Discover Cash Advance Credit Line?

Anonymous · ‎12-22-2015

Although I do not anticipate using the cash advance option on any of my cards, after comparing mine and my wives discover cards I did become curious. We have pretty similar limits with mine at 2,500 and hers at 1,500. My cash advance is 1,600 while hers is only 300. We also have identical FICO scores at the moment. The only major difference is the age of our discover cards. Mine is 5 years old and hers is a new account.

Is the difference of the cash advance all due to average age of account?

Can the amount of cash advance be used as an indicator for something like a limit increase?

Anonymous · ‎12-22-2015

Yours is unusually high. Hers is about normal.

Anonymous · ‎12-22-2015

Must be where they have been sticking any CLI these last five years!

Anonymous · ‎12-22-2015

Below are my previous and current CLs and Cash Advance Lines with Discover:

SL (June 2015): $1,500, Cash Advance Line: $800 (53.33% of total CL)

CL (September 2015): $2,000, Cash Advance Line: $1,100 (55% of total CL)

CL (December 2015): $3,500, Cash Advance Line: $1,900 (54.28% of total CL)

Maybe you are qualified for a higher CL with that cash advance line? Maybe around $3,000 (1600/.55)?

Imperfectfuture · ‎12-22-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Although I do not anticipate using the cash advance option on any of my cards, after comparing mine and my wives discover cards I did become curious. We have pretty similar limits with mine at 2,500 and hers at 1,500. My cash advance is 1,600 while hers is only 300. We also have identical FICO scores at the moment. The only major difference is the age of our discover cards. Mine is 5 years old and hers is a new account.

Is the difference of the cash advance all due to average age of account?

Can the amount of cash advance be used as an indicator for something like a limit increase?

Mine started at 300 (or 150, I forget), when I was approved in June. It is now 700, so profile and age does build it up. Since I have not used the cash over yet, I did not pay attention to when it jumped to 500, the other increases cane with SP cli requests.

Signature needs updating

Anonymous · ‎12-22-2015

Thanks for the data points! Yes 500, of my 2500 just came recently from the Luv button. It seems like at least for me the auto CLI have been few and far between. It may be because I started off with the Discover More card though, which I think is geared more toward college students. Which I was until this year.

Something else I thought was interesting is that discover would not give me a cli via the luv button, until my two new cards reported with 3,500 limits. Makes me wonder if they take that into account somehow.

Anonymous · ‎12-22-2015

Mine was always 10% -- 800 on 8k, 1200 on 12 etc.. until I got past 25k and it stopped. It's at 2500 cash limit and hasn't gone above that after my CL exceeded 25k.

What I'm more curious about is the direct deposit balance transfer. Some customers get it and some don't. I'm convinced by high Discover CL is the reason I don't have that option. They don't want the exposure of me getting crazy one night and BT'ing 30K into my checking account for 0% fee and 5% interest. Which kind of sucks I wish I had that option. Cash is 5% fee and some gorilla APR 25 or something so I'd never do that.

Anonymous · ‎12-22-2015

Everything from discover seems all over the map to me still at this point. I am sure a method to the madness does exist, but I have yet to figure it out. Hopefully I can keep growing our discover cards with the auto luv button. My only regrets are that I did not find this site sooner and start pounding the button five years ago.

takeshi74 · ‎12-23-2015

Cash advance limits don't seem to increase with CLI's for my creditors. Be careful relying on cash advances as they can be a red flag. Don't rely on CA's as a substitute for a liquid reserve.

@Anonymous wrote:
Can the amount of cash advance be used as an indicator for something like a limit increase?

No. CLI will be based on credit and income -- not on the cash advance limit. My PenFed card has the same cash limit as the total limit.. That doesn't mean that I'll get CLI's from PenFed. I've received CLI's on cards where the CA limit has not increased.

@Anonymous wrote:
Is the difference of the cash advance all due to average age of account?

Nope. It's not just about the one factor. It's about what one qualified for when the CA limit was considered. Be careful assuming trends based on insufficient sample data -- on any topic. You can't derive broad trends just by looking at your account and your wife's account. Even with aggregated data here on myFICO it's difficult and there are caveats to such analysis that people don't generally consider.

@Anonymous wrote:
Something else I thought was interesting is that discover would not give me a cli via the luv button, until my two new cards reported with 3,500 limits. Makes me wonder if they take that into account somehow.

Your entire credit profile matters. Limits factor into revolving utilization. If those CLI's sufficiently reduced your revolving utilization they may have helped. However, they're not the only thing to consider. Be very careful assuming causality.

@Anonymous wrote:
Everything from discover seems all over the map to me still at this point. I am sure a method to the madness does exist, but I have yet to figure it out.

It's never just the creditor but one's credit profile as well. If you're only considering the creditor then you're missing half of the equation.

Gunnar419 · ‎12-23-2015

Definitely, Discover is all over the place when it comes to cash advance lines. My cash advance line is at $4,200 and has been for many years. It does not change with CLIs. It was at $4,200 when my CL was below $10k and remains there now that my CL is $17,700. I don't remember when it reached that point, but it was many years ago.