Income to Total Credit Line Question

[Meanmchine]

Hi everyone

Baseline info

Income = $45k give or take)

Current TCL (credit cards) = $56k no loans. Mortgage 10 yrs old never a blemish

Current util  = 9% ( $4.5 )

Hi bal cards =3  1300/2000 and 800/1500 and 1200/2000

Lo Bal cards = 2 cards at <20% rest at or near $0

Baddies = Alot-  none recent and  starting in Sept, they start falling off as all are almost 7years old

                 I anticipate being 720+ fico by new years ( except for experian which always hated me )

Current question

Right now I am over 100% in income to TCL ratio

I know that noone can give a definate answer but at what point do you think banks will say im at my cl max?

Which banks aree more likely to cut me off based on my income ratio

Right now Synch bank has the biggest eposure with about $30k. Im at the point where I only ask for Synch card CLI on just a few cards

Thanks for any advice

[Anonymous]

I think the baddies will be the overarching issue here much more than total credit limit. I'd spend time working on the baddies as best you can. Once the baddies have been addressed or removed, you are then in a better position to review and evaluate your overall profile.

Also, your utilization per card looks too high- even if your overall utilization is good, I'd work on getting the per card utilization down as much as possible.

I'd work on removing baddies and reducing utilization as first steps if I were you, then evaluate overall what your credit needs are and how to best meet those needs. Don't be overly focused on a specific number, but on your overall profile and needs. Good luck.

[disdreamin]

I'm nowhere near 1:1 credit lines to income and I am still continually surprised that companies are willing to extend me more credit. Then I see people with 3xTCL to income and I'm like WHAAAAAT?!?!  So I'd say once things are all cleaned up you're probably good to go. They'll let you know when you get there, as you'll see denials instead of approvals when you decide to apply for additional credit, right?

[CreditCuriosity]

I am getting closer and closer to 2x my income and feel weird about it..  I try to keep my CL's are 1.5x my income, but it is becoming near impossible now with my credit profile getting better and better.. I even am canceling cards that I don't find value in, but the dang CLI buttons esp SP ones.  Cancelled an 8k card on Friday and a few more are coming this following month

@OP: If you pay off those 3 cards with pretty high utilization approx 60ish percent on 3 cc's you would see a pretty nice score increase as a few are near maxed.  That alone could could possibly put you above 720... I would pay them all off except 1 reporting < 9% util and your scores will go up by a good amount i suspect

[JagerBombs89]

I'm at just over 4x credit limits to income.

[disdreamin]

Not to hijack the thread but...yeah, I'm hijacking.

How in the WORLD do you get to 3x or 4x credit lines to income?! I am pretty darn sure the banks would *never* extend me that kind of credit. What am I doing wrong?! I got 4506t'd with AmEx trying to go up by a few thousand before. Sheesh. I need to learn from y'all. So please teach me, oh guru's of credit!

To keep this at least somewhat on-topic, OP, your idea of keeping it to 1.5 times income seems about right to me. If I do personal income, I'm about 1:1 right now. However, my SO and I share all cards, so it's less than 1:1 for household (adding up all our credit lines, and all cards but one are my cards). I think I'm doing something wrong here though, as it seems like maybe I'm shooting for too low a number?!

[Anonymous]

I'm at more than double my annual income. Of course, double squat is still squat.

[kdm31091]

There are different schools of thought. Some people feel exposure doesn't really matter. Only you can decide what's best for you. My exposure is about 2x my income and I'm not really comfortable exceeding that. The more open credit limit you have, the more some lenders could view it as potential debt (and others don't care). Beyond that, it's just not necessary, IMO.

[Anonymous]

7 months into my credit building journey, @ a little over 50% of my income. Shooting for 6 figures by 30! 

[Meanmchine]

LOL Captool. 

I wish I had saved the letter but I had applied for the Best Buy store card and was denied and it had something to do with income.  I cant remember the exact reason. So Im guessing that Citibank might be a little sensitive