High Credit Limit

[Anonymous]

In my experience, high limits beget further high limits. Once you have one high limit card, more will quickly follow. Let me use my own credit card portfolio as an example:

December 2011: WF Platinum, CL: $5000

January 2014: Citi Simplicity, CL: $5000

November 2014: Citi DC, CL: $3000

December 2014: Discover It, CL: $7900

January 2015: WF Platinum, CLI to: $10500

February 2015: Barclaycard US Airways, CL: $10000

March: Discover It, CLI to: $11,400

March: Citi DC, CLI to: $14,100

March: Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer, CL: $10,500

May: CSP: $8,300

As you can see, once you get one card over $10,000, more follow. I personally consider my lower starting CLs for the Citi DC and CSP to be anomalies because 1. Citi is almost always giving low starting limits on DC, 2. I had been approved by Chase a month and a half prior to getting CSP for $10,500, so that's almost $19,000 in two months from them and 3. They're both top tier rewards cards from their respective banks.

A lot of people use AmEx as a way of breaking into the higher limit cards, due to their famous 3x CLI. 

[jamesdwi]

You are doing fine, but I would strech your APPs a little farther apart, 6 months to a year apart will get you better limit typically. Some lenders will give you higher limits than others and co-branded cards seem to give the best. Chase Southwest  card doubled the limit of my CSP card. 

but as with all things credit, Time resolves most issues. Most lenders grow your limits over time. At least for prime cards. My favorites are AMEX, FNBO, GE/Syncrony, Discover.  Untill you have an insanely great credit history your high limit cards may not be your lowest APR cards, which sucks, sure I have a 20k CL but who wants to carry 10k of debt at 15.24%. 

[Anonymous]

You don't have to do anything special, just use the cards sporadically, pay on time, keep the utilization under 30%, pay more than the minimum when you are carrying a balance and ask for an increase every 6 months. You already have good limits, should be no problem.

[Luscher]

Am I spending anywhere near 30K? Absolutely not lol

[Anonymous]

I manage my hight limit credit cards the same way I manage the other ones. The way I see it is that I do not use all the limit ( I have my theory that banks give you hight limits, but it is not intent for you to use it all) Actually, I do not go over 30% and if I do, I try to pay it off quickly.  I cannot complaint, I have all the credit cards I wanted ( in my wish list).

[cem13]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was curious, those of you guys that have a pretty high credit limit..for example 20,000 or higher..how do you manage that? What I mean is, are you spending an amount to justify that credit limit? How did you get your credit limit to that amount? In my signature block below are some of the cards I have from largest to smallest. My Chase IHG is my biggest at 13,000, then I have my VirginAmerica at 6,000 and my CitiDouble Cash back at 5,500..and a couple of Capital One's..etc. I am in the process of trying to get my points for my Chase IHG (just got the card) but truth be told I really like my Citi Double Cash back card and most likely that will be my card of choice once I get my points from my IHG. How does one get the card company to raise the limit? 

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My Barclay's is only $2K and they denied me a CLI because I always PIF.  My NFCU Visa had a $5K SL but I SP CLI and they gave me $25K.  So NFCU does not care about "using the credit" or "paying interest" like Barclays does.

The highest balance on my NFCU was about $10K when I traveled to Korea and China for work.  I let the statement cut but I PIF after I received the expenses account funds.  I put my Michigan Season Tickets and donation (about $5K total) on my card and let the statement cut before I PIF.

Other then this, I typically PIF before the statement cuts.  My behavior may change because I was trying to maximize my score before applying for a mortgage.  Now that I closed on the mortgage, and then went on my app spree; I dont care if each statement cuts and I lose a few points for having a few cards with a balance.  I will always PIF.

[Anonymous]

jamesdwi - a side trip here ... what do you use the FNBO DISC Card for? Mine is like 0.50% on rewards. CL is $14.3K but in today's world the rewards are NOT! BT's are good.

[jamesdwi]

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@Spider15 wrote:

jamesdwi - a side trip here ... what do you use the FNBO DISC Card for? Mine is like 0.50% on rewards. CL is $14.3K but in today's world the rewards are NOT! BT's are good.

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purely BT, they frequently have 5.9% for life offers, not as great as zero percent, but nice that it has no HP to get the offer, and they give me auto-CLI every 3-6 months. 

[Anonymous]

That's a pretty good SL on the DC! Citi is being very stingy with this card it seems, hope I get a good SP CLI at six months like a poster above mentioned. 

I would also look at Amex if you want a higher limit card. I only put $5-600 thru my BCP a month but they bumped me in two CLIs to $25k. Hoping the other CCCs follow suite. Unfortunately most of the cards I have don't offer SP CLIs except for Cap1 and Citi....and I don't use the QS anymore. That being said Cap1 was rather generous as well. I hadn't used the no rewards platinum card since 2009 and the limit was at $750. I received the offer to switch to QS and accepted while asking the EO for a CLI. They raised it to $5k even without using it for years and then to $8k six months later. I know a lot of people hate on Cap1 but this impressed me. 

[Anonymous]

Getting high limits is like the proverbial "chicken or the egg" question.

In order to get high limits, you have to already have high limits...with a few exceptions.

You can slowly and surely build up your credit like a tortoise and eventually break the 10K/15K barriers or you can get find those loophole cards that will push you into high limits and then the others will follow.   Loophole cards would be something like a JCrew or Venture.

I am sure at some point your income does factor into your limits; so if you have a low income, it would be unrealistic  to expect 30K limits.

In the OP's case, he does have a $13K Chase so he's good to go.  In fact, get more Chase products and they usually go higher on the next one.  Then do the Chase Limit Consildation Trick if you want REALLY high limits.