I was on Citi’s website checking my purchases and whatnot when I decided to hit the “credit limit increase request” button. Instead of the usual, fill in your information and then we’ll do a hard pull on your credit report and think about it, I got a statement reading:
“We love you so much and would like to give you a credit limit increase because you pay all your statements in full and never pay just a cent in interest so the only way we’ll make money is with the transaction fees we charge to merchants. We also won’t do a hard pull on your credit report.”
Okay, maybe it didn’t say that word for word on the page. I got a free (free as in no hard pull) bump up to $5,000 from $4,000. Interesting how this was my first credit card and in less than a year of having it, it has been bumping up steadily from $800 to $5,000.
Also, to add, that weasly Chase Cash Plus that gave me a $200 limit bumped me up to $700, which is still, well, pathetic.
More credit = more finance charges and compounding interest. I just paid all of my consumer debt and hope to remain that way.
Not for me.
More credit = less utilization %, better fico
I’ve disciplined myself to not buy needless consumer items. I pay off my cards in full each month.
Do you even use anything close to the credit limit?
Sometimes, generally when I have to pay tuition or pay for textbooks. When I use to have $1,000 limit I would get close every month, and my credit score would suck because of the high utilization. Now that it’s $5,000 my utilization percentage has dropped and my credit score is a lot higher.