Having a tough time understanding why I can't get a high CL credit card.

[Anonymous]

Jamesdwi, thanks for the clarification.

The Gardener, I have high payments on the charge cards, 1 of which doesn't report to my credt being a business card. The Credit card balances are my issue. did anyone see my post about my CLI from discover this morning? I called in, and after a little fuss, i got a little over a 2x limit increase!!!

[TheGardner]

Awesome, congratulations on the increase!

[Anonymous]

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@TheGardner wrote:
Awesome, congratulations on the increase!

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Thanks, hopefully one of many more. i'll take your advice and leave 0-9% on one card and the rest at $0 before my next statement. I guess I'll come back to this thread with hopefully a success story next month.

[TheGardner]

Please do, it will help countless others who don't want to post. Besides I project your scores to be 780-800 (inclined more to 800) and want to hear I was right

[Anonymous]

If you want high limits you should definitely go for the venture .... IMO It's the most generous card out there right now for people with average/good scores .

[Anonymous]

Congrats on your cli!  I would also try Venture.  I didn't have most of my cards for 6 months but still wanted a higher limit card.  Got the Venture with 20k cl.  And my score was only 727 at the time.  

[Anonymous]

Ok it's adding up now. The automated credit processing systems aren't geared for an individual with your income and spending ability.

I agree that the Venture is a good card to app for. With a starting limit of $5000 if you get that, you can contact the Executive Office and explain your income and cash flow to a credit analyst and probably get bumped up to $20,000. I would try the BBVA Compass bank NBA card too. I think that may put you on the right track, but I would wait until the Discover credit line increase shows on your bureaus for both. 

I would consider putting together a portfolio of your cash flow, income, and if you have bank statements showing good cash flow and closing balances, make a pitch to a high level manager at Am Ex (get their name and send them a package), Tell them what you need and see what they can offer you.  The same goes with a Credit Union who issues c cards at the branch level and not through a 3rd party issuer, where you are just a number.

Just like you did with the luxury car loans. Dealing with a person who has the ability to make a a decision and see your "package" I feel will shake things loose for you over the next few months.

Congrats on the Discover cli.

[newhis]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Just some brief history on what my credit report looks like. 

1- $15k high balance on gold card. Pay in full every month for past 2 years at average of $13k per month. 

2- $3300 Limit discover IT; High balance of $1800. average $1300 charges Pay in full every month (just got this card 6 months ago)

3- $2000 limit amex. High balance of $1400. Average $1000 pay in full every month. 

4- No Late payments ever, nothing derog.  

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I'm late to add something to what others said, but I wanted to point it out anyway. Here are my comments:

1- The gold card is a NPSL, so the limit is not reported. You have a high balance of 15k and average of 13k. So you are using the card each month for about 86% of the max that you used the card. This looks good (that you can pay that much) but also bad (that every month you are at 86% of the max you used the card)

2- Your high balance was over 50% of your limit and your 'normal' use is (was, congrats on your CLI) almost 40% and you are letting that report

3- Your high balance was 70% and your average is 50% and every month that reports to the bureaus.

4- Perfect

The score model do not have memory, so if you change the way the 3 credit cards report the balance each month, you will give you a huge change. The lenders will still report (most of the time) the amount you paid in the month, so if you let $0 report (because you paid 13k), they will repor that most of the time.

So if you can PIF before due date both Amex, let $0 report on those cards and pay Discover down before statement cut to $750 or less, that will give you the biggest score you could have.

After the cards report, you can check your score and see the increase, if you keep doing this your score will stay high and as time passes and your loans get lower you could get a few extra points on your score. You can try for a couple of big SL giving cards after you get your new scores, let those report, try the 3X on your Amex when it is due. After 3-6 months I bet you can get another Amex with a high SL (or any other card you want with a good SL).

Good luck, and report back.

[JSS3]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@JSS3 wrote:
720 is considered "pretty low"??????

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My EQ and EX are in that range and, I consider them low.

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Guess it's perspective then.  I can see it being "low 700s" but anything in the 700s seem average to me. Good not great. You're out of the 600s and even high 600s is fair/decent. IMO.

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My issue now is that I am having a tough time getting high credit limit credit cards, especially through Amex despite my heavy spending through my Amex charge cards. 

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Credit and income determine limits and CLI's with any creditor despite how many threads here seem to focus on spend and use.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I tried to do the amex 3x CLI, and their reasons for not giving it to me were (too many inquiries, credit score, short history). 

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At least 2 of those just take time and responsible usage to address.  Though "inquiries" may indicate other concerns with your credit.

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@Anonymous wrote:

The way i see it, if I'm capable of paying in full over $60k collectively to amex per month,  why would they be hesitant to give me $6k on a card that i can pay over time? 

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Because money != credit.  Your credit profile indicates that you're too risky to them for the limits you want.  If you want to understand why you need to look at it from the creditor's perspective versus your own.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'v never had any issues buying cars;  

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Installments are assessed differently and with cars there is collateral.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Reasons for a lot of inquiries were from a recent car shopping experience; ran about 5 hard pulls on my credit, but i was under the impression that these all count as 1 inquiry (it was between 2-3 days). 

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They can if properly coded and if combined upon review.  I don't recommend relying on that.  Secure your financing on your own to keep HP's minimal.

Additionally, inquiries are more likely to be cited for those with thinner and poor profiles.  If you're getting cited for "short history" I'd suspect that's part of your problem.  People do get approved with more inquiries but they have thicker and stronger profiles.

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@Anonymous wrote:

The general consensus of this thread is report low balances, or $0 on credit report. If I do this, I won't have a high balance post on my CC tradelines.

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It's not just this thread.  Utilization falls under Amounts Owed, the second biggest slice below:

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

Lower utilization is generally better as long as you don't have all 0 balances reporting.  Do not exceed 30%.  However, optimal will be much lower.  If you want to eke out every point when applying then allow only one balance to report at 10% or less.

Make sure you understand when each of your credit cards reports if you want to reduce reported utilization.  It's the reported balance that is used to determine your revolving utilization.