I would think it a matter of convenience.
A $10k limit increase with an instant decision is much more preferable than a $20k increase that requires you to gather a bunch of sensitive documents, send them off to a creditor so they can run it all by underwriting for potentially weeks, and may ultimately result in a denial.
Maximum gain for minimal effort.
@Jccflat wrote:
Do they normally ask for stubs only ? Or they need tax papers?
American Express does not accept pay stubs. They will only accept a properly completed (including the check box at the bottom near the signature that says Optional, it's not optional) and signed IRS Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, authorizing the IRS to release transcripts of the 2 most recently available tax filing years. Those do not become available until August, so since it's March now you would be authorizing the release of your 2016 and 2017 tax returns.
I did the 4506-T dance with them a while back and it was an annoying process. At the time I only had a $21,000 limit on my Starwood card and I had been running $8-12k a month through it consistently because I was getting a HUGE return on my charges on that card. At one point with a targeted spending offer (I think it was $20k in the next 2 months?) I was getting back about 15% on every charge! Because I didn't feel the need to pay my statement balance off any earlier than actually necessary, there were a few months in a row where I was consistently exceeding the credit line with the combined new charges and statement balance.
The aforementioned check box said Optional so I didn't check it. After waiting quite a while and not hearing anything back, I called and they told me that they had discarded it because of the missed check box. So I completed another one. And waited. And waited. 5 weeks after completing the 2nd one, I finally got a denial. I called to recon it and the person I spoke with in underwriting really had no interest in talking to me. Just stuck to a script stating that the reported income did not match what was listed on the tax return. It was off by about 10% due to significant pre-tax deductions, which sure it's a big number but there's a matter of scale and I wasn't dishonest with the reported income. Bringing the numbers way down to show the scale, it would be akin to someone reporting $31,000 gross income but their tax returns only show $28,000 because they had medical insurance deductions taken out pre-tax. Frustrating!
So anyway, I likely won't do the 4506-T dance again. It would be nice to triple my Delta Reserve to $105,000 today, but because of the denial (when I could have just accepted a lower amount right away), the time taken to process the 2nd form, and the time that passed before I even became aware that they discarded the first form - I essentially missed out on nearly an entire 181 day CLI cycle. The first form was submitted early January 2018, and the next time I was actually able to request again was mid June 2018, which I of course received, but at that point it had been nearly 11 months since my previous CLI! They've since given me an additional $34,000 on revolvers and I get to ask for more on Monday.
This is the description of Amex income: Include the dollar amount of all income available to you to make payments on this account. Income includes money you receive from wages, retirement, investments, rental properties, or another person’s income that’s regularly accessible to you. If under age 21, you must include only your personal income. You do not need to include income from alimony, child support, or separate maintenance if you do not wish to rely upon it.
