@grillandwinemaster wrote:Interesting point, Revelate...
So you're saying that 1 to 2k is sufficient on a freedom, or other category card due to the quarterly limit imposed by the issuer? I hadn't really thought of it this way, but it makes sense...
Either that, or I've had too much to drink and my judgment is getting clouded on this new years eve holiday! Lol
Either way, good point!
You have it; limits for the sake of limits are pretty irrelevant both to FICO and to consumers. OK I know some people get some validation on having high CL's, that's cool, we all have our own idiosycracies and I'm not one to judge... unless you chew with your mouth open at dinner with me, sorry!
For the folks on the forum though, if we have a rewards capped card like a Freedom/Discover IT, or a Cash+, or a BCE/BCP or soon to be dead Sallie or any number of other cards, for those folks rewards chasing (which is a lot, those that stick around tend to turn into them if they didn't start off that way) then they will spend up to the cap for the rewards in any given quarter to use the Freedom case, take the 7500 UR, and move on to spending with some other card. Really over a 3 month period $1500 in charges isn't a problem with a 1K line, and if you're trying to do it all at once a 2K line would suffice.
Taking Chase again as an example, if I have a Freedom and a Freedom Unlimited at 10K each, which is going to need the bigger line? The capped rewards card, or the unlimited rewards earned at a higher rate than default spend or anything north of the $1500 quarterly mark on the Freedom? So take call it 8K or even 9K of that Freedom, tack it onto the FU and get a 18K default spender, which can now be used for things like that 12K Federal tax payment (assuming I'm getting enough in UR value to obviate the transaction fee) on an arbitrage play.
The case holds more generally even with lenders you can't really shuffle lines on: carry a balance on a Freedom at 10K and 20% APR or on a CU card at 9-12% APR? I guess cards which routinely get 0% BT offers could use a big limit too, but in any event my advice is to stack limits where you need it for your spending pattern or for financial defense, and anything that doesn't need a big honking limit, consider taking a CLD on it or get that limit working for you on a different card which'll eventually happen anyway just from the nature of credit acquisition.
@Anonymous wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:So, this thread started out with the thesis that many people on MyFico are heading to fewer cards, and now we have a discussion where folks will be allowed to weigh in with the vote for their card, ( how many potential "favorite cards" are there out there to throw in this new thread? ) to promote more cards, and in that same thread, the nay-sayers will feel it is their duty to call out the reasons for not getting the card that a poster just wrote a glowing review for? I for one will get a big bowl of popcorn, because this "describe your reasons" thread is going to blow up with all kinds of arguments.
Said another way, it's too broad a topic. There's the AMEX 3X CLI thread, as a better example of a focused thread. There's specific questions where posters want to understand their specific situation, or ask about a specific card they are interested in. I think a "promote your card" thread is going to quickly become a mess.
I agree it might be a mess (but hey, let people do it if I'm not forced to read it!). I think another concern is how little variation there will be. "I like the BCP because it gives 6% on groceries" "And you can get gift cards" can be said only a few times before it becomes, um, less interesting. I would guess that the reason behind MOST cards is pretty obvious. The interest is when someone says "I like card X because it gives... on Y" and someone points out "Actually, card Z is better on Y". Which would be educational but instead we often see posts defending the choice of X along with statements like "We all have diffferent needs" which may miss the point that Z is in fact objectively superior to X..... But lets see.
It's an experiment, if it doesn't work it will be either changed or left to rot like so many other threads; TBH I'm not quite sure how it'll evolve but if a heavy curation hand is needed (I'm hoping it won't be) we can do that. I'm a little more optimistic than others, but it doesn't necessarily mean I'm entirely wrong on this. There's been some negativity brought to light in this thread, and believe me when I suggest that can be changed.
If we don't keep trying new things we fail, that's true anywhere in life and on this forum as well. The goal is to document people's journeys in a format that can be easily accessed, and people who see a good post from you can take a look and see where you started from, where you are now, and how you got there. That has potentially tremendous upside from a community perspective, and I can state we've never tried to organize information in a more Wiki-like fashion on this forum, but maybe it can be done even with the limitiations of the Lithium software.
It's not really a pure information thread like the Amex 3X CLI one (which to be blunt we created to stop the spam on the boards on that topic), it's more of a story board to help drive community. It might wind up as an informational resource though I sort of doubt it given the credit market structure, but even if it doesn't there's other success criteria that might still be met. It's hard to say and it's flatly different than anything we've tried before, but I have hope.
Really if it works at all the idea would be even better in the Rebuilding board. Community is important on a forum like this, and that's something I haven't given up on.
@Revelate wrote:
@grillandwinemaster wrote:Interesting point, Revelate...
So you're saying that 1 to 2k is sufficient on a freedom, or other category card due to the quarterly limit imposed by the issuer? I hadn't really thought of it this way, but it makes sense...
Either that, or I've had too much to drink and my judgment is getting clouded on this new years eve holiday! Lol
Either way, good point!
You have it; limits for the sake of limits are pretty irrelevant both to FICO and to consumers. OK I know some people get some validation on having high CL's, that's cool, we all have our own idiosycracies and I'm not one to judge... unless you chew with your mouth open at dinner with me, sorry!
