How does one get stuck in Low Limit Hell

[Anonymous]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@joltdude wrote:

Low Limit hell is at the intersection of Comenty and Sync ..... not too far from "squeaking by" on just barely making the threshold for an approval with other banks...

If you spree heavily on store cards... this is usually where you will end up.... 

The solution... get a few cards, not a handful... and time...

-J

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Amen! 

I think too many underestimate the impact of time... I've lamented before that had I found this site earlier I could have started my rebuild a few years before I actually did, but on the other hand by the time I figured out there were issuers who would lend to somebody with less-than-perfect credit my own record was only a year or so from being clean again anyway.  I guess it worked out OK. 

Because of this I skipped the SCT/Comenity cards so many people use to get back on track.  (Comenity has helped many people... I'm not knocking them at all.  They also have some good products for people even after they are reestablished.)

I think aggressive rebuilding has it's place, but when all's said and done nothing 'fixes' or builds good credit like time, and of course that's assuming you have positive history during that time.  All of us - myself included - want things 'now' but sometimes the answer is to simply wait until the time is right. 

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You are absolutely on target UncleB.  I can say that I ended up in the aggressive rebuild category.  Comenity offered me approvals and I went for it like crazy, but when all was said and done, I boxed myself in with too many new accounts, too many INQs, and with a profile strong with store cards, but limited with bank card approvals.  I've been working over the last 6 months to change that and one of the reasons why gardening has become important to me is that my scores have stagnated from my choices and only time will repair things.  I know that long term, I need to replace some more of my store cards with bank cards, but my scores need to be higher and the profile that I have needs a higher AAoA.  I guess the lesson I've learned is that moderation is good and learning to strategize is even better.

Have a great weekend.

[Anonymous]

A thick fike with charge offs will put you here. Bankruptcy will give you a $15,000 starting limit which I think should be the other way around but I didn't write the laws and I didn't read them or I would've done the same

[Anonymous]

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@rlx01 wrote:
Past performance does not guarantee future results...

The key to higher limits is to build off each successive new limit. I went from a 3k CU secured card, to a 10.5k CSP approval, to a 30k C1 QS approval, to a 35k CSR approval, to a 50k Amex CLI. It took 4 years and a lot of patience.

My lowest CL now is 5k (my 3k secured card graduated and they CLI'ed me). My Amex SPG and Chase CSR are both at 50k.

I only apply for the cards that have a long term purpose.

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Of course... But past performance does have a strong correlation with future results.

If I'm a lender and I see someone meticulously managing $200k in credit limits, I'm far more likely to open the purse strings to lend them money than an applicant who is doing reasonably well with $10k in credit limits.

[Anonymous]

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@redpat wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Man there's some salt in this thread lol. I have 2 cards with > $20k and multiple more > $10k. This is important to me because I plan to have a mortgage soon ( < 2 years) and it's important that lenders know that I can be responsible with that kind of money. I have over 3x my income in available credit, and I don't do anything stupid with it. When the time comes to give me $250,000- $750,000, they should be comfortable enough with my file to know I won't default on it. Just my $0.02.

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Just be aware while you go through underwriting for your mortgage they may ask you to close some of your credit cards for too much open credit.  They do look at that stuff because it's part for their risk assessment.  That is why it is better to get those limits after you get your first mortgage.

You aren't responsible for that money it's credit and borrowing that you are responsible for.  It's their money. 

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I'm totally fine with that lol.  I have an order of magnitude more in trade lines than I need to use.  How much do you need me to prune off, and how will it affect my APR?

[CreditDunce]

When all you have is toy limits, most of the time you will only be approved for a low limit.  It is important to garden long enough to get some CLI's before app'g again.  Also, having the right lenders can be very good.  Discover likes clean, thin files.  Once in you can slowly build your CL with SP CLIs.  NFCU is another good starter.  Amex is good once you have some history.   They can be stingy with people who just barely qualified for the card.   Another option is Lowes.   A call into CS/Sync will often get the limit bumped up to 25-35k.  If you go the Lowes route, be careful.  They have been canceling for too aggressive behavior.

Once you have cards with decent limits, I see no reason to keep trying to increase your CLs.  I would much rather had smaller SLs from my last app spree.  I would have called in to have the limits reduced except I don't want to get on their radar.  I much prefer the computer be the only thing that reviews my credit report.

PS.  I have never had a Comenity card.  However, I thought they used to be a good way to get higher limits.  Most of the cards offered regular, small SP CLIs.  A year or two ago they started cracking down on those folks.  People with multiple cards and/or CLI request had their cards canceled.  IIRC, they had (may still have) some cards (e.g. Barney's) that could reach 25k without too much trouble.

[redpat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@rlx01 wrote:
Past performance does not guarantee future results...

The key to higher limits is to build off each successive new limit. I went from a 3k CU secured card, to a 10.5k CSP approval, to a 30k C1 QS approval, to a 35k CSR approval, to a 50k Amex CLI. It took 4 years and a lot of patience.

My lowest CL now is 5k (my 3k secured card graduated and they CLI'ed me). My Amex SPG and Chase CSR are both at 50k.

I only apply for the cards that have a long term purpose.

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Of course... But past performance does have a strong correlation with future results.

If I'm a lender and I see someone meticulously managing $200k in credit limits, I'm far more likely to open the purse strings to lend them money than an applicant who is doing reasonably well with $10k in credit limits.

