When to ask for credit limit increase and what do they look at?

[Anne1208]

I have five credit cards (four in my name, one jointly with husband) that until last month, were all at 98% overall utilization.  My credit score was 685, with only bad thing being utilization.  I got some cash and was able to pay things down, and then my husband paid down a card too.  

Last month I paid the Bank of America Visa $5500 down to 3500 (63%), the Discover $5000 down to $3000 (60%), the Credit Union visa to $5000/7500 (66%), Am ex i paid off $0/12,500 (0%) and my husband took out a secured loan only in his name to pay off my other Visa ($0/$16,500) because hes an authorized user on that one and that balance was all him.  So, once everything hits my credit report, theres a mix of utilization on the cards with the higher interest rate ones paid off, but overall utilization will be at 24% ($11,500/$47,000).

I have not used any of these cards in a long time and don't plan to use them in the future, except for minor things to keep some activity on them like a netflix monthly bill or whatever. 

So I anticipate some credit score increase, but I am looking to get an increase any way I can, in addition to continuing to pay down remaining balances.  Would it be helpful to call all of them and ask for credit increases?  That would decrease my utilization % in the mean time assuming they get approved. 

What do they evaluate for a credit limit increase? My husband has one card only in his name thats 50% utilization ($2500/5000) but fluctuates, and the rest were in my name. So overall we have $52,000 credit limit and an overall balance of $14,000, we have one newish car payment of $350 a month and he now has a car payment for our other car bc of the secured loan he took out.  Our household income is about $200K.  

Also, while i am on the topic of strategies to help my credit, any other suggestions about the remaining balances are also welcome. The credit union card is 11% interest rate but the other two are like 19%

[Anonymous]

I think I would wait until your utilization is under 28.9% before I would ask for a CLI and possibly look around at your local credit unions for a low rate consolidation loan. How much are you paying in interest every month? 

[FinStar]

IMO, get the utilization for each card to an optimal level (below 10%) if possible. Give it a few months and let your scores recover with those realized gains.

Keep in mind that besides account history, income/DTI will come into play as a factor for determining whether an account is elegible for the CLI in addition to your overall profile.

Needless to say, kudos for getting those balances paid down. Just don't let them creep back up again or at least manage them to a realistic budget level.

As far as CLIs for the 4 accounts listed, the CU might be the one that will likely result in a HP. AmEx, BoA and Discover are typically SP for CLI requests.