Discover Secured CLI and Credit Scoring

[RobertK]

If I open a Discover IT secured with an initial credit limit of say $200, and a month later decide to add another $200 to it, will that "credit line increase" yield any corresponding increase in FICO score? Or, do you only earn FICO score points when the credit card company increases your credit line?

Thanks folks

[Ficoproblems247]

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@RobertK wrote:

If I open a Discover IT secured with an initial credit limit of say $200, and a month later decide to add another $200 to it, will that "credit line increase" yield any corresponding increase in FICO score? Or, do you only earn FICO score points when the credit card company increases your credit line?

Thanks folks

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Hello, and welcome to the forums! Your amount of available credit has no effect on your FICO score in and of itself. The only time where increasing your available credit limit would cause your score to increase, is when doing so caused your reported credit utilization to decrease as a result. A limit increase neither initiated by yourself, nor any lender will cause you to have any increase in your FICO score. 

[RobertK]

interesting and good to know. thanks for the response

[Horseshoez]

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@RobertK wrote:

If I open a Discover IT secured with an initial credit limit of say $200, and a month later decide to add another $200 to it, will that "credit line increase" yield any corresponding increase in FICO score? Or, do you only earn FICO score points when the credit card company increases your credit line?

Thanks folks

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One thing to keep in mind, some secured card offerings do not allow you to increase your security deposit once the card has been opened; I honestly do not know if Discover falls into this category or not as they repeatedly denied my application for a secured card.  It might make sense to call them and talk with a rep to confirm you can increase your deposit at will.

[Ficoproblems247]

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@RobertK wrote:

interesting and good to know. thanks for the response

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You bet! To take that a step further, FICO scores you on both your individual, and aggregate utilization. The thresholds where you can gain/lose points for crossing are 9%, 29%, 49%, 69%, and maxed out for total aggregate. For individual it is the same, minus the 9% threshold. If you have balances reported on your revolving accounts, and you see a gain in your FICO scores which would appear to corollate with a limit increase, it would actually be the increase causing either an individual balance, or your aggregate balance to cross one of those thresholds.