As most of you know, a lot of creditors require that you state a desired amount of increase when the cardholder seeks this. Even when I've just stated whatever I qualify for, I'm always told that a desired amount must be stated for the consideration to take place. I've had some reps tell me to just state whatever the highest amount I'd want. Obviously, most of us will draw a fine line in thinking of this number. For example, if one were to say $100k from a $1k limit, that will likely draw a lot of unwanted attention. On the contrary, if only $2k were requested, he/she might be limiting themselves too much.
Thus, I'm wondering, what do most of you do in deciding the number to put in for a request? What have been your experiences with various creditors? Of course, this excludes AMEX, since most everyone around here knows their max is 3X the current credit line. Personally, I usually request a large amount knowing that it won't likely be fully granted, but I also keep it within some reason. Sometimes, I've even called back a couple of hours later on the same day to put in another request if it was a HP, knowing that the creditor won't likely do another HP then. Amazingly enough, I've sometimes had 2 increases in one day by this method. When asked why I was calling back in, I explained that my previous conversation seemed to indicate that I might have qualified for a bigger amount, and am just trying to make the most use out of the HP. It's like trying a second reconsideration when declined for a card after the first resulted in a sustain of the initial decision.
In my experience, Discover will sometimes use the same HP from the last 30 days if a subsequent request is made (presuming the first request required a HP). Sometimes, Barclays will use a SP if a HP was done within the last 30 days. This was so in both cases when I asked for a second CLI using the technique described above.
