Why Your Credit Card Limits Are Low

[Anonymous]

Your credit card limits are based on the total amount of credit you have divided by the total of card you have. That will be your minimum credit card limit for Excellent Credit Cards. Each Credit card has a maximum limit.

Consumer A:

Card 1: 10K

Card 2: 500

Card 3: 500

Card 4: 1500

Your total credit is 12K divided by 4 cards your average credit card limit 3k and that will be the minimum you will be approved for.

Consumer B:

Card 1: 12K

Card 2: 25K

Card 3: 17K

Card 4: 1500

Your total credit is 55.5K divided by 4 cards your average credit card limit 13.75K and that will be the minimum you will be approved for.

Build history with the credit card limits you have by increasing them to a fair amount. This will not work on below average cards. obtain 2 sub prime cards or prime card and everything else will fall into place. This will take several years to achieve high limits. and if you can pay off in full even better. no late payments mean i trust you. you got your finances in order. i can give you a high limit and you will not go on a shopping spree, take trips, or etc. he maintain his credit over a certain amount of year. here is a consumer that banks can trust. 

[DeeBee78]

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@Anonymouswrote:

Your credit card limits are based on the total amount of credit you have divided by the total of card you have. That will be your minimum credit card limit for Excellent Credit Cards. Each Credit card has a maximum limit.

Consumer A:

Card 1: 10K

Card 2: 500

Card 3: 500

Card 4: 1500

Your total credit is 12K divided by 4 cards your average credit card limit 3k and that will be the minimum you will be approved for.

Consumer B:

Card 1: 12K

Card 2: 25K

Card 3: 17K

Card 4: 1500

Your total credit is 55.5K divided by 4 cards your average credit card limit 13.75K and that will be the minimum you will be approved for.

Build history with the credit card limits you have by increasing them to a fair amount. This will not work on below average cards. obtain 2 sub prime cards or prime card and everything else will fall into place. This will take several years to achieve high limits. and if you can pay off in full even better. no late payments mean i trust you. you got your finances in order. i can give you a high limit and you will not go on a shopping spree, take trips, or etc. he maintain his credit over a certain amount of year. here is a consumer that banks can trust. 

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While current card limits and averages can factor into some lending decisions (good luck getting a CSP or CSR without another $5K/$10K limit reporting) there's a lot more to it than just that. Your credit scores, DTI, AAoA, individual lender history, and a myriad of other factors can all play a role in what your starting limit could be. 

[Anonymous]

I had 30,000 in total credit (25k of it in retail cards) over 18 accounts (average limit would be about 1600) and was approved for a 3500 discover, so I think your system is flawed.

[Remedios]

Is there a secret decoder ring that goes with this?

[Anonymous]

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@Remedioswrote:
Is there a secret decoder ring that goes with this?

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Drink your Ovaltine.

[coldfusion]

I have the distinct impression that a regular either here or at That Other Forum was bored today.

[jamesdwi]

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@Anonymouswrote:

Your credit card limits are based on the total amount of credit you have divided by the total of card you have. That will be your minimum credit card limit for Excellent Credit Cards. Each Credit card has a maximum limit.

Consumer A:

Card 1: 10K

Card 2: 500

Card 3: 500

Card 4: 1500

Your total credit is 12K divided by 4 cards your average credit card limit 3k and that will be the minimum you will be approved for.

Consumer B:

Card 1: 12K

Card 2: 25K

Card 3: 17K

Card 4: 1500

Your total credit is 55.5K divided by 4 cards your average credit card limit 13.75K and that will be the minimum you will be approved for.

Build history with the credit card limits you have by increasing them to a fair amount. This will not work on below average cards. obtain 2 sub prime cards or prime card and everything else will fall into place. This will take several years to achieve high limits. and if you can pay off in full even better. no late payments mean i trust you. you got your finances in order. i can give you a high limit and you will not go on a shopping spree, take trips, or etc. he maintain his credit over a certain amount of year. here is a consumer that banks can trust. 

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card holder A has what I call  chance cards, when prime lenders give you a card with a $500 limit or even a $1000 with some lenders, the lender is giving you a chance to prove your self to them. But even after you have proved your self to the lender the $500 cards won't grow or will grow extremely slow. Its best to sock drawer card after you have improved your internal score with the lender and your over all credit profile looks better,  apply for a new card from the lender. Once you have a card with a $2k or greater limit this card will grow faster. If you read this site you will find lots of people that get saddled with the $500 limit cards and report the card never grows or it requires intervention from Execute Office or other extremes.  Note this doesn't include $500 cards that are given to customers that allready have an extensive history with a lender but may just be at the max exposure with the lender.  

I have even seen this pattern on cards that came from a lender that was aquired by another company, not sure if the low SL causes this or is this some other internal flag that causes this behavior. For instance CapitalOne bought out citibank BestBuy mastercards, yet they refused to grow even though I had numerous better cards. 

[Anonymous]

Obviously this "logic" (if we want to call it that) doesn't make any sense.  Anyone could rattle off a dozen examples of ways it wouldn't/couldn't work that way.

[fltireguy]

Complete BS and a flawed theory... 

So,  I have 37 open major credit card accounts (MC/Visa/Amex), from at least 24 lenders (and, Yes, 37 is a true number). CL range from 500-25000.

Based on this theory, and total limits on these cards of 203150, the NFCU card that I was approved for would have a CL of 5490, or 5500 if we round it off.   But it was issued with a 12900 CL.   And the card before that were 10000 and 15000..

So much for that logic

[NRB525]

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@fltireguywrote:

Complete BS and a flawed theory... 

So,  I have 37 open major credit card accounts (MC/Visa/Amex), from at least 24 lenders (and, Yes, 37 is a true number). CL range from 500-25000.

Based on this theory, and total limits on these cards of 203150, the NFCU card that I was approved for would have a CL of 5490, or 5500 if we round it off.   But it was issued with a 12900 CL.   And the card before that were 10000 and 15000..

So much for that logic

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Hey, all you commenters above, you did not read closely enough. OP predicts the minimum Starting Line to expect based on your average, not the exact limit. 

The problem is if you app for your first AMEX revolver after you have cards, you are still likely to get a $1k or maybe a $2k limit. I got a $2k limit in 2013 when average line was a lot more than that.