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

[Anonymous]

I realize I don’t have any $30K+ limits but with my income, $12,700 might as well be and I have three cards that are over half my annual income in limits. I like collecting cards right now but realistically I could cut down from $75K in limits to $4K and be fine for most of my spend and a $10K limit would cover me on the largest purchases I would make while still being under 30% utilization. 

[redpat]

I run business expenses through my personal cards from time to time so they can get up there.

Amex doesn’t care.  Just recently I had to run about 50k of biz spend on my Delta reserve to reach the 30k MQM and 30k miles bonus for spending $60k.  I would never be able to reach that level of spend with just my personal spend.

[sarge12]

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@Dervrak wrote:

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. 

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That depends on what you consider making use of the credit limits....Do I ever come even slightly close to those limits? NO, never have in the past 20 years and never will again. But with the Credit limits being used for the utilization of revolving credit, I use those high limits all the time to easily maintain very low utilization. With the best scores relying on less than 8.9% utilization, that is super easy with a lot of high limit cards. I simply do not ever have to worry about how many report, nor how much they report. It is always less than 30 percent of cards reporting, and less than 4% reported. The vast majority of people seeking CLI's is due to utilization, not needing the actual limit. I do have 1 low interest(4.95%) card in my name I let my Sister use as AU that is over 50% utilized..5200/10000..but she is the only one using it and she pays the monthly payments. Other than that card, I always PIF, every card every month, unless using a 0% interest on one for some reason. For instance, last year I utilized a 0 interest BT offer with no BT fee to finish paying off my Honda Goldwing three wheeler that I was making installment payments on just to save the interest.

[Dervrak]

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The vast majority of people seeking CLI's is due to utilization, not needing the actual limit.

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Thanks. I hadn't thought of that angle. The higher your open credit, the more "cushion" you would have to not take a hit on your credit score if you did make a relatively large purchase. So if you had credit lines of $300,000 you would be able to run a balance of as high as $25,000 without appreciably effecting your score. That makes sense.

I'm still a bit suprised that credit card companies actually allow you to keep that much credit when they see you aren't really ever taking advantage of it. If I'm, say, Chase, why would I just let a customer sit there with a $50,000 line of credit year after year if they never use any more than $500 a year on the account? I guess on the other side of the coin, it's not actually hurting them any either....

[sarge12]

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@Dervrak wrote:

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The vast majority of people seeking CLI's is due to utilization, not needing the actual limit.

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Thanks. I hadn't thought of that angle. The higher your open credit, the more "cushion" you would have to not take a hit on your credit score if you did make a relatively large purchase. So if you had credit lines of $300,000 you would be able to run a balance of as high as $25,000 without appreciably effecting your score. That makes sense.

I'm still a bit suprised that credit card companies actually allow you to keep that much credit when they see you aren't really ever taking advantage of it. If I'm, say, Chase, why would I just let a customer sit there with a $50,000 line of credit year after year if they never use any more than $500 a year on the account? I guess on the other side of the coin, it's not actually hurting them any either....

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My inability to ever get any CLI's on any card would beg to differ...I usually get a fairly high starting bonus over 10k, but I am routinely denied any credit limit increases for the stated reason..."You have not utilized enough of your existing credit limit on our card"...I finally quit even asking for a CLI. In fact, the bank must maintain a certain percentage of assets based on the limits on their issued cards since it represents potential debt. So, granting me an increase in my credit limit might cause the bank to not be able to increase it for someone who does not PIF.

[Anonymous]

IMO, the utilization argument is not all that valid in many cases, and is just used as a reason to justify the frequent CLI requests and high CLs are often more an ego thing than of real use. 

I think this because:

a) you really rarely need to optimize your score, just before major apps/requests.   Just like AZEO is way overused, so is worrying about utilization on a daily/monthly basis.     This isn't the case for new rebuilders, but they are not the ones going for $50KCL (at least at first).

b) If you do need to optimize at a certain point, you can just pay down before statement cut/report so it's not an issue for the app.   Yes, it would be more convenient not to have to do this, but even those with high CLs often do this anyway

This forum tends to overemphasize frequent score grooming, and that leads to the wisdom about AZEO, high CLs needed for padding etc.   In most cases, not really needed.

Of course, your CL needs to cover likely spending patterns,   So if you regularly put say $2000 a month on a card, you would certainly like a $5K limit for when your spend increases for a month, and $10K would be better.   $50K?   Harder to see the need!   And even more so on cards that cap rewards such as Freedom or BCP.  Hugh CLs here are pretty pointless.

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

IMO, the utilization argument is not all that valid in many cases, and is just used as a reason to justify the frequent CLI requests and high CLs are often more an ego thing than of real use. 

I think this because:

a) you really rarely need to optimize your score, just before major apps/requests.   Just like AZEO is way overused, so is worrying about utilization on a daily/monthly basis.     This isn't the case for new rebuilders, but they are not the ones going for $50KCL (at least at first).

b) If you do need to optimize at a certain point, you can just pay down before statement cut/report so it's not an issue for the app.   Yes, it would be more convenient not to have to do this, but even those with high CLs often do this anyway

This forum tends to overemphasize frequent score grooming, and that leads to the wisdom about AZEO, high CLs needed for padding etc.   In most cases, not really needed.

Of course, your CL needs to cover likely spending patterns,   So if you regularly put say $2000 a month on a card, you would certainly like a $5K limit for when your spend increases for a month, and $10K would be better.   $50K?   Harder to see the need!   And even more so on cards that cap rewards such as Freedom or BCP.  Hugh CLs here are pretty pointless.

