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First off, Is it better to pay more points on a Lending Tree mortgage to lower the interest rate? Thanks in advance for any response. Another quick question... Nine months ago I got a CC with a 5k limit. Today was the first day I could ask for an increase. It was raised to $7700 and I was told I can ask for another one in 4 months..

I'm rebuilding my credit (score raised from 400's to 600's) and don't know much about line increases. Is a line increase at all good enough? If they were happy with me would they have given me 10k? Is this what a normal raise in limit is? I don't know if it in the lower or upper ranges of a normal line increase. Does it say anything about how they are viewing my credit usage?.

I've charged up and paid down the card three times or so, and for three months I made minimum payments. I plan to pay it down and then charge around 2-3k and pay that down and charge up again. I hear they like if you use the card and pay a bit of interest (I'm lucky in that it has a very low interest rate)...

asked Feb 28 at 11:20

Natalia
's gravatar image

Natalia
16


Of course! although you might wanna make sure and wait for another person to confirm my answer as I am not sure. Better yet, why don't you email the Lending Tree guys because they can answer your Lending Tree question better...

answered Feb 28 at 12:04

Asia
's gravatar image

Asia
1886

I'd rather not say :) I always keep it general on public boards. It's just a security/privacy issue...

answered Feb 28 at 12:37

Kaydence
's gravatar image

Kaydence
3257

I'd rather not answer the question about increases as I always keep it general on public boards..

You really can't be serious. Nobody knows who you are, so to say what bank you are asking about won't hurt you...

answered Feb 28 at 12:59

Izabella
's gravatar image

Izabella
2129

So why are you telling us this information??. Who would like to know about your increase if does not know what bank is it... what is the benefits for someone how read this post. think about..

You are very selfish!. Arent you?..

answered Feb 28 at 13:32

Abram's gravatar image

Abram
3428

And further, it is impossible to answer whether the increase given is normal or not, without knowing which bank we are talking about as they all have different policies...

answered Feb 28 at 14:49

Tyler's gravatar image

Tyler
4404

Gator, if we asked for your account number or address, then that is too much information. But many people here don't mind sharing banks or creditor because it helps us learn specific but not too specific information. i.e. From my experience, I haven't gotten a 2700 credit limit increase at once. A couple of days ago, I received a 1500 from < Normally, I would say the name, but for this thread I'd rather not for security purposes... j/k > without them pulling a hard inquiry. If I applied for more than that, they would have pulled a hard inquiry which I didn't want...

answered Feb 28 at 16:24

Declan's gravatar image

Declan
4376

No, if she told us which bank she uses, we might all just call the bank and say we're "Gatordeb", and ask that all creditlines be transfered to us...

answered Feb 28 at 16:42

Marcus's gravatar image

Marcus
1217

If you say you got an INCREASE in the limit...not saying what bank and what card is NOT worth our time reading it...SO DON'T POST IT!!!.

If you want to ask a general question about>"HOW DO YOU GET A CREDIT LIMIT INCREASE"...fine...

answered Feb 28 at 17:16

Josiah's gravatar image

Josiah
2348

Really if your that concerned with security and privacy you should really leave this forum, Cnet is for people who want to share information and need help..

If you really want to know call the credit card company and ask them if their credit line increase they gave you is sufficent given your situation..

Don't ask questions in an open forum if you aren't willing to contribute..

If it's a security or privacy issue I wouldn't even post here, those numbers to the right above your post is your IP Address and where your at......Scary isn't it!!.

So much for privacy and security!.

Tac..

answered Feb 28 at 17:42

Mallory
's gravatar image

Mallory
3319

One of the BEST ways to ask for a CREDIT LIMIT increase is to call and ask if they have any "PRE-APPROVED" limit increases on their computer screen...or if they can transfer you to somone who can answer that question..

"NO CREDIT REPORT OR FORGET IT".

To me a 7 point "HIT" is not usually worth it...unless the increase is >$10,000.

A POSSIBLE DENIAL IS DEFENETLY NOT WORTH A 7 POINT "HIT"..

answered Feb 28 at 18:42

Sage
's gravatar image

Sage
71

GatorDeb you say......might be a neighbor of mine..

