Reasoning behind high CL's

[jamesdwi]

Life happens

Ever travel? Holds on your credit card happen all over the place, plane tickets for two people can be $1000, rental car for a week, many rental places put a hold on your credit card for the entire week, plus the cost to fill the tank, that is $500 or more. check into a hotel and then you can expect to see $50-$100 hold each day you are at the hotel.  Go the wrong gas station, especially one that caters to large trucks, many of them pre-authorize upto $500, resturant  charges for two people 2-3 meals a day in many locations could run you $100-$150  more a day if you celebrate  or treat your self.  Concerts, amusement parks can take there toll as well. Then at the end of the trip, your hotel charges the full week, stay and its likely many of the daily pre-authorizations are still impacting your credit limit, even though they may never complete.  The  auto-rental charges your card for the week. One week of travel expenses and plus holds can make your $5000 CL limit look small,  and 50% of the charges never post, but if you card hits zero availible, it may be declined, and that is certainly not what I want to experience on my vacation. At this point your $5000 credit limit is toast, even if $2000 of the charges don't post. 

All this while your life goes on, the above doesn't  doesn't take into account that your cable, cellphone, insurance bills hit your credit while your on vacation? Your possibly over the limit when you have  a $7500 limit

If you really had bad timing, your A/C on your car goes out the  week before you left, even a 10k card starts to be strained at this point. 

You are also likely going to need groceries when you get back.

Yes  your Fico score is a point in time, with no memory, but your lenders have a memory when one or more of your credit cards is maxed out, Your score spikes, other lenders may take notice. 

of course all this can be avoided, by having a high limit card or two. 

[The-Credit-Disciple]

Wowsers!! Im learning so much just by reading all of the Replys. Wow I love this Forum!! More CL is my Goal. Im shooting for a Maximum of $70,000 across all 7 cards. With Patience and continual learning from my Fico Family I will get there!! 😀😁

[Anonymous]

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@The-Credit-Disciple wrote:
Wowsers!! Im learning so much just by reading all of the Replys. Wow I love this Forum!! More CL is my Goal. Im shooting for a Maximum of $70,000 across all 7 cards. With Patience and continual learning from my Fico Family I will get there!! 😀😁

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You are welcome to share your progress here! We love when someone reaches his or her goals here.

[Anonymous]

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@jamesdwi wrote:

Life happens

Ever travel? Holds on your credit card happen all over the place, plane tickets for two people can be $1000, rental car for a week, many rental places put a hold on your credit card for the entire week, plus the cost to fill the tank, that is $500 or more. check into a hotel and then you can expect to see $50-$100 hold each day you are at the hotel.  Go the wrong gas station, especially one that caters to large trucks, many of them pre-authorize upto $500, resturant  charges for two people 2-3 meals a day in many locations could run you $100-$150  more a day if you celebrate  or treat your self.  Concerts, amusement parks can take there toll as well. Then at the end of the trip, your hotel charges the full week, stay and its likely many of the daily pre-authorizations are still impacting your credit limit, even though they may never complete.  The  auto-rental charges your card for the week. One week of travel expenses and plus holds can make your $5000 CL limit look small,  and 50% of the charges never post, but if you card hits zero availible, it may be declined, and that is certainly not what I want to experience on my vacation. At this point your $5000 credit limit is toast, even if $2000 of the charges don't post. 

All this while your life goes on, the above doesn't  doesn't take into account that your cable, cellphone, insurance bills hit your credit while your on vacation? Your possibly over the limit when you have  a $7500 limit

If you really had bad timing, your A/C on your car goes out the  week before you left, even a 10k card starts to be strained at this point. 

You are also likely going to need groceries when you get back.

Yes  your Fico score is a point in time, with no memory, but your lenders have a memory when one or more of your credit cards is maxed out, Your score spikes, other lenders may take notice. 

of course all this can be avoided, by having a high limit card or two. 

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YEPPERS!! this happens all the time (vacay holds) I just went through that last 2 months when we (DS & I) spent a month in orlando (we love the rat .. lol)

[Viva-LV]

I rarely carry cash, except to tip.  My limits grew with my usage increases, and lenders will notice purchasing volume, and in return, offer greater limits.  If you use your personal cards for business or travel for more than a weekend, it behooves to have higher limits.  And, why not take advantage of the perks offered?  Points , miles, cash back: all benefits/incentives of cards.  We all make choices on how we want to live.  I enjoy the rebuilding threads here as much as the over-achievers (if you will) posts.  Carry on!

[CreditInspired]

Hell yes, it’s bragging rights — for me anyway, albeit subconsciously.

In 2016, when I had only one credit card with a $4K CL and ~70% utilization, I thought I was doing okay until I came upon MyFICO that is.

I had no dream that I could have more than one CC and definitely not the “cream of the crop” ones. Who would have thought you could have a CL larger than one’s income — not me that’s for sure.

So yes, I’m excited to the “moon and back” with my large CLs. It’s nice to have a UT of 1-2%. It’s something beautiful to see your scores go from 6-something to 7-something, then increase to 8-something. It’s something else to be able to close a CC and not look back.

Yes, I want all my CLs on every single card to be $25K. Because, honestly, I do love the feeling of having the limits, especially when you don’t need them.

This is just my narcissistic 2 cents

[arkane]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My reasoning is this and it's twofold.

For one, Different income brackets create different expenses for people. You had a car expense that hit you for 1200, someone with a luxury brand may have a cost for 5200. If your income gets into that high end phase an you are spending on youself accordingly (as you should and any rational person does) things get more expensive and having those high CLs are super helpful.

That's just one reason, and it vaguely skims your question because you brought up 3 cards 15k vs 20 cards with 100k+

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Sorry but I have to respectfully disagree with the part in red. I think any rational person would aim to maintain the lifestyle they're satisfied with, and not feel obligated/pressured into spending more just to keep up with the Joneses or what they ought to be spending for their income bracket or whatever other arbitrary reason. That's not to say you shouldn't splurge if you truly want to, but doing so just because your income is in that "high end phase" is a pretty bad idea IMHO.

[Felony_Phil]

My personal reasons for chasing 6 figure CL's is simple. It shows how well I've worked to manage my finances. That just happens to show how responsible I am but it doesn't mean anything to anyone except me and my creditors. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.

[Kforce]

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@Felony_Phil wrote:
My personal reasons for chasing 6 figure CL's is simple. It shows how well I've worked to manage my finances. That just happens to show how responsible I am but it doesn't mean anything to anyone except me and my creditors. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.

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Just like gold star stickers from teachers

Some children fight for them and some just wondered why?

[Anonymous]

It’s nice to have the extra cushion and not have to worry about utilization. My BofA Premium Rewards card has a CL of 30k, I’m not going to charge 30k in a month but if I happen to book a trip for friends (at that age where it seems like we go to a wedding every other month) I can go ahead and book the trip and just have everyone transfer me the money. Monthly spend is only about 2-3k a month but occasionally take on a home project or book a trip and will charge 3-5k in addition to the regular spend, if I only had a 10k limit I would be very close to maxing that card out and that’s usually my go to card. So as long I’m only charging what I can afford to payback I or BofA don’t have a problem having a 30k CL.