Do you have the secured plat @digitalink? Also is the QS1 offered as both secured and unsecured?
@Anonymous wrote:and dont have a zero balance when you go for the CLI. Tried that. said balance is too low. The systems are a computer. If they dont make money off you, the system will reflect that. Let them make a little bit of money. Carry small balances, pay a little interest, show the computer you are easy money, even if it is just a dollar a month or do a BT and pay them a few bucks. They are in the business of making money not giving you free credit.If you want them to give you big limits, make sure they are making money off the account. I'm sure there are some 800 people out there who just pay it all off and still get big limits and the companies make money only off their fees but they tend to generate much more in fees, but they are 800 people they can do that and theyll still get big limits. Us less desirables have to be profitable for them or they wont do a lot of business.
While you can always question whether it's good to go for a CLI with zero balance or some positive balance or high balance, the part in bold is not a good idea.
I've got CLI from Cap One both with and without carrying balance, but it was definitely when my scores crossed over the 700 mark comfortably. Before that, I could always address the reasons stated in their mails and still not get a CLI without going through a EO route. Actually, I was a staunch proponent of hitting the CLI button after 6 months, getting the nonsensical letter, and then chatting up EO through twitter / FB because the computer and CSR were of no use.
It seems since then Cap One has evolved a lot.
Anyway, there's no benefit from paying interest to the bank. Banks make money through your transactions by charging the merchant for each of them.
If anything, paying interest shows the bank that you don't have enough money to pay off your debt. You can claim otherwise from the rooftop and the computer, being the rational agent that it is, will still get to the same result.
I think there should be a sticky on the forum front page: Reporting zero vs non-zero balance as against carrying zero vs. non-zero balance.
You can use the card a lot and still report zero balance (by paying everything in full even before the statement is generated). I've got CLIs that way. This is zero balance report.
You can use the card, let the statement get generated whenever, and pay everything in full before the due date on the statement. I've got CLIs that way too. This is positive balance report but zero balance carrying.
You can also use the card, let the statement generate, and then not pay everything in full by the due date and rather pay interest on later statements. I've got the least amount of CLIs (except Discover, and that too during 0% APRs so no interest paid) this way. This is positive balance reporting and positive balance carrying.
The "balance too low" is a sad trick played by Cap One for customers with not very high credit scores. I used to get "usage too low" when I used to charge up to 60-70% of the card's limit and pay it off immediately next month. My scores were in the 650-680 range then. They're unwilling to give a CLI because of the low scores, not because of the low usage really. But they trick the customers into thinking that if only they were spending more on the card or paying some interest, they'll get CLIs.
Not gonna happen.
Now that my scores usually hover between 730 and 780 (depends on the bureau and the scoring model), I get some sort of a CLI when it's due (got 2 on my QS and 2 on my now-merged Venture), with or without much of a usage and mostly zero-balance reporting.
Right now, I'm running an experiment with a BT (<$1k) on my QS. Since I recently merged my Venture, the CLI date got moved down this year. I'll report back around that time about what happens when I keep running a BT on Cap One. I'm bracing myself for a "payment too low" response but who knows. I've got $29k on one card; I don't really need another CLI badly 
