My highest line is with BoA ($84K) and the most I've had on it thus far is $31K one month and around $25K another month. They didn't even blink. This was well over a year ago and they don't seem too concerned that I haven't taken it over maybe $1200 since then.
I ran $16K through Amex Gold once without issue. Something around $8K through Discover in a month a while back.
The rest I don't remember exactly, but most of my cards with at least a $10K limit have been pushed to $5K-$6K.
Many times I've received auto-CLI's when I pushed the limits. (Chase, Cap One, Discover and Elan have done this.)
@SUPERSQUID wrote:I see some siggys with hundreds of thousands of limits. some have multiple cards with jumbo limits 25k-50k. just out of curiousity to hold onto all those jumbo limit cards do you have to jumbo spend on all of them each month?
As others have responded, @SUPERSQUID, the answer is no. I'll give you a lot of specific examples about my own experience if you're interested.
On the one hand, I've had cards closed from complete non-use, but that usually takes at least 6 - 12 months, even with more sensitive retail cards. And I've been balance-chased before when I was juggling some large balances and had extended high utilization that spooked lenders. Those have been the reasons I've had limits lowered or cards closed, not from failing to use the existing credit limit. While I've heard about lenders doing a CLD absent concerns about overall high utilization (such as with Capital One), I've not had that happen to me.
On the other hand, I've learned that with a high FICO combined with a strong profile, lenders have tended to let me keep my limits even when I'm not using a significant amount of those credit lines or using them monthly. And in some cases, I've even had lenders allow me to keep large limits even without any recent usage of the account. Two cards are a case-in-point that I've brought up before, and both have not had a swipe in multiple years. My USAA "Rate Advantage" card has a $35K limit but has no rewards and even the APR is above some of my other cards. And my "local credit union" card with a $25K limit has a marginal rewards program. Neither card is that important to me any longer. However, I've been members of USAA and that local credit union for 20+ years and have active deposit accounts with each. I believe the deposit accounts may have helped to keep the cards intact. At this point, I probably need to close both of those but there's no hurry on my part if there's no hurry on their's. The credit union even just sent me a new card since my old one was about to expire.
My Capital One Quicksilver card grew (very) slowly from a $1K SL to $25K, with the final increase on 03/13/2020. (See data points.) In the last couple of years, I have also opened a money market account with Capital One that has a large balance. My main heavier spending on the Quicksilver in the last several years has been when I'm using it for a temporary daily driver in order to produce another CLI. The Quicksilver has gotten only minimal spend in the past year and a half since that last CLI. (For 2021, statement balances: Nov $133.38; Oct $106.56; Aug $86.06; Feb 109.58; Jan 87.99. There were no balances in March, April, May, June, July, or September.) For about the past year, Capital One has been very actively marketing to me about opening a regular checking account, balance transfer offers including one right now at 0% for 12 months with only 2% BT fee, product changing my Quicksilver to an (original) Venture card, or applying for an (original) Venture card without a product change. The offers seem to have really grown after I opened that money market account and slowed use of my card. I'm actually curious to see if they will CLD me if I don't use the card more since I've heard about that reputation. (I'm wondering if the money market account balance would help inhibit a CLD, similar to my experience with other lenders.) I like Capital One but obviously the Quicksilver 1.5% rewards are not very competitive with several of my better cards.
Don't get me wrong. Sometimes, I do put large spend or balances on my accounts. I have rarely swiped my Navy FCU Platinum Visa since I got it primarily to keep in the wings for the low APR for emergency purchases or balance transfers. However, to show use, I put 98% utilization on it after I got it with balance transfers from my other cards, which I paid off over three months with the "new account" SUB $0 fee and 0% APR BT offer. It has appeared to me that Navy FCU cards can grow well, even without moderate to heavy usage. I typically put smaller charges on my Goldman Sachs Apple card ($100 to $200 per month) but I used 100% of the $20K credit limit over a few months prior to being approved for a $10K CLI. Since I have some unexpected large charges, I'm doing the same thing right now (using close to 100% of the $30K limit) with hopes of getting another large CLI soon.
My $50K Discover card had a highest balance in the low five-figure range when I transferred some balances several years ago. I've never had a balance anywhere close to the $50K limit, yet they allowed the card to grow that high and for me to keep it. My Bank of America cards are similar. I had balance transfers on my Cash Rewards many years ago. Since then, I've added the Premium Rewards card and they've let me grow my total limits to $99.9K. I use only a small portion of that monthly. And Chase has allowed me to keep total limits well in excess of $100K across six cards, even though my total monthly spending is normally in the four-figure range.
