@visualfxpro wrote:I'm doing an experiment to see if I can trigger aggressive limit increases by talking to the credit card company algos. The basic idea is to use your card in a way which would suggest that a MUCH higher limit is NEEDED & that the card holder has the means and ability to handle it responsibly.
In short, I will try to spend my limit or more, every month and carry $0 balance. For example, with $1000 limit card:
Begin billing cycle
Charge $1000Pay $1000
Charge $1000
Pay $1000
End billing cycleReport $0 balance
repeat
Now this is purely experminental. I have no idea if this will work or not and this can be VERY risky IF you don't space your charges far enough away from the end of your billing and get reported to credit agencies.
So I've picked my smallest limit card which is due for an increase. It's a $500 Wells Fargo card that has been VERY lightly used. Most months I don't even use it. To max it out, I've cancelled one of my bill payment and moved it to this card AND paid for an additional month. Then I paid my internet early plus some of the month after that to fully max the card. I'm expecting the charge to report tomorrow at which time, I'll pay it off. Then I'll see if I can find another $500 to charge on it and pay again.
I've found a service to pay my rent on credit card. I'll used that to further boost some of my other cards.
If this works, I might try some further experiments to find out if for example, charging more than your limit helps at all, or is their no benifit beyond the limit. I expect it's unusual for a person to use their card like this, going over limit, so might not be factored into their programming.
The logic is, their software needs to predict your spending and ability to pay. If you spend no more than $10 a month, there is no way you get a high limit. If you are hitting the limit a lot, that should send a gold mine signal to them as a big spender. Paying right away shows your ability and willingness to pay. You are basically creating a time machine of sorts. If you charge $2000 on a $1000 limit card in a month and carry no balance, you have basically gone into the future where you have a $2000 limit card and you are doing really well. You are also demostrating that $2000 limit is FAR too low. A person like that needs maybe a $5000 limit.
Wish me luck! Any questions or comments let me know.
Another idea I have is I can REALLY supercharge this if I were to say open an Amazon or Ebay seller account. For example, I could buy $3000 worth of stuff on credit card, then sell the items to get the cash back, hopefully at a profit if I can chose the right items. Seems like a lot, but I'm a nerd and I'm interesting in getting into business anyway. I just want to buy and sell something. Get my feet wet, then go from there. So kill two birds with one stone!
Score jumped to 717 now BTW. FACO I guess. Experian is at 645.
A lot of this may tip money laundering alarm ...if total sold exceeds 10,000 ..yes can find underpriced items on ebay & sell..
I tried this a couple of years ago with Discover. It was a second card $500 limit. I travel alot so I would hit the limit with restaurants alone in a couple of weeks. I would submit a full payment a few days before it was maxed out. After a couple of months I called Discover to request a CLI. The rep was very kind, but laughed and said that exercise would not trigger a CLI. I was denied at that time for a CLI. Ironically 3 or 4 weeks later, my CLI doubled from $500 to $1000, where it's been since. Not sure why, but Discover will not give me a CLI on that card. So I applied for and received a second card with a much higher limit.
I agree. Also it's worth noting that each bank is different. One technique may work at one bank, but not work at another.