People with lots of credit cards, how do you maintain utilization on all of them to ensure CLI's

[Knice86]

I see people with 15-40 credit cards all with high limits.  That is my goal but I wonder if there is a secret on being able to use them all in a rotation of sorts to ensure you get healthy CLI's whether automatic or manual.  Basically, how do you have such a large volume of credit cards all with high limits and manage to use them to the point where your credit limit never decreases, rather increases.  

[gdale6]

I use personal finance computer software for all my expenses and income, it also holds all the CCs I have and its easy for me to see who has use and who doesnt and I know the balances on all at all times this way.

[KLEXH25]

I imagine having a high income / high spend also plays a role. 

[longtimelurker]

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@Knice86 wrote:

I see people with 15-40 credit cards all with high limits.  That is my goal but I wonder if there is a secret on being able to use them all in a rotation of sorts to ensure you get healthy CLI's whether automatic or manual.  Basically, how do you have such a large volume of credit cards all with high limits and manage to use them to the point where your credit limit never decreases, rather increases.  

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When you have "enough" cards and CL, getting endless CLIs isn't necessarily a goal.   Just keeping the cards that you need (and maybe looking for replacements where appropriate).   Then it's just a case of keeping the needed ones active with purchases from time to time, which isn't hard as by definition these are the ones you need!

[coldfusion]

I know the cards I want and the ones I'm ambivalent about.

The ones I want get regular/regularish spend, the others are used when there are targets of opportunity. 

[MrDisco99]

Yeah I don't really think about chasing CLIs... at least not anymore.

I got two triple CLIs from Amex and that was it.  Most of my high limits with them are from applying for SUBs and transferring limits before cancelling.

BoA stopped giving me CLIs when my combined limits hit 50% of declared income.  I tested this by bumping up my salary to a nice round number on the next application and they matched exactly 50%.  Remarkable.

I never got any CLIs from Cap1.  They told me I wasn't spending enough.  They gave me high limits out the gate, so I'm OK with it.

Citi stopped giving me CLIs on any cards.  I used to click the love button every 6 months.  I never got the impression they cared much about how much spend they were getting.  I think I just hit a ceiling with them, same as Amex and BoA.

And I don't spend HPs on CLIs so that covers everyody.

I've always just tried my best to optimize rewards and not think much about making banks happy.  That seems to have worked out fine for me.

[staticvoidmain]

I don't have a lot of credit cards, but I use an online spreadsheet that I can access anywhere. It's very easy to expand and add more cards/accounts to it. If you have a table of all your cards and their balances, then you'll know which ones you're not using. I do log all my spend though. When it comes to rotation, it can get tricky if your spending is too few (i.e. you don't pay for, or purchase a lot of things). 

[wasCB14]

I wouldn't have a problem with a few CLDs. I only care about maintaining my CLs on cards that at least occasionally get a lot of spend - and those get plenty of activity naturally.

A few card (IHG, Hyatt, Arrival) serve a very limited purpose and while I want to keep them open I don't need a big CL. My $20k Arrival gets under $10 a year in spend so a CLD seems likely there.

[notmyrealname23]

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@Knice86 wrote:

I see people with 15-40 credit cards all with high limits.  That is my goal but I wonder if there is a secret on being able to use them all in a rotation of sorts to ensure you get healthy CLI's whether automatic or manual.  Basically, how do you have such a large volume of credit cards all with high limits and manage to use them to the point where your credit limit never decreases, rather increases.  

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I don't care very much about CLIs as long as I have reasonable CLs for my spend patterns on the card that make reasonable utilization non-problematic (and having AMEX NPSL charge cards means I have ways to work with utilization).

At some point I'll have to think about how I want to shape some of my future CLs and apps. I'm fairly happy with what I have now, mostly what's left are tweaks like having less of my tradelines be in the Discover/Capital One/Synchrony/Petal subprime buckets and more in the bank/credit union prime buckets, plus getting some travel cards as I lightly surf some SUBs and benefit packages, but that can only come over time as my credit rebuild improves.

[cashorcharge]

I like getting the extra love from CLI's whether it's an account with a High CL I use a lot regularly or small ones that I've had a long time as they help my AAoA.  I like to use them for indiviual things each month for a tank of gas, lunch somewhere or even at the carwash.  I also have gotten into the habit of setting up the alert for when the charge goes through and a lot of my accounts allow the payment before the charge even hits so I pay it back that same day so I don't forget. A zero statement generate and I'm happy with that.

I was reading a few days about a guy on here that takes all his cards to the gas station and buys gas $5 or $10 at a time to fill the tank.  Probably takes him 20 minutes to fill the tank but accomplishes the same goal.