I fell into the save 10% when you open a credit card trap

[Anonymous]

I fell into the save 10% when you open a credit card trap and they gave me $10,000 credit limit on a couple of accounts that I will not use much if at all.  Will it help my FICO if I ask them to lower my credit limit?  I have other accounts that I use regularly so I have a good credit history.

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, briargrove, welcome to the forums!

A high CL of $10K will not hurt your scores at all. Please read Credit Scoring 101, which is stickied at the top of many of the boards here.

Which card is this? That's a heckuva nice deal on a promo.

[Anonymous]

Why would you want to decrease your limit? The more you have available, the better. Plus, your overall utilization % will go down as a result of you having more total funds.

[Anonymous]

It's only a trap if you use a chunk of  the CL and can't PIF before the promo ends-

Don't ask for a CLD-  

[Anonymous]

Well, I actually have 4 credit cards with a $10,000 limit - one with my bank that I use and pay off every month, one with Home Depot which I opened for flooring but have not used yet, 1 with Sears for a $600 purchase which I will pay off in 6 months, and 1 with Target which I have used a couple of times but never carry a balance.  My concern is that having that much open to buy will be a negative on my credit score.  Is that not true?  So I shouldn't get any of them to lower my credit limit?  I think that's what I am hearing from you.

Message Edited by briargrove on 07-14-2008 05:54 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

Absolutely not. In no way whatsoever will having higher credit limits hurt you.

What hurts you is having high balances on your cards. Many people don't realize that even if they pay off their bills every month, never paying a penny of interest, it's the amount on your statement that is generally reported to the credit bureaus. So if you use your cards a lot (and I'm in favor of that if you stay on top of them), and you don't pay them down/off before the statement drops, your scores will be hurt.

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Absolutely not. In no way whatsoever will having higher credit limits hurt you.

What hurts you is having high balances on your cards. Many people don't realize that even if they pay off their bills every month, never paying a penny of interest, it's the amount on your statement that is generally reported to the credit bureaus. So if you use your cards a lot (and I'm in favor of that if you stay on top of them), and you don't pay them down/off before the statement drops, your scores will be hurt.

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Agree with Hauling 100 percent. Couldn't have said it better myself.