How to treat a "high" cl card the right way when rebuilding?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous Thanks for your input. So instead of paying the balance BEFORE statement cut, I should wait and pay right after? I thought it was better when it reports to $0.

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It depends on how you define "better" and what your goal(s) are.  If you're focusing on your Fico scores, lower reported balances are better.  If not, why not take advantage of the grace period without paying interest?  That's one of the things credit cards are all about.  Let your statement balance cut as high as it needs to naturally, then you've got 3-4 weeks to pay it off in full without having to pay a penny of interest.  Your reported balances will fluctuate from month to month... $2k... $4k... $3k... $1k... etc. which is fine so long as you PIF before the due date.  Request CLIs frequently on the Discover card and with that sound Transactor behavior they may raise your limit multiple times.  Once you get the limit to maybe $15k or so, your reported balance even if it's $4k won't ding your Fico scores much at all.

Discover is also good about doing off-cycle reporting.  That being said, if you're ever in a situation where you need to app for credit and you just had a heavy Discover balance report, you just need to pay it off and contact CS to request your new ($0) balance be reported and won't have to wait until the next statement cuts to get back your Fico points.

[Anonymous]

I always pay AFTER the statement cuts and PIF. I like for my balances to show on my reports, as it shows other creditors usage. I take my cards a step further and prefer to show a high balance relative to my card's CL on my report (for instance high balance of 14,541 on a 20K CL), and, prefer to show balances on all my cards every month, but that's just me. Not particularly great for the credit score, but my scores can handle the dings without issue. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the answers! So I was worry about the reporting of a balance, thinking other creditors (the cards I have with small balance) will thing I'm maxed up in debt and may close my cards (I guess I still have the stress mindset of poor credit!). The only card I want is the apple card, but GS really doesn't like my profile at all, so I plan to wait until mid 21 to try again. 

I will let breath my low limit cards for 2-3 months, and see how it goes with discover, let it report with limit to show usage (see how my profile react to that) and then pif.

I guess I will wait 3-6 months before asking for a cli,  want to stay under the radar for now.

[Anonymous]

It's personal preference how often you ask for CLIs.  I started around 60-90 days in with Discover and asked about once a month from then on out, as often as once a week for a period of probably 40 weeks.  My goal was to grow the card to a monster limit through, so I was more aggressive than your typical person.  I would suggest asking for a CLI after you PIF... so basically, statement cuts, balance reports, pay it down to $0 and once you see that $0 balance on your account request a CLI.  It will only take a couple of CLIs to get your limit to a place that reporting a high balance will no longer hurt your scores much if at all.

[ccquest]

Note that recently people have been saying Discover is doing a one year minimum before CLIs, I've seen it shared quite a few times on here in the past couple months. Probably a side effect of COVID, but worth mentioning in case it is wide spread - not sure if that applies since you passed the financial review already though.

[AverageJoesCredit]

if you get an Amex you can always use POT, i hear it helps alot , over time. 

[Journey2019]

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@ccquest wrote:
Note that recently people have been saying Discover is doing a one year minimum before CLIs, I've seen it shared quite a few times on here in the past couple months. Probably a side effect of COVID, but worth mentioning in case it is wide spread - not sure if that applies since you passed the financial review already though.

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I can attest to this! I got my Discover in October of 2019 with a 2,000 limit, Requested increases in Jan. (after 3 months) in March, in May and in August, all denied. Requested at the beginning of this month (Oct.) and finally got a 500 increase.