include some datapoints on lower incomes.
Total Reported Income: $24,000
My first accounts were opened in May 2022 and I'm currently a college student. I seem to be an exception to some rules all around the place but I just wanted to put in these datapoints.
I did have two AU cards, a Chase FU ($4k) opened in 2016 and Citi Sears card ($9) opened in 2011 but only showing data on my report since 2016 but both of their utilizations are both always around 20-30%.
Amex:
Opened Gold in September 2022 ($2k POT), BCP $20k limit approved this month (May 2023)
I think I spent around $5,500 on the Gold card and now about $100 on the BCP.
Chase: (I've had a Chase checking account since 2019 and savings since 2021)
Opened Freedom Flex in May 2022 ($2,200 and cli to $4,400 in April 2023)
Spent around $4,000 on the FF card since opening.
Updating the thread to add @Mones's approval for a Chase Sapphire Preferred on 07/06/2023. His new Chase TCL of $16,600 on income of $24,000 would be an astonishingly high ratio of almost 70% credit-to-income! 
So again, it appears to me that the often-mentioned "40% to 50%" ratio can be skewed far outside of that based on income and profile. High incomes may not get to 40-50% and low incomes may exceed 50%.
Congrats to Mones and thanks for sharing those valuable data points.
For an update of my initial posting for this thread, >Chase gave me a soft-pull $10K CLI on my IHG card<, bringing my TCL with Chase up to $154.4K. So perhaps, my increased spending for the SUB convinced them to give me a little higher total limit. I believe that was the only signficant change on my credit file or relationship with them.
*Posting updated on 07/07/2023 to provide the additional new information and the charts.
Also, after my initial posting, my TCL with AMEX climbed another $10K when I was approved for the Marriott Bonvoy Business in May. So AMEX TCL = $95K ($75K personal + $20K business.)
In keeping with my theory that it's best to focus on the largest lenders when pursuing large relative limits, my top lenders also are some with the largest deposits and/or card presence. (AMEX is likely an outlier by assets due to their historical and out-sized share of the card market and their lending-underwriting model, IMO.) My largest Total Credit Limits:
- Chase - $154.5K ... which also happens to be #1 in assets + #1 in card market share.
- BofA - $99.9K ... which also happens to be #2 in assets + #4 in card market share.
- AMEX - $95.0K ... #3 in card market share.
- Citi $86.5K ... which also happens to be #3 in assets + #2 in card market share.
That's not to say that the right profile couldn't have very large credit limits with other lenders, based on overall relationship, assets invested, or spending patterns. I just believe it may be easier for the average consumer to get relatively higher limits with some of these lenders.
Charts from www.mx.com and www.wikipedia.org.
