Hey guys,
So the time is approaching where I'm getting the itch to come out of the garden and app! Last app was for the Barclay World Elite card nearly 1 year ago. I have a $15K limit on that one.
Discover has been sending me weekly invitations to apply for Discover It. I'm guessing I must be pre approved because I never received anything from Discover ever. It's also the one card I was never able to get approved for years ago. Of course, I'm now Uncle Money and my credit profile has drastically changed so I'm guessing I can now get that approval. 
My question is what kind of SL does Discover hand out? I read here they're super generous with increases but what about SL? Anything less than $20K - $25K would not interest me. I'm waiting for balances on my CITI and Barclay cards to report so my utilization drops and my profile is ideal. I'm around 750 FICO right now and once these report with $0 balances my scores should get a bump to 770 or above, according to the simulator.
I'll let the Discover experts weight in.
Thanks,
Uncle Money
@austinguy907 wrote:Weekly letters for applying is a good sign. I too went years of checking them out and then finally when things were more ideal for them to say yes they sent them after checking the pre-qual page a couple of times for the rates.
When they send them frequently they really want you to pull the trigger and get the approval. However, to your question on SL out of the gate.... They're not going to likely hand you 20-25K right out of the gate. Disco is conservative to say the least when it comes to approvals and most of us got denied 3-5 times before being welcomed in the door. This denial also goes for even the Secured version.
Disco isn't going to assign you a CL based solely on scores etiher. Like other lenders they'll take a deep dive into your history and evaluate from there.
The SL's lately have been around $5K on average. Some have been lower, some have been higher, and the highest I've seen has been about $22K. While the SL isn't impressive the double cash back for 12 months can really add up. Some have been able to hit close to $1K in cashback from swipes. If you hold onto it long enough and want another stab at double cashback you can add another card after about a year and do the doubling again for another 12 months. The double dip happens when you get apporved for say IT and then a year later go after Miles. The Miles also is 1.5% so essentially you get 3% for the first year.
This is great insight and thank you for the very informative post!
Do you know what bureau they usually pull?
Thanks,
UM
I love my Discover it card.
I got the mailers weekly before I applied.
But I held off till the mailers and the prequel site both had a apr spread of 3 points. As I read on the forums that is better to wait for. A larger spread I was understanding was not as good of a chance of approval.
My starting line was 3000.00. I have had it 5 months and hit the CLI yesterday and was bumped to 6000.00.
I am in NY and they pulled my EX.
I hope that helps
@austinguy907 wrote:Weekly letters for applying is a good sign. I too went years of checking them out and then finally when things were more ideal for them to say yes they sent them after checking the pre-qual page a couple of times for the rates.
When they send them frequently they really want you to pull the trigger and get the approval. However, to your question on SL out of the gate.... They're not going to likely hand you 20-25K right out of the gate. Disco is conservative to say the least when it comes to approvals and most of us got denied 3-5 times before being welcomed in the door. This denial also goes for even the Secured version.
Disco isn't going to assign you a CL based solely on scores etiher. Like other lenders they'll take a deep dive into your history and evaluate from there.
The SL's lately have been around $5K on average. Some have been lower, some have been higher, and the highest I've seen has been about $22K. While the SL isn't impressive the double cash back for 12 months can really add up. Some have been able to hit close to $1K in cashback from swipes. If you hold onto it long enough and want another stab at double cashback you can add another card after about a year and do the doubling again for another 12 months. The double dip happens when you get apporved for say IT and then a year later go after Miles. The Miles also is 1.5% so essentially you get 3% for the first year.
I've actually begun to cogitate on whether I should try for a 2nd Discover (possibly a Miles, or maybe apply through Amazon to get the statement credit?) in good time, since I'm still getting mailers every so often (not as often as before I pulled the trigger in March, of course! ) and the last time I tried the Discover prequal site I got a single-figure APR offer, which is, as I and others have remarked, pretty much the best offer they can give and indicates your chances are about as good as they're going to get. So yeah - I think I'll revisit the question next spring when the 12-month mark comes up and see if it's still worth doing then.
Considering that Discover is so conservative, I consider myself quite fortunate that they wanted me to have an account with them that much - they must have seen something in my credit reports that makes them think I have real potential that maybe I haven't been seeing myself. 
My SL is $2500, so since this is pretty much the best card I have at this time, I've been babying it as much as I can. I'm thinking about trying a CLI at the 90-day mark from account approval/activation in late June, but if I do I'm going to play that conservatively and take whatever they give me without demur. I seem to remember they'll give you an automatic increase after 3 or 6 months, but maybe I'm misremembering?
I'm in California and Discover pulled my Equifax.
Hope that helps.
Best credit wishes to you OP.
@Uncle_Money, from one uncle to another I would say it's really a toss-up on if you'll be able to get the initial credit limit you want with Discover.
If you look around here you will find people who got approved with $20k+ credit lines but they seem to be the exception rather than the rule... but of course perhaps you would be an exception as well. What I can say is that while Discover is no NFCU when it comes to starting credit lines, Discover is known to grow quite well (and quickly) if your overall profile supports it.
In my case I was approved (with a dirty credit file) for $5500, but once my files were clean and with some regular spending it easily increased to $21k over 18 months. I haven't tried to get any higher than that since for my profile/needs $21k is more than sufficient.
If you decide to give Discover a try, you might be one of the fortunate ones and start off with a really great credit line, but if not don't get discouraged... it will grow fast!
Just my 2¢.