Can a credit limit be too high for FICO?

[Anonymous]

I heard that FICO might start ignoring some cards if the limit is too high. Is there a credit limit that is too high? 

Over the past few years I have been regularly doing CLI's and now I have a number of cards with pretty high limits: Amex 40k, BoA Premium 31k, Discover 27.5k, CITI DC 27.5k, BoA Cash Rewards 27k. 

Should I keep requesting CLI's on these cards or does there come a point where it's better to stop? 

I know if I optimize my score it doesn't matter--I can just pay all but one down to zero and leave the last one reporting a small balance. But I do like that if I just do nothing, let auto-pay cover all my bills, and let all my balances report, that I can still get a 760 score. It's possible in part because the limits are so high that my ordinary spend ends up being a low utilization anyway. 

So I like CLI'ing the cards as far as I can go -- but I'm wondering if older models of FICO will eventually start ignoring some of them, and if so, at what point I should stop asking for CLI's.

[Anonymous]

The short answer is Yes.  Some FICO models ignore a credit limit when it gets too high.

For the oldest FICO models (e.g. the EX mortgage score) the breakpoint is $34,999. 

For FICO 8 the breakpoint is somewhere between 51k and 80k.  (Testers here confirmed that 51k was not dropped but a CL in the 70s was.)

The only really significant implication is to know when a particular high-CL card might be dropped by a model, so that you can be sure not to use that card for AZEO.  For example, if you are preparing for a mortgage make sure that the one card that reports a small positive balance has a CL of < 34.9k.

[Anonymous]

PS.  Is it really true that you often spend 15k per month on your personal cards?  If it is in fact uncommon for your spending to be that high, your CL is already big enough so that your utilization would be < 8.99% most months.

And even if it does cross that 8.99% threshold, does the scoring ding really matter?  I can see how it would if you were applying for credit several times a year.

Another way to expand your CL is to add more cards.  If a person's monthly spend is high already, then adding a new card every quarter with a huge signup bonus can be lucrative.  You just need to PC it to a no annual fee card later.

[Anonymous]

CiS I really wouldn't worry about it at all unless you get to the point where you have multiple cards at > $50k CLs. 

Also as a side note, AZEO implementation over naturally allowing your cards to report balances 99% of the time will only impact your score 15 points or less (possibly most on TU, EQ a close second, EX a distant third).  For anyone with a 760+ score without AZEO in place, it's really unnecessary IMO under most circumstances.

[Pikaboo-icu]

Although the title doesn't apply to me, I found the replies very informative and/or applicable to me.

Thanks so much for the helpful replies CGID and BBS! 

Big KUDOS to both of you for sharing your knowledge. 

[Anonymous]

Very welcome, pal.

[K-in-Boston]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The short answer is Yes.  Some FICO models ignore a credit limit when it gets too high.

For the oldest FICO models (e.g. the EX mortgage score) the breakpoint is $34,999. 

For FICO 8 the breakpoint is somewhere between 51k and 80k.  (Testers here confirmed that 51k was not dropped but a CL in the 70s was.)

The only really significant implication is to know when a particular high-CL card might be dropped by a model, so that you can be sure not to use that card for AZEO.  For example, if you are preparing for a mortgage make sure that the one card that reports a small positive balance has a CL of < 34.9k.

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Is that a YMMV thing depending on profile?  For example, DW's BoA card was at $70k last year, went up to $90k a few months ago, and is now at everyone's favorite BoA credit line of $99,900 although that has not reported yet.  I'm an AU on the card.  When it had a big BT on it, we both saw modest score drops, and as it lowered in utilization we both saw modest gains along the way.  Granted my profile is rather busy, so there were some other factors in there, but if the card had stopped being calculated I would have expected both of us to lose some points since such a large credit line (which currently sits empty) would have a fairly significant impact on utilization.  All signs seem to point to it still be factored in for both of us at the current $0/$90,000 that is reporting. 

Since my profile has not been as busy as it has in the past few years and I'm planning a really big BT to it around December or January, maybe that will be a good time to isolate it for testing.  But certainly if I knew that it was being excluded from FICO 08 scoring, I wouldn't hesitate to move the vast majority of our balances to that card!

Fascinating stuff as always, and the point about the oldest models likely explains why my NASA FCU score has been essentially flatlined for over 2 years since there are a handful of cards on my reports with limits greater than $35k.

[Anonymous]

KiB it seems to me the only way to really test it would be to use the $99k card as your AZEO card and see if you get hit with the no revolving credit use reason statement and score ding.  I'm not sure if that would be easily doable for you though, as it sounds like you've got at least a handful of balances on other cards?

[Anonymous]

BBS was part of the long testing thread for this a while back so he can help you out.

One thought: KIB mentions that he is an AU on the card.  Therefore he should not be the person who tests it.  That is muddying the waters with TWO issues that can cause a card to be dropped.  Best practice for testing is to isolate.

If he has control over the CC balances of his wife (the actual card owner) and the capacity to pull her scores (e.g. via Credit Check Total) that would be the way to go.

[Anonymous]

PS.  It would also be good to give BBS as much information about her profile before the test begins.  We'd ideally want to know whether she is in a thin scorecard or a dirty scorecard.  If she has 6+ accounts, has an AoOA of 25 months, and has no derogs, that would be ideal.