nwflyboy

Yeah, I have been very actively managing the CLs for all our cards through the other major card issuers, but not with Chase. I've been with them a looong time, and the "preserve the high CLs, then trade them if needed" has been a regular part of new cards.

She does have more than a few HPs in the past 6 months, including two others from Friday. Not sure how much that played a role in this case.

I will probably reduce her CL on a couple cards in the next few days, in anticipation of following up on this one. We'll see.

travelpye

I have 6 open personal cards with Chase, and have closed 2 over the last few years. I have noticed with my last two approvals, both online instant approval, Chase pulled both TU and EX. Previously, Chase only pulled TU for me. I am just curious if anyone else has had this happen once they had several cards open? The last two cards were opened 12 months apart, by the way.

Brugge

^ @A year ago, I had a total Chase CL of $60K. At Recon the CSR said he was going to "recommend" approval. But the app had to go to a "Senior Credit Analyst" because "you have so much credit with us". As mentioned, moving some credit wasn't a solution, it had to be reviewed by someone higher up.

It was approved a day later, but I got the message. I did some SMing and lowered my total CL to $30K, keeping a fair amount on my CSP for use traveling, but lowering everything else to around $2K or $3K. Since then I've been keeping that $30K as an upper limit. Every Chase app since then has gotten an instant approval.

I think the 'keep as much CL as you can to more at Recon' is outdated advice. Better to not need to call Recon, and avoid having someone look too closely at your Chase accounts. Best way to achieve that is to keep your CLs down. I keep around $5K more than I need on a regular basis just in case I would need to move some CL, but beyond that I only have the CL I expect to actually use on each card.

RNE

Certitude: Lowering your CL by 50% will lower your FICO.
Possibility: You get approval a day or so earlier.

That bargain doesn't make sense to me.

starbuk

False. Once you have a certain amount of credit available from credit cards, additional credit does NOT increase your FICO score. So reducing you CL does not lower you FICO if you are above this number. My guess is if you have something like $50k+ in credit card CLs available, it makes no difference if you lower you CL.

There's more here like a few FICO points not making a difference for most on the boards, but I will leave that alone.

Some people are not certain that they can get approvals when they call in for whatever reason (see the US Airways card) or they value their time highly enough to not want to have to call.

NYCRuss

False. If an increase in credit results in a decrease in utilization, then scores are usually affected.

starbuk

So you're telling me that if you have $2000 outstanding across all cards and $55000 in CL or 3.6% utilization but goes to $2000 out of $50000 or 4% utilization your score goes down.. that's a stretch and you know it. Especially considering you can control how much is reported to the Bureaus by paying down before statement closes.

If all the balance is on the same card and the CL of that card is low, then maybe. But that is a much more nuanced argument and if you are doing that you probably shouldn't be flipping cards anyhow.

Either way we are talking about a few points here, give or take. Makes no difference to approvals especially if you know your FICO inside and out.

*Team Lower CL*

Brugge

True, anyone with a total CL across all banks of, say, $10K, and who spends $5K a month and doesn't pay that off until the due date, will greatly lower their FICO by lowering their total CL to $5K.

But for those of us who used to have @$60K with AMEX, @$60K with Chase, @$50K with Citi, @$35K with Barclays, @$30K with US Bank, and @$30K with B of A, and who pay off 98% of all of our charges before they even post to a statement, cutting that $265K total CL down to a mere $135K is not going to affect our FICO scores at all.

I apply for 16 to 18 ccs a year, and reduce the CL on all of them once I meet the min spnd. Yet according to Barclays my current FICO is 785. If I applied for only half a dozen cards a year, my FICO could easily be well over 800. But what would be the point of that?

Remember, this discussion started with someone whose app was put on hold until they send in financial records after their app got sent to a "senior credit analyst" because they have such a high CL with Chase it's making Chase nervous. Something none of us want to have to go thru...

RNE

Sorry, I don't entertain challenges to my proclamations. To wit:

• Credit reviews are good (not bad) for the applicant
• Instant approval is irrelevant
• Don't manipulate anything with a bank

RNE, adamant.

duranza

deleted

Brugge

Sorry, but IMO the first point is absurd, as shown by post 3131. The second one is silly, and the third is irrelevant, since none of us are talking about manipulating anything.

As for "adamant", I don't think that word means what you think it means:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamant

RNE

• Credit reviews are good for consumers because if they cannot pass them then maybe they shouldn't get another credit card, hmm?
• What matters is approval. Instant approval is vainglorious.
• Systematically manipulating credit lines with the intent to influence the automated approval system makes a good excuse for Chase to lower the boom.

Brugge

nwflyboy

That's an interesting thought.

lotrbfme

They always pull TU and EX for me... maybe you did not notice before?