You all are forgetting the number one most important reason to have high levels of available credit!
It is to fund that final "bucket list" trip in the event you are diagnosed with a terminal illness that will kill you in a few weeks or months!🤪
For me, it is mostly about utilization and planned/unexpected costs. When I was considering furniture, I looked only at cards with a limit high enough to absorb the purchase while keeping me under 15-20 utilization. One card has been offering 15-18 month BT offers which I don't use because the limit is so low that it would easily push the card over 50 percent utilization.
@ptatohed wrote:
Yes but most of those replies aren't necessarily defending why anyone should have limits over $100,000. Maybe #1 (though utilization can be kept low with limits under $100k) and for sure #5, lol.But, 2 - 4 can easily be achieved with a 5 figure TCL.
I don't agree. I utilize my cards to gain the best rewards for my spend. As such, I may use card a with a $7K CL and it cuts with a couple thousand and my score drops 20-30pts. Another card with $25K but one that doesn't give me rewards for some specific spend cuts with a couple thousand on it and has a near zero affect on my score.
I suppose I'm nit-picking as even a 50pt drop, should I miss something isn't going to affect me being approved at the best rates. But it does put me in a position I'm not comfortable with if I was to app for something and take a HP. I always want to be in a position where IF I apply for something I'm always at the best score. Maybe I'm over-thinking it. 
Anyway. (It's late, I'm tired and rambling) I'm over $400K TCL because I like SUBs and points. I generally couldn't care less about cash back. Points are far more interesting.
@AlanGJP wrote:
@ptatohed wrote:
Yes but most of those replies aren't necessarily defending why anyone should have limits over $100,000. Maybe #1 (though utilization can be kept low with limits under $100k) and for sure #5, lol.I don't agree. I utilize my cards to gain the best rewards for my spend. As such, I may use card a with a $7K CL and it cuts with a couple thousand and my score drops 20-30pts. Another card with $25K but one that doesn't give me rewards for some specific spend cuts with a couple thousand on it and has a near zero affect on my score.
I suppose I'm nit-picking as even a 50pt drop, should I miss something isn't going to affect me being approved at the best rates. But it does put me in a position I'm not comfortable with if I was to app for something and take a HP. I always want to be in a position where IF I apply for something I'm always at the best score. Maybe I'm over-thinking it.
Anyway. (It's late, I'm tired and rambling) I'm over $400K TCL because I like SUBs and points. I generally couldn't care less about cash back. Points are far more interesting.
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@reluctantgarden wrote:Apologies to mods if this isn't proper, but there's a post on the r/CreditCards subreddit with the above subject, and I thought it would be interesting to see what folks here have to say. My response was as follows:
The reasons why I have a $400k TCL are fivefold:
Utilization becomes a nonfactor. Although I never pay interest, I do like using 0%-APR BTs given how well HYSAs are paying. Right now I'm running $27k across three offers, but still only have less than 7% utilization, so...
...my FICOs stay high, currently 775-780.
Flexibility if anything hits the fan: If something bad happens personally, I can weather it without wrecking my credit. And if something expensive (but not necessarily horrible) happens, I can finance it myself at a low rate ($59.9k CC at 9.9% APR, $27.1k BLOC@9%).
Stickin' it to the man for rewards after many years of paying interest: I got myself together financially a couple of years ago, and now I'm obsessed with getting as many points and as much cash back as possible.
Gamification, or me vs. the algorithms: I'm also obsessed with how high I can push CLs and how many tradelines are possible given my scores and income. The latter is maxed out for at least a year since I recently added four CCs and a LOC, but the former continues on given they're all SPs.
I certainly enjoy #1 and #2, and if something hits the fan, I'd probably turn to BT offers or my NFCU Platinum, so I'd say I enjoy #3 as well.
#4 is a BIG TIME agree - I held a maxed out card and paid interest for around 15 years and now greatly enjoy squeezing out maximum rewards in the other direction. If someone were able to exactly calculate my total return and adding another card only added a minimal gain, I'd still do it. There will likely be a point where I say "enough," but I'm definitely not there yet.
#5 is the only case where I disagree, as with 24 personal revolvers, 2 business revolvers, 4 charge cards, and 3 AU revolvers, any way you slice it I have way more credit than I'll ever use: between $251.9k (my revolvers including business) to $256.9k (all personal revolvers including AU) to $286.9k (all revolvers including business) in TCL. I personally only care about credit limits when they are under $5k, of which I currently have 4: Elan MCP #1 ($4k), WF Autograph ($3k), Elan MCP #2 ($2k), and Target REDcard ($2k). I'll try to get these higher - outside of Target, where I have little to no influence - but don't see any point in raising any other credit limits.
