So what's the secret (if there is one) to getting one of those really big CL's?

[Anonymous]

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@Dervrak wrote:

Mortgage-

BB&T Mortgage Services - $54,000 - $414 Month (I sold a property I inherited and paid about 85% down)

Auto-

BB&T Auto Loans - 2012 Ford Escape - $22,000 Loan (currently owe $6,100) $253 monthly payment

Bridgecrest Auto - 2014 Mercedes C-350 - $26,000 Loan (currently owe $14,000) $298 monthly payment

Credit Cards-

USAA - $10,000

BBVA Compass - $10,000

BB&T - $10,000

Usbank - $10,000

Paypal (Syncrony) - $10,000

Lowes (Syncrony) - $10,000

Mercury - $7,500

Amazon (Syncrony) - $7,500

Barclaycard - $5,000

Wal-mart (Syncrony) - $5,000

Discover - $3,500

Citibank - $3,000

Amazon (Chase) - $2,000

The only card that curently has a balance is the BBVA Compass card with a balance of $4,800 (have a no interest for 12 month deal)....

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So, the loan references are just the reason codes FICO spits out for why you don't have an 850.  They don't matter much when it comes to CC's.  DTI does play some role though with some creditors.

Synch cards typically top out at 10K when you ask for more online.  If you call 877-379-8175 and ask for 25K on PP/WM/Amazon and 35K on Lowe's you will either get it or get a counter for their highest limit for right now.  Sync has a Per Person limit of 100K.

Most of your cards will require a HP for a CLI BBVA/BBT/USB/C-Amazon.

Barclay's sometimes can get a SP CLI (866-205-5973) if you call them and check for offers on your account and then circle back to see if there's a SP CLI available.

Disco/Citi both offer SP CLI's and CIti will let you take a HP if the SP isn't enough...sometimes it pans out for more and sometimes it doesn't.

The thing though that might hold you back in the short term is the balance on BBVA using 48% of your CL currently.  

Now, to the Starting Limit issue.... as long as you're getting opening limits of 10K I wouldn't worry about it.  Competing for a high limit at opening isn't the goal, approvals are.  Once you're in you can work on things and grow them over time.  e.g BOA approved me for 10K and within ~18 months I had worked it up to 65K through 3-6 month CLI's.  So, targeting the right lenders is part of the process to getting to those insane limits. Chase is currently at an aggregate of 71K+ between 3 cards and 2 approvals were for 25.9K while a CLI on an existing card was only 5K 3 weeks prior to the 2nd 25K+ approval.  Amex works the same way... start 10K within 2 years 50K.  It's a matter of quality over quantity when it comes to ultra limits.  In comparison I have 1 Sync card and no other "store" cards in my profile of now 22 cards.  Most recently I added 5 cards to the tune of ~80K in CL's within 30 days.  BBT/BBVA were 3 of them and I consider them to be low CL's but they were worth $ in the bonuses.  Will I keep them long term?  That's yet to be seen depending on how they grow in the next 6 months or so... There's nothing special about either bank as to rewards for daily use or extended use for that matter.

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

You should be able to get that Lowes up to 35K pretty quickly without a hard pull by calling their credit solutions number.   They ask questions about income, etc., put you on hold and come back and give you what you want, decline you, or give you a counter offer.   Take whatever they give you.   I would ask for 15K on Amazon (Synchrony).   If you look at my sig I got my big limits at credit unions.   Navy is notorious for doling out 25K starting limits to people with good profiles like yours.   You can also get a 15K checking line of credit from them.  I think their max exposure on credit cards, lines of credit combined is like 80K.   Others can correct me.   For Navy you basically need to have a vet somewhere in your family -- even a grandparent will do.  It used to be much harder to get in with them.   Penfed, Alliant, DCU do not require military affiliation at all.  You have to donate something like $20 to one of their charities and you are in.   I forget now and they are each slightly different.

I think my Discover card started out at like $3500 and now it's over 30K.   You should keep hitting that credit limit inrease button (no hard pull) every month or so.   Sometimes you get a $500 offer, sometimes $3000 and sometimes crickets.   I took every offer and grew it in like two years.

Also go for soft pull CLI's on Citibank.

An eight year average age of accounts is something very few of us on this board ever reach.   That is stellar.   Don't believe the thing about low age of accounts.   Same with installment/mortgage loan balances too high.   They are required to give you reasons for a denial in ranked order, but sometimes it's a big stretch.   