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Managing 200k, lol.  It's fake limit, you would be cut off at the knees at 50k.  Don't think by having a 200k vs. 10k makes you a better borrower for a mortgage.  History of paying debt on time not just short term debt like credit cards but other loans such as car loans thicken a file.  The average potential homeowner would never consider having that much available credit.

Thse forums are the outlier.

[Credit_hawk]

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@redpat wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@rlx01 wrote:
Past performance does not guarantee future results...

The key to higher limits is to build off each successive new limit. I went from a 3k CU secured card, to a 10.5k CSP approval, to a 30k C1 QS approval, to a 35k CSR approval, to a 50k Amex CLI. It took 4 years and a lot of patience.

My lowest CL now is 5k (my 3k secured card graduated and they CLI'ed me). My Amex SPG and Chase CSR are both at 50k.

I only apply for the cards that have a long term purpose.

---

Of course... But past performance does have a strong correlation with future results.

If I'm a lender and I see someone meticulously managing $200k in credit limits, I'm far more likely to open the purse strings to lend them money than an applicant who is doing reasonably well with $10k in credit limits.

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Managing 200k, lol.  It's fake limit, you would be cut off at the knees at 50k.  Don't think by having a 200k vs. 10k makes you a better borrower for a mortgage.  History of paying debt on time not just short term debt like credit cards but other loans such as car loans thicken a file.  The average potential homeowner would never consider having that much available credit.

Thse forums are the outlier.

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This gets extra Kudos! Haha kudos is a funny word. Redpat is Kudos king for Friday night. I'm trying to figure out one last way to use kudos in a sentence. I guess I just did. Credit_hawk--out.

[redpat]

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@Credit_hawk wrote:

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@redpat wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@rlx01 wrote:
Past performance does not guarantee future results...

The key to higher limits is to build off each successive new limit. I went from a 3k CU secured card, to a 10.5k CSP approval, to a 30k C1 QS approval, to a 35k CSR approval, to a 50k Amex CLI. It took 4 years and a lot of patience.

My lowest CL now is 5k (my 3k secured card graduated and they CLI'ed me). My Amex SPG and Chase CSR are both at 50k.

I only apply for the cards that have a long term purpose.

---

Of course... But past performance does have a strong correlation with future results.

If I'm a lender and I see someone meticulously managing $200k in credit limits, I'm far more likely to open the purse strings to lend them money than an applicant who is doing reasonably well with $10k in credit limits.

---

Managing 200k, lol.  It's fake limit, you would be cut off at the knees at 50k.  Don't think by having a 200k vs. 10k makes you a better borrower for a mortgage.  History of paying debt on time not just short term debt like credit cards but other loans such as car loans thicken a file.  The average potential homeowner would never consider having that much available credit.

Thse forums are the outlier.

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This gets extra Kudos! Haha kudos is a funny word. Redpat is Kudos king for Friday night. I'm trying to figure out one last way to use kudos in a sentence. I guess I just did. Credit_hawk--out.

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Lol!  Can I have some of what you are having?

[Credit_hawk]

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@redpat wrote:

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@Credit_hawk wrote:

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@redpat wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@rlx01 wrote:
Past performance does not guarantee future results...

The key to higher limits is to build off each successive new limit. I went from a 3k CU secured card, to a 10.5k CSP approval, to a 30k C1 QS approval, to a 35k CSR approval, to a 50k Amex CLI. It took 4 years and a lot of patience.

My lowest CL now is 5k (my 3k secured card graduated and they CLI'ed me). My Amex SPG and Chase CSR are both at 50k.

I only apply for the cards that have a long term purpose.

---

Of course... But past performance does have a strong correlation with future results.

If I'm a lender and I see someone meticulously managing $200k in credit limits, I'm far more likely to open the purse strings to lend them money than an applicant who is doing reasonably well with $10k in credit limits.

---

Managing 200k, lol.  It's fake limit, you would be cut off at the knees at 50k.  Don't think by having a 200k vs. 10k makes you a better borrower for a mortgage.  History of paying debt on time not just short term debt like credit cards but other loans such as car loans thicken a file.  The average potential homeowner would never consider having that much available credit.

Thse forums are the outlier.

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This gets extra Kudos! Haha kudos is a funny word. Redpat is Kudos king for Friday night. I'm trying to figure out one last way to use kudos in a sentence. I guess I just did. Credit_hawk--out.

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Lol!  Can I have some of what you are having?

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Haha. I'm sober. Honest! It's just funny because my girlfriend saw my email the other day and she was like "kudos? You got kudos? Look at you go with all those kudos." She was lightly ribbing me about my pastime with this forum. That was until she found out about the forum name I chose. Then she really let me have it. So I decided to mess around with her and and self-deprecate and say "yeah, but they call me just 'The Hawk' around the forums. I'm kind of a big deal. People know me." 

Anyway, it got me thinking about how strange/funny a word like kudos is and how unusual it is that myFICO decided to go with that verbiage rather than "likes" or something similar. And I'm in a bit of a goofy mood to boot I guess. That mixed in with a great post by you, and the result was that silly post from me lol. But it doesn't take away from the fact that was a kick a$$ statement!

[AverageJoesCredit]

One gets stuck in Low Limit Hell by ignoring the correct path to High Limit Heaven