Should I ask for a CLI?

[iluvdodgetrx]

For the 1st time in my life, I am in the 700 club thanks to all your advice. The things helping my score is that I have no inquiries, but the things hurting it is my utilization.

I have a closed Bank of America card that I owe $2250 on. It has a $2500 limit

I have a $500 sears (Citi) card that I owe $0 on

I have a $1000 Home Depot (Citi) card that I owe $200 on.

I have had the $500 Sears card for 5 years now and never asked for an increase and never been late. Do you think it will help or hurt my score to ask for a CLI? They will only do a hard pull???

Thank you in advance for your help.

[iluvdodgetrx]

Any thoughts my Fico Friends???

[laz98]

if you want one, ask for one.  people shouldn't be so scared of having inquiries on their reports.

[Anonymous]

That closed BoA card is going to haunt you all the way down until it has a zero balance. Get it paid off. It is showing a 100% utilization even if it has $1 balance on the account. If you have 700 scores now, you should see 730/740 just by paying it off. Then Sears probably would beg to raise your limit. You have 60% revolving credit utilization. At least get it down to %30 then hit Sears up.

Why is the BoA card closed? It was your best line.

[marty56]

MHO it would be a bad idea to ask for any CLIs these days.

[score_building]

IMO better not to make CLI requests with a maxed out card in card profile.

[Anonymous]

Your post keeps coming back to haunt me.

You realize that your account balance and your dredit limit on the closed BoA account are going to be the same number until you pay this account off. If you were the one to close the account, I'd see what I could do to reopen it. If you can't and the relationship between you and this BoA account is not damaged in such a way as to have any other negative information reported to the 3 agencies other than the maxed limit then I would forget about asking for a CLI from Sears. I'd use that/those inquirery/inquiries to persue another VISA, Mastercard or Discovery (any major card) and attempt to widen my overall trade line. The returns would be less utilization against available credit, a huge increase in credit flexability and a great jump in your credit score.

If the information you supplied to us is your credit in a nut-shell, and you've got $1500/$2000 lying around, you would be unique amungst us in that $2000 invested would have a massive impact on your standing in the world of revolving credit. Maybe hauling or somebody else with a better command of the English language could explain this better.

[iluvdodgetrx]

Thank you for your help everyone. I closed the bank of america because they were charging 26% interest and they offered a 5% interest if I closed it. REALLY! They said that it would just report closed at the consumers request on my report and it does. I figured it would save me a lot of $ in the long run. I plan to pay it off soon.