My partner and I both applied for the Capital One Savor card to get the $500 bonus (each) -- it's now down to like $300 I think -- and we each got 30K limits.   I bet you would too -- but beware, Capital One does a hard pull from all three credit bureaus which kind of smarts.   Still that's probably a shoe-in for you.   There is no annual fee the first year so you can earn your bonus and close at year end before annual fee hits if you have other cards you like better.  It pays 4% cash back on dining out and entertainment, which is staggering.

Good luck.   You are golden.   But don't go crazy trying to satisfy your ego.   Apply for maybe two at most every six months and if high limits are what you want go for some of these suggestions.

[Anonymous]

It is hard to tell sometime. All I know is sometimes they are looking at what is your montly expenses based on current balances on all accross your credit accounts. I made a mistake just now by applying USAA Amex invitational offer thinking that it is like NFCU (Real pre-approved offers). I got 25K for both cards at the time even with lower credit score than yours but my obligation to pay is lower. However, for whatever reason right now I got the message from USAA saying that I have too much obligation and I am being rejected. My income is currently around 82k reduced from last year since I am not doing my other side income. Another thing is I am not sure if Amex branding hurting my chances since Amex have rejected my account applications and CLI several times in a roll since last year. I should have read the message here again before applying. That was my mistake and now I am getting another credit hit while the older hits are being erased. My credit history average was high before but recently drop to I think 7 years because of several new credit accounts. Maybe wait for a while and reduced and pay off several accounts and apply again.

[Anonymous]

Hi, so you only have one card with a balance and the rest is 0. That could be also an issue with credit card companies. They like you to have balance but not excessive balance or too many balances. In their mind they would be asking why you need more credit cards while you are not spending them and it also depends on whoever issue that credit card/CLI. 

[Anonymous]

That's a very good response. 

[Anonymous]

@benreily, there isn’t enough info to call that - OP currently has zero balances but may be using the cards all the same. Having a balance and reporting a balance are different and OP may elect to pay those cards to zero before closing in order to report zero, while running spend through them regularly.

OP, I agree with the excellent insight given here. I think it’s just a matter of time to crack open the vault on a lender and then more will follow.

[800who]

I've been rejected before due to not enough use of card or not enough use of current limit... I mean what's the purpose of having a $30k CL if you're getting >$1000 each month and PIF.. I'm just assuming that's roughly the case... that's what I do and I have a very similar credit profile to you.. no mortgage or auto loan tho but AAoA is only like 1.5 years

[Dervrak]

I often see comments where folks have multiple credit cards with limits of $30,000, $50,000 or even $100,000 on a single card or over $300,000+ across multiple accounts.

For those that do, I'm just curious as to why. Are you in some sort of profession, such as independent contracting work or a home business,  where you actually take advantage of those limits? Or is it more that you get them because you can, but you never really take advantage of more than a small fraction of your limits? (which is certainly fine if that's the reason).

I have roughly $90,000 in open credit across 10 cards and I'll be the first to admit even that relatively low amount (compared to many others) is overkill for my needs. I make a pretty decent living (six figure salary), I'm no spendthrift and yet I don't think between vacations, household expenses etc. that I have $20k in activity across all my cards throughout the year and I usually pay off my balances monthly, or perhaps with holiday shopping or dropping $5k on a vacation I might carry a balance for 2 or 3 months. Now admittedly, I'm single so I don't have nearly as much in household or vacation expenses as, say, a family of 5 would have...

But I can't think of any scenario where I would ever need to put more than $10k on a credit card in a short period of time and even that would be really pushing the upper limit.  If I'm going to make a major purchase such as a home, I'm going to get a mortgage. If I purchase a car I'll get an auto loan. If I'm remodeling or making major home repairs, I'll use my HELOC. The largest purchases I would ever make on my credit cards would be vacations, home furnishings and the like. But unless I suddenly got the urge to take a world cruise on a luxury liner or furnish my house in 18th century antiques, I would still never make use of $100k credit line. 

[Anonymous]

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

[wasCB14]

A lot of my income is from investments. Every now and then I'll make a large estimated tax payment.

I was actually able to spend ~$40k in one statement on a $13k CL Amex BBP. Most of it ($27k) was due a few weeks after the statement closed, but some of it I was able to carry for a few months more at 0%.

So in that case I took advantage of my CL - and more!