P2 
P2 Future 
Chopping Block 
@reluctantgarden wrote:Apologies to mods if this isn't proper, but there's a post on the r/CreditCards subreddit with the above subject, and I thought it would be interesting to see what folks here have to say. My response was as follows:
The reasons why I have a $400k TCL are fivefold:
Utilization becomes a nonfactor. Although I never pay interest, I do like using 0%-APR BTs given how well HYSAs are paying. Right now I'm running $27k across three offers, but still only have less than 7% utilization, so...
...my FICOs stay high, currently 775-780.
Flexibility if anything hits the fan: If something bad happens personally, I can weather it without wrecking my credit. And if something expensive (but not necessarily horrible) happens, I can finance it myself at a low rate ($59.9k CC at 9.9% APR, $27.1k BLOC@9%).
Stickin' it to the man for rewards after many years of paying interest: I got myself together financially a couple of years ago, and now I'm obsessed with getting as many points and as much cash back as possible.
Gamification, or me vs. the algorithms: I'm also obsessed with how high I can push CLs and how many tradelines are possible given my scores and income. The latter is maxed out for at least a year since I recently added four CCs and a LOC, but the former continues on given they're all SPs.
Re: "What’s the point in having 100k in limits if you can’t spend it?"
But what if you can?
I initially refrained from responding to this thread as I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I just posted about attaining a $100K CL on a single card and my TCL is $842K now. The specific $(xx)K is relative to the consumer profile and therefore, possibly misleading about the intent of the original reddit poster. I looked up that thread and he said,
"Why do we work so hard to build when people say you need to pay it off EVERY MONTH? Why would I have 100k in credit if I don’t even make that yearly ? Literally just asking . Answer the question don’t try to berate me for inquiring.
So from the perspective of that OP, he makes less than $100K and apparently has been told by the reddit community to build high TCL of $100K, above 1x his annual income.
Do I (normally) spend $100K annually or higher on my cards? No. Could I do so if I wanted to, and be able to promptly repay it? Yes. Is $800K+ more credit than I'll ever need? Absolutely! So why do I push both my individual and total limits?
- Definitely agree with #1 that utilization padding is a major consideration. I rarely have to even consider how much any charges will impact utilization. It becomes irrelevant. For me, this was a huge "stick it to the man" strategy since I went for many years with credit cards not realizing how much my utilization could be impacting my FICO. (In the early years of FICO, the amount of information on scoring via the webz and forums was just not available like it is today.) So I'll never feel guilty for excessively paddding my utilization as much as lenders will allow. IMO, too many consumers are probably being penalized for utilization factors that they don't understand and might be able to mitigate with some changes in focus.
- Reason (2) - keeping high FICO - is the reason I do number (1). Agreed.
- Financial Flexibility (3) is certainly a factor. Having multiple lender relationships with high limits with each one, ability to do BTs or put charges on various cards, and high enough limits to charge anything I want to charge are all tools in my financial toolbox. Like I mentioned, I don't normally charge $100K or more per year like some of our big dogs on My FICO with large business or personal spend, but my financial assets and income allow me do it if I need or want to. Some may assume I've built my large limits purely out of ego, but everyone's finances and definition of excess are different.
- Number (4) - rewards - is something I've done but has nothing to do with the high limits strategy. It's separate.
- Number (5) - gamesmanship. Of course!!
That has also been a huge motivation for me, to see how high I could push limits, at least to a degree. For me, $100K on one card was a personal goal, and I reached that. I could combine Chase limits today for even higher, but $100K is more than sufficient. I'm pushing towards $1M TCL and might reach that by possibly next year, but I seriously doubt I'll keep going. At that point, game over. I just don't want the added complexity of managing it all, but getting $1M would be kinda cool. Some might find a goal of $10K per card or $25K per card and $100K or $250K in TCL, so how far we want to take the utilization padding and gamesmanship is up to us based on our circumstances.
Beyond the above, I'll add that early in my credit years, I had a very good (not exceptional) score for a long time. Then I went through a very long period (10-15 years) during an unexpected midlife career change where I was carrying debt and trying to dig myself back out. My credit suffered during those years. So now, my high FICOs and ability to get high credit limits are validating to me for all the hard work that I did to repair my credit and finances without having to go through bankruptcy or other extreme measures. I appreciate knowing that my lenders trust me to manage large limits, even if I'm not using a large percentage of them. It feels good to be back on top of the mountain in my finances. 
The point in having 100k in limits if you can't spend it is that it's much safer to have lots of available credit that you don't use, than to have less available credit which you do use, both in terms of credit scores and creditworthiness, and in terms of meeting emergency cash flow needs if they should arise.