For the folks on the forum though, if we have a rewards capped card like a Freedom/Discover IT, or a Cash+, or a BCE/BCP or soon to be dead Sallie or any number of other cards, for those folks rewards chasing (which is a lot, those that stick around tend to turn into them if they didn't start off that way) then they will spend up to the cap for the rewards in any given quarter to use the Freedom case, take the 7500 UR, and move on to spending with some other card. Really over a 3 month period $1500 in charges isn't a problem with a 1K line, and if you're trying to do it all at once a 2K line would suffice.
Taking Chase again as an example, if I have a Freedom and a Freedom Unlimited at 10K each, which is going to need the bigger line? The capped rewards card, or the unlimited rewards earned at a higher rate than default spend or anything north of the $1500 quarterly mark on the Freedom? So take call it 8K or even 9K of that Freedom, tack it onto the FU and get a 18K default spender, which can now be used for things like that 12K Federal tax payment (assuming I'm getting enough in UR value to obviate the transaction fee) on an arbitrage play.
The case holds more generally even with lenders you can't really shuffle lines on: carry a balance on a Freedom at 10K and 20% APR or on a CU card at 9-12% APR? I guess cards which routinely get 0% BT offers could use a big limit too, but in any event my advice is to stack limits where you need it for your spending pattern or for financial defense, and anything that doesn't need a big honking limit, consider taking a CLD on it or get that limit working for you on a different card which'll eventually happen anyway just from the nature of credit acquisition.
My Freedom card is $1,500 limit, for the 5% categories, and gets 10 points per swipe still. No way I'm poking the bear on that one to try to increase that limit, so that's my contribution to the Less Is More camp.
Revelate, I think you should get your "Moderator Stick" back!
You have insightful thoughts, and I appreciate your community spirit.
@Revelate wrote:
@grillandwinemaster wrote:Interesting point, Revelate...
So you're saying that 1 to 2k is sufficient on a freedom, or other category card due to the quarterly limit imposed by the issuer? I hadn't really thought of it this way, but it makes sense...
Either that, or I've had too much to drink and my judgment is getting clouded on this new years eve holiday! Lol
Either way, good point!
You have it; limits for the sake of limits are pretty irrelevant both to FICO and to consumers. OK I know some people get some validation on having high CL's, that's cool, we all have our own idiosycracies and I'm not one to judge... unless you chew with your mouth open at dinner with me, sorry!
For the folks on the forum though, if we have a rewards capped card like a Freedom/Discover IT, or a Cash+, or a BCE/BCP or soon to be dead Sallie or any number of other cards, for those folks rewards chasing (which is a lot, those that stick around tend to turn into them if they didn't start off that way) then they will spend up to the cap for the rewards in any given quarter to use the Freedom case, take the 7500 UR, and move on to spending with some other card. Really over a 3 month period $1500 in charges isn't a problem with a 1K line, and if you're trying to do it all at once a 2K line would suffice.
Taking Chase again as an example, if I have a Freedom and a Freedom Unlimited at 10K each, which is going to need the bigger line? The capped rewards card, or the unlimited rewards earned at a higher rate than default spend or anything north of the $1500 quarterly mark on the Freedom? So take call it 8K or even 9K of that Freedom, tack it onto the FU and get a 18K default spender, which can now be used for things like that 12K Federal tax payment (assuming I'm getting enough in UR value to obviate the transaction fee) on an arbitrage play.
The case holds more generally even with lenders you can't really shuffle lines on: carry a balance on a Freedom at 10K and 20% APR or on a CU card at 9-12% APR? I guess cards which routinely get 0% BT offers could use a big limit too, but in any event my advice is to stack limits where you need it for your spending pattern or for financial defense, and anything that doesn't need a big honking limit, consider taking a CLD on it or get that limit working for you on a different card which'll eventually happen anyway just from the nature of credit acquisition.
Ok, so i have sobered up a bit, and I can now grasp my thoughts around this...
I like your thinking of not getting arbitrary cli's just for the sake of getting cli's. It's a great point that we should, to the best of our ability, allocate appropriate credit limits to the needs of the card, and to a greater extent, the needs of the consumer.
Do I hear another MyFico trend coming? "Less is More, please reduce my CL??" LOL!
@Anonymous wrote:Maybe we are seeing a little bit more of "less is more" stuff but there are still others (e.g. the 45+ thread that is active).
I would love to see a "Hey, you don't really need a CLI!" movement, but that seems a way off!
Did you catch that, LTL? There may be a new movement on the horizon afterall! LOL
@wasCB14 wrote:
Through security at Times Square and on a tiny mobile screen, so keeping this short.
UncleB, I guess it works for you. I have reasons for all my cards, but I know my reasons for some are pretty weak. I'm trying to make up my mind about how good a reason I need to keep a card. I know two of thirteen I wouldn't apply for again, and to me that suggests my reasons for keeping them may be questionable.
Humu, perhaps "a bunch" wasn't the correct term, but you did start that thread mentioning closing two clothing store cards and two other unspecified Comenity cards. Even if there weren't others, my general point about improving card quality remains.
Hey CB..
To each is own, eh? Also, no need to split hairs on a "bunch" of wording that was previously said. It was said, no big deal.
I will agree with your comment on improving card quality though. I think that is eventually everyone's goal (again, Im "generalizing"), including rebuilders such as myself 
I have a feeling that the closer I get to my BK falling off, and aging down the road, the more I'll adopt the attitude of "less is more".
By then, Ill be "tired'. Tired of the game, tired of managing 20+ cards, tired of checking scores and accts constantly, tired of the CLI game, tired of being tired !! LOL.. It will probably come a relief!