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No way. I've been in the dumps and darn near declared bankruptcy a number of years ago from my own stupidity and a slack work market. Even though I have long passed the "toy" CC limits, I see no reason to laugh at or deride anybody who is less fortunate than myself. I even get embarassed at letting people know what my credit limits are because I am atypical.
Fact is -- even though there are several people in the forums with big incomes and great credit scores/limits -- I don't see very many of them turning their noses up and looking down towards those who are struggling to get by or have lost a job, gotten a divorce or have huge medical bills. I don't think there is much tolerance for those are that snooty either!
@CreditScholar wrote:I'll be the lone dissenter here and say sure, I laugh at people on a semi-regular basis. It really depends on the attitude with which they are posting, but being approved for a small limit in itself doesn't warrant condemnation. If someone is genuinely happy about being approved for a 1k limit, that's good and I'm genuinely happy for them.
Where I start to laugh is when people think they're hitting the "big-time" or show some level of arrogance, when in reality being approved for a 5-10k limit doesn't warrant that kind of attitude or anything close. The same is true when I read posts from complete morons who despite being told several times how things work, they argue that it isn't so. I've seen one poster recently who is now gone but had multiple threads, each 10+ pages long badmouthing certain lenders who refused to approve him when in reality, the problem was staring him in the mirror.
In many ways it's a reflection of society as a whole. Some guy at work couldn't stop bragging about his "brand new Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo". A lot of other people there only helped to feed his ego, but I just laughed and walked off. He didn't seem to understand why I wasn't impressed, and that's not surprising either.
I don't laugh at these folks, I feel sorry for them. I've always hoped that some of the younger people here could learn by my mistakes, which I freely share. But then I think about how NO ONE could have told me squat when I was 21 that I would have listened to. *I* knew it all, and *I* knew best. So, I understand the mindset having lived it. I continue to post occasionally in the hope that maybe some of my experience will rub off. If it does, great! If not, then at least I tried....
Not at all. I remember the first time that I applied for a credit card. I had to take paystubs and such into a bank branch and convince a humorless banker (who bore a striking resemblance to an undertaker and who looked at me like I'd just peed on his shoes) that I deserved credit.
It took him a week to make up his mind, and when I was finally approved, it was for $100.
Believe me, we've all been there. It's not where you start. It's what you do with it and the choices you make once you have started.
@Elcid89 wrote:Not at all. I remember the first time that I applied for a credit card. I had to take paystubs and such into a bank branch and convince a humorless banker (who bore a striking resemblance to an undertaker and who looked at me like I'd just peed on his shoes) that I deserved credit.
It took him a week to make up his mind, and when I was finally approved, it was for $100.
Believe me, we've all been there. It's not where you start. It's what you do with it and the choices you make once you have started.
Hey Elcid89!
You have some impressive limits across the board! Nice!
I'm curious... at what point does your credit limit stop affecting your utility? Do the high limits actually stop counting toward over-all available credit at some point or is the sky the limit with regards to per card affect? Thanks in advance for the info.
I don't believe that they ever stop counting. Utilization is utilization. The formula doesn't say "well, he's got over $200 grand in credit card lines, so we'll stop worrying about him".
Those lines are the result of 2 things: never having missed a payment or been late on one in 44 years, and passing a huge amount of my work expenses through my private cards. My firm settles expenses weekly, so I never get stuck carrying a balance and I pass 6 digits through them each year in expenses. It works out pretty well.
Oh, and I get to keep the rewards
@Elcid89 wrote:I don't believe that they ever stop counting. Utilization is utilization. The formula doesn't say "well, he's got over $200 grand in credit card lines, so we'll stop worrying about him".
Those lines are the result of 2 things: never having missed a payment or been late on one in 44 years, and passing a huge amount of my work expenses through my private cards. My firm settles expenses weekly, so I never get stuck carrying a balance and I pass 6 digits through them each year in expenses. It works out pretty well.
Oh, and I get to keep the rewards
Impressive! really! Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't sure if getting a card above a certain limit stopped counting. Weird notion I guess but wasn't sure. I hope to be in your shoes some day.
@improvingmycredit wrote:
@Elcid89 wrote:I don't believe that they ever stop counting. Utilization is utilization. The formula doesn't say "well, he's got over $200 grand in credit card lines, so we'll stop worrying about him".
Those lines are the result of 2 things: never having missed a payment or been late on one in 44 years, and passing a huge amount of my work expenses through my private cards. My firm settles expenses weekly, so I never get stuck carrying a balance and I pass 6 digits through them each year in expenses. It works out pretty well.
Oh, and I get to keep the rewards
Impressive! really! Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't sure if getting a card above a certain limit stopped counting. Weird notion I guess but wasn't sure. I hope to be in your shoes some day.
Just be prudent with your use of credit and always, always, always pay your bills on time, even if it means eating bologna and ramen noodles. You'll get there.
@Elcid89 wrote:I don't believe that they ever stop counting. Utilization is utilization. The formula doesn't say "well, he's got over $200 grand in credit card lines, so we'll stop worrying about him".
Those lines are the result of 2 things: never having missed a payment or been late on one in 44 years, and passing a huge amount of my work expenses through my private cards. My firm settles expenses weekly, so I never get stuck carrying a balance and I pass 6 digits through them each year in expenses. It works out pretty well.
Oh, and I get to keep the rewards
Color me jealous... I cant use my cards for business expenses... but i do get to keep the hotel and frequent flyer points.
@improvingmycredit wrote:
@Elcid89 wrote:Not at all. I remember the first time that I applied for a credit card. I had to take paystubs and such into a bank branch and convince a humorless banker (who bore a striking resemblance to an undertaker and who looked at me like I'd just peed on his shoes) that I deserved credit.
It took him a week to make up his mind, and when I was finally approved, it was for $100.
Believe me, we've all been there. It's not where you start. It's what you do with it and the choices you make once you have started.
Hey Elcid89!
You have some impressive limits across the board! Nice!
I'm curious... at what point does your credit limit stop affecting your utility? Do the high limits actually stop counting toward over-all available credit at some point or is the sky the limit with regards to per card affect? Thanks in advance for the info.
IIRC, cards with CL > 50k are not factored into FICO utilization%.
Here's the first thread from this site that I could find about it:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Max-CL-in-FICO/m-p/178557#M57003