Valid reason for accepting a lesser CLI than granted?

[trnj88]

I recently "hit the luv button" on my Discover (soft pull) and was granted an $800 CLI.

However, on the approval page it said something along the lines of, "Congratulations on your credit line increase! Use the slider below to choose your increase amount. If you do not choose your increase will automatically reflect the highest amount listed."

The slider went from $100 to $800 and I was able to choose anywhere in between.. is there a valid reason to choose a <$800 CLI in this case other than if I was OCD and wanted a specific limit?

[Aahz]

Credit Limits exist to mitigate risk.  The lower the limit, the less the bank has to lose.

From the consumer side, lower limits means less of a hole one can dig for themselves.

Also, some lenders (mainly credit unions IME) show concern about some people having "too much available credit".

[Loquat]

For example, a lender like Synchrony limits your total exposure over all of their products.  If you'd really like to have a high limit on say Walmart MasterCard, you may not want to ask for a $30K limit on Lowes.  Especially if you're interested in other Sync backed products. 

[kdm31091]

Most lenders have some type of exposure limit overall, so if you have or plan to get multiple products, you may not want to go for too much of a CLI on another, especially one you don't use as much. This isn't as big of a concern with Discover, who really doesn't have many different products to choose from and only allows someone to have 2 anyway, but it's still why sometimes people do not go for the most they can get with CLI.

[Anonymous]

Agree with others about why some might want to keep CL in check (although if that is a concern, why they asked for a CLI in the first place would be a good question!).   For those going after a lot of bonuses, it is also a good idea to keep CLs somewhat low, to maximize the chance of an automated approval (for a new card), rather than triggering a manual review when an issuer might notice you have applied for 10 cards with them over the last two years, and most of them show no usage after the bonus eas attainted.   But again, such people don't usually ask for a CLI in the first place.