Can an increase in credit line every hurt you?

[Anonymous]

I have an account with Universal/AT&T.  Right around 50% util.  I had the account at $20,000 cl, but had them reduce it to $10,000 as I thought, incorrectly at the time, that it would help my score with lower overall avl credit.

Any downside to having the higher cl on scoring. (Besides the ability to go higher with balances which is a given.)

TU 737, EQ 702, EX 706

[Junejer]

Some lenders might look at it negatively, as you have the ability to run the balance up to the limit. From a score standpoint, it is much easier to handle your util with the higher limits (as you are experiencing). From a score standpoint, it won't hurt you.

[Anonymous]

You can just as easily spend $100 on a CL of $1,000 as you could spend $1,000 on a CL of $10,000 and carry the same UTL. So I'd say score wise = no difference. However lenders might issue credit based on what you already have. So if your CLs are $10k you might have trouble jumping to $30k if you needed more. Income will play more of a role in that anyway. Score wise, nada.

But if you carry debt of 50% UTL with $10k, it would only be 25% UTL if your CL were double. That definitely effects your score. What ever it takes to reduce that UTL. If you pay off your debt then CL is not very much relevant to scores.

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 02-18-2008 02:33 PM