italdesign

Before you think I'm pushing the envelope on something lucrative, what actually happened is they gave me a puny $700 CL on a business card. I can barely meet the minimum spend with that. If I were to cycle this puny CL 2-3x in a month, do you think it may be dangerous for account closure (which has happened before with large CL cycling)?

Mikaela Tay

I have seen approvals for $1k or less for the Barclays Business card. I was surprised I was approved for $5K, but none the less i will also be cycling to hit the spend bonus. I will not be MS.

radonc1

The reason you have a low credit line is that the bank considers you a credit risk, just not enough of a risk to deny you outright for their card.

I presume that this card is new. Just like the new employee on probation for the first 90 days, your bank has you on probation for use of their card. If you cycle your card, it's just like coming in late 4 days out of 5 in your probationary period. The bank has eyes on your account, and one way to raise a flag is to cycle your account.

The reason cycling is bad is that the bank gave you a limit for a reason....their reason. They don't want to put large sums of money at risk on a new account, especially one where they were less than thrilled about granting any credit in the first place.

i can almost assure you that if you cycle your $700 CL, they may warn you but most likely they will just shut you down. Furthermore, if you have other cards with them, those could go as well. And it is not unheard of where the bank just jettisons you completely.

My suggestion is to call them and point out the fact that it will be impossible to reach a $5000 spend in 3 months with a $700 CL. Ask for more time. If they say no, all you can do is close the account and chalk up the event as experience.

EmailKid

Not an expert in this, but it seems almost counterintuitive:

One charges, one pays off, showing ability and willingness to both use and pay.

Though I realize that bank may be thinking they don't want OP to spend more than limit, i.e. right hand giving credit while left hand hands out bonus, or not hand out the bonus since right hand prevents minimum spend to meet the criteria.

TTT103

Do not do it! I speak from experience, and have been banned for several years now from doing any business with Barclays. I was told that it was not a lifetime ban, but it’s been about four years now, and new applications are denied immediately without a credit pull.

I cycled my credit limit consistently due to significant business travel expenses. Never late, never paid a cent of interest, and no MS. All was fine for about a year, and then all accounts were closed. I appealed in many forms, but to no avail.

radonc1

It seems counterintuitive, but there are 2 heads to this beast.

There is the marketing head, which wants people to sign up for their card and uses incentives to get you in the proverbial door to apply for their credit card.

Then there are the credit analysts , who basically do nothing but determine whether the bank wants to even lend to you and will give you a credit line determined by bank policy. They really don't care whether the candidate makes it or not. The analyst gets graded on how well they pick the right risks and avoids the bad ones.

Anyone getting a CL of $700 on a business card just made it through the approval sieve, and that is easy to see because they only got a CL of $700, which is bupkis . If the OP thinks that was a mistake, then call the bank and ask to speak to a credit analyst and make the case for increasing the CL.

However, don't go and cycle the CL. I think, from prior DPs on the MSing sub forum, that Barclays does not play nicely and shuts down people who game the system, and routine CL cycling is definitely gaming the system.

EmailKid

Sounds kind of like what I posted, left hand, right hand

Of course you explained it very eloquently, and I posted like Jeopardy, in form of a question

Thanks for the DP

Hope they let you back in soon, and on the bright side, at least there is no hard pull with the rejection.

flyer4512

Barclay Wyndham gave my wife a $500 CL ( 800 plus FICO, zero debt, mid 6 income) and we cycled it to make the spend, charged $200 and paid it off 5 times. No issues

More recently they gave her $2500 on a Earner business..........90K bonus broken up into two $1k spends over 6 months so no reason to pay the balance early but we did pay the $95 AF the day we activated the card as it had already posted.

UA Fan

The impression I get from this is that you did it for quite a while. If one does it just for a few months to meet the spend requirement, is it a risk?