Originally Posted by 21A
I once got such a letter from Citi and they offered to divide the credit line on an existing account. I didn't really like the allocation they proposed, so I called and had a different amount allocated from a different card and they processed the approval for the new card.
In our case Citi seems always just make a phone call and offer to move some credit line from one that is very underutilized (usually it is used between 5% to 10% and a quite high credit line to begin with because of its age.) I never receive a letter from them, but a couple phone calls in the past. I dont know how much one's FICO would be affected - that a particular card with long history has the line fluctuated every few months as the credit line together w/statement balance is reported each month.
Originally Posted by 21A
Reducing credit limits leads to higher utilization, which is a negative score factor, so the strategy of voluntarily reducing credit lines is one to be undertaken with care depending on your FICO score, how much other credit you have available, and your overall credit situation. (Generally the "too much available credit" reason only comes into play for people with a VERY large amount of unused credit, who would tend to have high FICO scores anyway.)
It is a very much YMMV thing. Sometimes banks do crazy thing - Chase once called me on a cancelled card that had a very decent line. The woman offered to add that line back to one of my open Chase cards. I took it just to get her off the phone and the line sure was added back to the card I named. I then called Chase to get rid of the excess. Nutty.
I tend to think that FICO is only the initial factor banks use for approval. There are lots more variables come into play beyond FICO.