I usually recommend that, for any cards you wish to keep, using them at least once every six months is a good idea, even if only for smaller purchases. My individual card utilizations typically runs between 0.1% and 10% for months that I use that card. Probably about half of my cards don't get a single swipe in any given month.
@Remedios wrote:
@SUPERSQUID wrote:@Anonymous I am not the best at writing so sometimes people miss my meaning. i'm more of a nostradamus than a hemmingway.
You hit the nail on the head. after i use a rewards cc to pay the rent i still reach in my pocket and pay the fee, i thought this might be a sin on the forum.
Sin, I don't think so. Maybe a miniscule heresy?
In your case, you might be losing some money on the fees, others might push spend through cards that dont give the best return if they are preparing to ask for CLI (especially when previously denied or denied for lack of use).
I don't think it's particularly wise to do it month after month, it adds up after a while, so maybe save it for months leading up to CLI request or if you cannot meet future sub without rent payment.
Don't make losing money a habit, that's all.
While I was paying rent a couple years ago, I was paying the fee to use cards like the CFU to add points. The logic being that for travel redemption one needs a lot of points, and if one is short of points then paying a small fee to add more points makes travel more fun. For plain cash back the drain on funds is clearer, but even then the cardholder may have a larger purpose in mind, such as CLI, which makes the fees worthwhile.
The only absolute in credit is to pay the minimum payment on time every month. Everything else in credit is a choice about how to use credit.
@SUPERSQUID wrote:
@SoCalGardener wrote:
@SUPERSQUID wrote:I live in a manufactured home but the property its on is owned by the community, so they charge rent which consists of water, sewer, garbage and recycle pickup.
They take monthly payments through a company called zego. zego takes many forms of payments and one is cc's. after adjusted for my cb it cost me 10-12 bucks a month. the cool thing is they allow the payment to be broken up to a few cards.
So between my monthly rent, electric, gas, and insurance i have nice spend that is effortless, but you have to be willing to lose a few bucks. for me its a nice tradeoff since im in a rebuild.
my grocery, gas, and other expenses are charged and quickly paid off, no sweat
Yes, absolutely! When you're rebuilding, you may need to do things you wouldn't normally do. But knowing that it's temporary, just until your overall situation improves, is what always got me through those times. You're spending $10-ish a month, but you're getting a lot in return, so I'd say that's money well spent!
Not all my bills charge a fee so its not that bad. If i grouped all my total spend and the cb maybe for the whole pie there is no loss at all. thanks for the reenforcing words, its a change from the usual pummeling i get for saying stuff like this.
I was thinking of changing my screen name to the " myfico punching bag ", LOI
I don't get why you would get a pummeling on here. For instance, we all know that a card like US Bank gives up back 5% for paying our bills. Some companies have even suspended their fees during the pandemic, like Duke Energy here in the Carolinas.
NFCU GoRewards Sig ($40,000), NFCU Cash Rewards ($40,000), PenFed Power Cash ($25,000), FNBO Evergreen Visa ($20,000), Bread Financial Rewards Amex ($21,150), PNC Cash Rewards ($18,400), PNC Cashbuilder ($18,700) , One Key Mastercard ($14,000), Citi Double Cash ($11,600), US Bank Cash Plus($10,000), Discover It Cash ($9000), Capital One Quicksilver MC ($9000), TD Cash ($8000), Bank of America. Unlimited Cash Rewards ($7500), Fifth Third Unlimited Cash Back Mastercard ($7500), Wells Fargo Active Cash Sig($7000), Apple Card ($6000), Amex BCE($6000), Amex ED($6600), X1 Card ($5000), PNC Points ($8000), Amex Cash Magnet($2000), Fifth Third Truly Simple ($4000), Truist Spectrum Cash Rewards($4500), Truist Bright Card($4500), CapOne Quicksilver(Bucketed @$1500 manually lowered to $500), US Bank Cash+ ($1,000), WF mortgage 195K Fico 8: EQ 778, TU 765, EX 758 FICO 9:EQ 829, TU 812, EX 791, AAoA-97 months, AoOA-28 years