How Do I Get To $1,000,000 in total Credit Lines?

[dfwxjer]

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@The_Crusader wrote:

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@FicoMike0 wrote:

Another point I'll add. Some, maybe most, banks are total reported income sensitive. Amex, for example, seems to see 50% income as a hard limit. You don't really increase total cl by having more than one of their cards. 

Navy has an $80,000 total limit.

Keeping this in mind, you may want to concentrate new apps on new banks. 

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@FicoMike0 Thank you for that. I will say this, from my experience, Amax must be one of the worse major(ish) lenders out there. The analogy would be the car that has roll up windows etc. in a lot full of Bentleys. 

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My experience with Amex is the complete opposite. I'm at $70k CL on my BCP and can easily open additional high limit cards with them. They typically require the 3 most recent bank statements to verify the income matches the credit line, but once reviewed they're quick to grant CLIs. 

Why do you think Amex is one of the worst major lenders? 

[firefox100]

Ok I am late to this thread, I have 20 open accounts and 4 closed accounts and my oldest is 23 years old, total cl is 346.9K income of 8K and ul is less then 1,500 showing on reports also fico scores are over 820 on all reports. the first thing I would try to do see if you can borrow long term enough cash to pay off all the accounts just leave about 1K on one of your cards then spend your repular expenenses on one and pay it off each month then request increase on that card fter several months. You need to pay down that creditcard debt before you request any increases. Good luck.

[firefox100]

Correction total income is 88K. Just another thing when you get to about 330K it gets harder to increases and open new accounts.

[dfwxjer]

I'm still trying to understand why an individual needs 3-4x their annual income in credit card limits, especially when it's spread over so many different cards. 

Like someone mentioned above, if the desire is to be able to run a single $30k transaction then the OP will need a card with a $100k CL to avoid triggering a utilization hit on a single account. At that income level it'll be a challenge to get there without significant investments with the issuing bank. 

For $1mm in TCL the OP should be looking at $50k or more on each card and even that would require 20+ credit cards to cross the threshold. I'd focus this level of effort on advancing my career/salary instead of signing up for any and every card possible. 

[CreditCuriosity]

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@dfwxjer wrote:

I'm still trying to understand why an individual needs 3-4x their annual income in credit card limits, especially when it's spread over so many different cards. 

Like someone mentioned above, if the desire is to be able to run a single $30k transaction then the OP will need a card with a $100k CL to avoid triggering a utilization hit on a single account. At that income level it'll be a challenge to get there without significant investments with the issuing bank. 

For $1mm in TCL the OP should be looking at $50k or more on each card and even that would require 20+ credit cards to cross the threshold. I'd focus this level of effort on advancing my career/salary instead of signing up for any and every card possible. 

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It is a game for me really.  I could be over a million but cancel cards quite often.  I have several over 80k and several over 50k, etc..  When you have near perfect FICO scores and a 6 figure income and a long credit history it really isn't hard that hard.  Just a hobby for some of us shrug and those that are near or over that 1 million mark spend well within their means being they don't wrack up debt.   Just my take of it.

[Realist]

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

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@dfwxjer wrote:

I'm still trying to understand why an individual needs 3-4x their annual income in credit card limits, especially when it's spread over so many different cards. 

Like someone mentioned above, if the desire is to be able to run a single $30k transaction then the OP will need a card with a $100k CL to avoid triggering a utilization hit on a single account. At that income level it'll be a challenge to get there without significant investments with the issuing bank. 

For $1mm in TCL the OP should be looking at $50k or more on each card and even that would require 20+ credit cards to cross the threshold. I'd focus this level of effort on advancing my career/salary instead of signing up for any and every card possible. 

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It is a game for me really.  I could be over a million but cancel cards quite often.  I have several over 80k and several over 50k, etc..  When you have near perfect FICO scores as a 6 figure income and a long credit history it really isn't hard that hard.  Just a hobby for some of us shrug and those that are near or over that 1 million mark spend well within their means being they don't wrack up debt.   Just my take of it.

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Agreed - pretty much this.  Weather for hobby, total count, or even pursuing SUBs, there's a number of reasons to just do, so long as you can manage it, and are responsible with it.   We have a large number free hotel stays available.  Did it cost anything more to cycle my credit card instead of my debt card every month?  Not at all.  But that option only becomes available by seeking credit responsibly.  The total credit line accumulation is just a secondary perk, which continues to add up.  

When you have enough, utilization never really matters.  We have a card or two we cycle regularly at 10-15% utilization, big cards, and it doesn't touch the FICO score.  Small cards like Home Depot or Lowes alone can put you at high utilization on a single purchase.  But, when you have a huge total credit, the individual scores barely register if at all.  Looking down our report, individual cards may show 13% here, 15% there, 0, 0, 0, 0, x etc, overall utilization 1-3% total utilization overall.  Paid off each month, sometimes leave a few scraps on the table to let the lenders earn a few pennies.  FICO score rock solid.

I don't have a total amount as a target.  The target in my case is how much hotel, airline, and cash back sub amounts can be accumulated regularly, and continuously over the years. 

[Pppoolboy]

That's cool but you can also get to the same place with cards that don't report to personal credit lines at all... AKA business cards.  I don't personally feel the need to chase a huge overall CL because 75% of my spend is on credit cards that never see the light of credit-reporting day.

[coldfusion]

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@Pppoolboy wrote:

That's cool but you can also get to the same place with cards that don't report to personal credit lines at all... AKA business cards.  I don't personally feel the need to chase a huge overall CL because 75% of my spend is on credit cards that never see the light of credit-reporting day.

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To help fill in the gaps sure, but a) there are fewer options for business cards than personal b) if you don't have an actual established business with a track record of sufficiently high income you'll need to personally guarantee payment as a condition of approval and the related inquiry/inquiries will show on their personal report(s)  c) some issuers monthly report business cards with a PG in good standing on the guarantors personal credit reports d) essentailly all issuers reports business cards with a PG that are in arrears e) different issuers have different levels of tolerance for blatantly non-business purchases on business cards (AMEX for example is known to be fairly tolerant,  Chase less so) 

So...can be helpful but not a panacea.