@nvrgvupnvrsrndr wrote:Any suggestions on how to get to the $10k initial CL benchmark? I have an AAoA of almost 2 years with oldest account at 7. I have over $100k in CL's but it's spread out across 18 cards. My utilization hovers between 1% and 5%. Over the holidays I went up 18% but have since paid down to less than 1%. My highest CL's are 7k and make up about half of my cards. My income is $98k but do not own a home. That's something I hope to make happen before the end of the coming summer. Informative/detailed answers/suggestions are appreciated.
If you want to own a home this year I would not be pulling a new credit card if you have 18 cards already. The inquries and AAoA will hurt your score. I would work getting soft pull credit limit increases on the cards I would want to keep and then picking ones I want to close. I don't know how closing the cards impacts your score or mortgage (or even if closures would hurt you), but I would at least set those to the side for now.
AFTER the loan funds, you get the keys, move into your new home, etc and want a 10K+ card I would look at credit unions you are qualified for, they tend to hand out higher starting limits. Do you have any AMEX cards? You can request a 3X CLI if you have not received a CLI in 180 days or if you have not been declined for one for 90 days. You can easily take a $5k card to $15k.
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@nvrgvupnvrsrndr wrote:I have no intention of applying for additional cards for the foreseeable future. I recently acquired a few more good cards with AMEX BCE being one of them. Ironically it's my lowest limit...only $2k so at 61 days it will only go to $6k. It'll be at least a year or more, a good six months after home purchase, before I would see a need for a new card. The only reason I would even consider one then is that' will be about the time my last introductory 0% APR on new purchases offer expires.
I would bet that 181 days after your BCE increase to $6K you could get another 3x CLI to $18k.
@eagle2013 wrote:
@nvrgvupnvrsrndr wrote:Any suggestions on how to get to the $10k initial CL benchmark? I have an AAoA of almost 2 years with oldest account at 7. I have over $100k in CL's but it's spread out across 18 cards. My utilization hovers between 1% and 5%. Over the holidays I went up 18% but have since paid down to less than 1%. My highest CL's are 7k and make up about half of my cards. My income is $98k but do not own a home. That's something I hope to make happen before the end of the coming summer. Informative/detailed answers/suggestions are appreciated.
How many of the 18 are store cards?
Whenever you start getting lower credit limits relative to your income, it is probably something in your file that indicates risk (in your case, short AAoA, high # of inquires, etc.). At this point, the best thing you can do is garden the cards you have now, sp clis only, especially if you are going for a mortgage in the near future.
That's just Amex being Amex; for the large majority of people 2K is on the higher end of their initial limits seemingly.
If it were me in this situation, I'd take a look at the cards that I had, and if some weren't being used I'd either consolidate or close them: this is especially true of store cards in my opinion.
I strongly suspect my limited overall exposure is mostly what earned me the second Amex CLI and likely would be my third one too if I were in a position report-wise to pull the trigger in two weeks.
As with every issuer -- the more solid, stable, aged profile the higher the inital CL.
The honest answer is most get the 10k CL with time. Of course, if you have multiple cards with Chase, that's an easy way to get a 10k CL -- just consolidate them all together. And another thing: this might sound VERY silly and I'm sorry if it comes across this way, but people get 10k CLs when they don't have any to begin with by asking. I've never asked for a 10k CL in my life until I asked for a 15k CLI -- it was granted for a total CL of 22k. So I completely skipped having a 10k CL so I can't even say I have one! Now of course, that's just one card of mine -- none of the others break the 10k line.
So in conclusion, being persistent with asking and time. lol
Best of luck and patience! They will come -- I wouldn't worry about getting them too much.
