Unexpected low starting limit from Discover

[Anonymous]

I just applied for a Discover It card yesterday and only received a starting limit of $1000. Since I intended to use the card for some 0% balance transfers this made the card fairly worthless to me at this point. Additionally, I intended to use it (at least for the first year match) as my primary card because I expect to close my Venture rather than pay the annual fee that will be coming up after my first year.

My Experian score was 765 at the time I applied and my other two score were between 760 and 775. All true FICO scores. No derogatories of any kind on my report with a utilization of 2% on $46k of available credit.

I did have another Discover card at the time I applied. That card was originally a secured card that I applied for in 2017 which was moved to non-secured (without the 5% categories) and has grown to a $3500 limit. My other cards (with limits) are Venture ($15k), Amex Hilton ($15k), Amazon ($7.5), Quicksilver ($5.5k), and the other Discover. Most of my spend has been on the Venture and my Amex with very little pushed through the Discover in the last year since I obtained the other cards.

So do you think my low SL is the result of the limited amount I used my current Discover? Is it due to 5 inquiries in the last year? Or did something else spook them?

And finally, do they allow any kind of reconsideration for starting limits? This card is essentially useless to me at that level. And even if I wait 3 statements to try to add the limit from my other Discover to it, then the balance transfer fee increases.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Honest question.  Have you called Discover and discussed any of what you're asking here with them?

Also, what income did you state on your application?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Honest question.  Have you called Discover and discussed any of what you're asking here with them?

Also, what income did you state on your application?

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Not yet. Last night and today were a little crazy with stuff we had going on. I plan on calling them tomorrow but thought I would see if could get any feedback from people here.

Income was reported as $126k

[Anonymous]

OP, what are your age of accounts factors? It sounds like for whatever reason discover did not want to compete with your current cards which all have mid to higher limits.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
OP, what are your age of accounts factors? It sounds like for whatever reason discover did not want to compete with your current cards which all have mid to higher limits.

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Oldest accout is 15+ years. Average age is 4.5 years.

[CreditCuriosity]

a year plus ago discover offered me 1k SL as well on one attempt ended up getting in cancelled before it hit my CR, they are just weird like that and my income was in the six figures as well at time Experian  was around 720ish and other cards in 20-40k cl.. It isn't you it is just discover.  They either love or hate a persons profile as they are very hard to figure out.  I assume my laughable limit was them due to thinking i had to much credit already which i did.. applied about a month later though amazon link and got 5k starting and figured better than nothing combined two cards now at 15k and growing, but very very slowly considering it is two separate cards with alot of 500 cli's and a few 2k increase.  Just accept them for whom they are or don't accept them as they are impossible to figure out.  I am pre-approved for another one at the best APR, but no way will i byte as will be tops 5k most likely 1-2k.  nopes.  Discover doesn't care about income persay, ficos persay within common reason as people say make 70k and have 50k cl's with discover with scores in the 700-710 range (just an example and not near as long as AAoA or history as yourself).  I also have 25+ year history of oldest account, etc.  Just search the forum and you will see they are all over the place with approvals and usually the more credit you have the less they will give you although some outliters

[MyFault]

From what i've gathered reading on this forum, Discover likes to be your main card. If you have all those other cards with higher limits, they know that you likely aren't getting a discover card to use as your daily.

My income, scores, and AAoA don't support my SL with discover, however i know it'll grow over time.

I mainly got the Discover for the Amazon SUB, and Amazon 5% back in Q4, and any additional quarters in the future. Plus, i've actually always wanted a Discover card. I plan to only run about $200-600/month on it, so my current CL is fine and i'll just continue to try to grow it and request CLI's over time.

[Anonymous]

@CreditCuriosity... noticed you mentioned higher Aprs on Discover? In reading around and my own experience, they like Citi Bank are decent in lowering Aprs when asked! Note, I had luck getting 4% Apr reduction on my Barclay Cards. Food for thought (assuming you haven't already walked this walk with Discover?). After thought, it took me awhile of working with Discover (years) but they lowered my Apr (without my knowledge below the posted market rate).

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@CreditCuriosity... noticed you mentioned higher Aprs on Discover? In reading around and my own experience, they like Citi Bank are decent in lowering Aprs when asked! Note, I had luck getting 4% Apr reduction on my Barclay Cards. Food for thought (assuming you haven't already walked this walk with Discover?). After thought, it took me awhile of working with Discover (years) but they lowered my Apr (without my knowledge below the posted market rate).

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This. Discover is pretty flexible with lowering APR over time for many. Definitely easier to accomplish than with many other banks.

As far as reconsidering the SL, OP, it's probably a no go. Discover doesn't really recon. After some history on the accout it is usually not hard to get at least some amount of CLI.

[CreditInspired]

OP, I know it's been a couple of days, but when you call, ask if there's anymore money on the table (DD). Usually, this works great right after an instant approval, but it doesn't hurt to still ask. Also, since you already have a Discover, it probably was a SP. If so, after the DD, ask for a HP to see if you can squeeze any more out of them. Just a thought.

GL