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I rarely 100% agree with anything posted here, but this is the exception. I often have posted myself that utilization is over emphesized when someone is not even applying for credit. It is nice that my score stays above 800 at all times, but if it lost 50 points that I could easily get back before applying for a loan or card, would it really matter? My credit limits are more than adequate. Both super high 800+ scores and super high credit limits are more ego driven than needed. So is the amassing of a huge number of credit cards just for the sake of having them. It might hurt someones feelings to say that, but it is hard to argue with the truth of it.

[SouthJamaica]

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

IMO, the utilization argument is not all that valid in many cases, and is just used as a reason to justify the frequent CLI requests and high CLs are often more an ego thing than of real use. 

I think this because:

a) you really rarely need to optimize your score, just before major apps/requests.   Just like AZEO is way overused, so is worrying about utilization on a daily/monthly basis.     This isn't the case for new rebuilders, but they are not the ones going for $50KCL (at least at first).

b) If you do need to optimize at a certain point, you can just pay down before statement cut/report so it's not an issue for the app.   Yes, it would be more convenient not to have to do this, but even those with high CLs often do this anyway

This forum tends to overemphasize frequent score grooming, and that leads to the wisdom about AZEO, high CLs needed for padding etc.   In most cases, not really needed.

Of course, your CL needs to cover likely spending patterns,   So if you regularly put say $2000 a month on a card, you would certainly like a $5K limit for when your spend increases for a month, and $10K would be better.   $50K?   Harder to see the need!   And even more so on cards that cap rewards such as Freedom or BCP.  Hugh CLs here are pretty pointless.

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I rarely 100% agree with anything posted here, but this is the exception. I often have posted myself that utilization is over emphesized when someone is not even applying for credit. It is nice that my score stays above 800 at all times, but if it lost 50 points that I could easily get back before applying for a loan or card, would it really matter? My credit limits are more than adequate. Both super high 800+ scores and super high credit limits are more ego driven than needed. So is the amassing of a huge number of credit cards just for the sake of having them. It might hurt someones feelings to say that, but it is hard to argue with the truth of it.

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I disagree. I do not believe it is so easy to predict, in this complex society, when one might want to have a good credit score. A cell phone breaking, a relative needing financial assistance, an insurance application, an  apartment rental application, cosigning for a relative, etc. And even when one foresees the need for optimization, it is not something that can be achieved overnight on short notice.

So I think it is worthwhile and practical to try to optimize one's FICO scores.

Since your scores are always optimized I can't imagine why you would criticize others for doing the same, or insult them by suggesting they have cards "just for the sake of having them".

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

IMO, the utilization argument is not all that valid in many cases, and is just used as a reason to justify the frequent CLI requests and high CLs are often more an ego thing than of real use. 

I think this because:

a) you really rarely need to optimize your score, just before major apps/requests.   Just like AZEO is way overused, so is worrying about utilization on a daily/monthly basis.     This isn't the case for new rebuilders, but they are not the ones going for $50KCL (at least at first).

b) If you do need to optimize at a certain point, you can just pay down before statement cut/report so it's not an issue for the app.   Yes, it would be more convenient not to have to do this, but even those with high CLs often do this anyway

This forum tends to overemphasize frequent score grooming, and that leads to the wisdom about AZEO, high CLs needed for padding etc.   In most cases, not really needed.

Of course, your CL needs to cover likely spending patterns,   So if you regularly put say $2000 a month on a card, you would certainly like a $5K limit for when your spend increases for a month, and $10K would be better.   $50K?   Harder to see the need!   And even more so on cards that cap rewards such as Freedom or BCP.  Hugh CLs here are pretty pointless.

---

I rarely 100% agree with anything posted here, but this is the exception. I often have posted myself that utilization is over emphesized when someone is not even applying for credit. It is nice that my score stays above 800 at all times, but if it lost 50 points that I could easily get back before applying for a loan or card, would it really matter? My credit limits are more than adequate. Both super high 800+ scores and super high credit limits are more ego driven than needed. So is the amassing of a huge number of credit cards just for the sake of having them. It might hurt someones feelings to say that, but it is hard to argue with the truth of it.

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I disagree. I do not believe it is so easy to predict, in this complex society, when one might want to have a good credit score. A cell phone breaking, a relative needing financial assistance, an insurance application, an  apartment rental application, cosigning for a relative, etc. And even when one foresees the need for optimization, it is not something that can be achieved overnight on short notice.

So I think it is worthwhile and practical to try to optimize one's FICO scores.

Since your scores are always optimized I can't imagine why you would criticize others for doing the same, or insult them by suggesting they have cards "just for the sake of having them".

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Is there a limit to the process though?   Should I just keep on getting higher and higher CLs to increase utilization padding against these unforeseen events?   IMO, people do here even when practically it can have no meaningful impact.    Part of it is "I can so why not" but like AZEO there are potential costs (for AZEO loss of interest income from giving up the float, from "excessive" CLs, may be harder to get the card you need at some point).

Plus, high CLs are not an asset.   In times of real need, they can disappear just as easily as they came.

[CreditInspired]

Hi OP
So let’s look at your $90K CLs from the little guys who have, let’s say $40K-50K CLs or much less. He could be thinking the same thing as you. She says she’s not spending anywhere near $90K so why does she need that much.

My CL is $136K and no I’ll never use more than 8.9% of that (present UT ~6%). But, if I had too, I know I have access to it.

My motto—it’s better to have the CL and don’t need it, than to need it and can’t get it.