Increasing Credit Line

[Anonymous]

I have been able to open up a couple credit cards such as AmEX and Discover but with low credit limit. Each one has emailed me and offered me ways to increase my credit limit such as paying on time for 5 months. My question is, does it matter how much I spend on that card?..In other words if i carry a higher balance closer to the credit limit and pay it off when my bill comes due will that get me a bigger credit line increase than say if i putting smaller amounts on the card?

Thanks!

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Sometimes it works on creditors by showing them you need a larger line of credit for your spending. Don't know about amex. Discover is on their own little planet. But it works for capital one.

Edit: sorry, I misread. Thought you were talking about cycling the card with multiple maxes and payoffs in a month.

[Anonymous]

not sure about odds of specific companies but carrying a large balance will drop your FICO score in the short term... and i believe the scores play a big factor in receiving CLIs

[HeavenOhio]

@Anonymous, with the AMEX card, just follow the terms they outline for you. I believe you need to allow each statement to cut with a positive balance and make a payment each month. Responsible balances come statement time would make sense, but you can control those by bringing them down to a low amount (but not zero) just before the statement cuts.

What has Discover told you? I haven't heard of any offers that more or less guarantee a credit limit increase. Outside of that, the general rule for Discover is that there are no rules. In other words, they're too hard to pin down. I'd just use the card in a reasonable and responsible way.