She has probably heard horror stories such as "peeling back a URL." (chuckle)..

answered Feb 28 at 19:16

Brianna
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Brianna
495

Actually folks, I'm guessing Gatordeb might be one of those internet users who were very apprehensive about using the internet in the first place. With stories about hacking, stolen identity on the internet... just makes it scarier. I guess she just doesn't know what information is too information on the internet. Maybe if she read this board a little more, she'd see that saying what bank you're with doesn't leave you open to getting your identity stolen.

GatorDeb, as long as you don't give away your full name, address, phone number, and most of all... social security number, you're fine...

answered Feb 28 at 19:27

Desiree
's gravatar image

Desiree
3915

Well, if you want stories about stolen identies I can give you mine, since someone did start using my social security number to get at least three cards. I had all three taken care of..

I ended up getting my answer - there's no set rule and it varies by bank. I can live with that. Thank you...

answered Feb 28 at 20:52

Cadence
's gravatar image

Cadence
4774

Exactly.. no set rule.. that's why it was important to know which bank. By having this info, people would be able to tell you their experiences with the bank.. and an internet nickname plus the name of a bank is not enough information for identity theft. But to each their own...perhaps internet forums aren't for you...

answered Feb 28 at 20:57

Norah
's gravatar image

Norah
4907

What the heck..

It is a Bank of America Platinum. I started with 5k and did some balance transfers and some purchases. I used up the line then paid it off, used it up paid it off, etc. Out of 8 months, I made minimum payments for around 3 of those (and the other months I made payments of 700, 1000, 300, etc)..

I was told I can ask for another line increase in 4 months. It was raised to 7700 after four minutes on hold on the phone..

So does that mean that Bank of America has trust in me? Would someone with a better history have gotten it raised to 10k, or is what I got the norm? Should I be glad of getting an increase period?.

I now have 3k charged on it and will play it off by August. That means I'll have a $0 balance when I apply for the second line increase. I'm paying off the rest of the debt I have by Feb 2004, which was 24k when I started and it's now 12k, so I don't want to incur any more debt until then. It's actually kind of scary knowing I can get myself $7700 in debt at the drop of a hat, that's why I doubt I'll ever use the line without a good promotion (let's say a 6 month no interest convenience check - I would buy a cheap car with that, for instance, because 7k is something I can pay off in 6 months if I don't buy -anything- else (no DVDs, CDs, clothes, etc))..

From now until August, in order to show some usage, I'll charge all my DVD purchases (around $500 for the 4 months), gas ($240/4 months), insurance ($400/4 months), etc. Those are things that are already in my budget so I'll be charging and paying off monthly..

I just have this feeling that they'll see me paying it off and not charging-and-not-paying-that-same-cycle purchases and will deny me a second line increase. What I want is a 10k line by September and a 25k line somewhere down the line..

Why do I even want a limit that I'll probably never use? When you are 24k in debt and all creditors close your cards and your FICO is in the 400's and you have no job, you remember the feeling. That's why I just want the available credit just to look at it. I love to look at the flyers each week - digital cameras, plasma TVs, laptops, PDAs. There is a $800 PDA that I want and I know I can go and get it right this instant, but that's not my goal. My goal is $0 debt by February 2004. I can look at the line and not use it, which has to be my greatest achievement..

One thing I want the line for is in case I lose my job. I was laid of from my first ever job and was extremely fortunate to find my current job, but once you get laid off once there's always that fear in the back of your mind that it can happen again, especially since at my first job I was part of a 6-person team for a multi-billion company that provided Spanish service to cardholders. We thought we wouldn't be let go because we were the only ones that provided the service. The company discontinued the Spanish service..

So I take comfort that right now, I could live off the CC for 6 months. I would have a temp job within two weeks doing anything and hopefully a job also, but I feel more secure knowing I can be off of work for 6 months and live off the cash advances. If that ever were to happen, I would of course pay off the CC as soon as I started the new job and that would be priority number one..

So what do you think?..

answered Feb 28 at 21:10

Kaydence
's gravatar image

Kaydence
599

I don't know what your reports look like now but you mention some cards being closed by credit grantor. It sounds like your increase was pretty reasonable anyway. Some cards only increase a little at a time but DO increase your limits over time. Sounds like this is what B of A is doing with you. Others may have more to say on this subject...

answered Feb 28 at 21:36

Ellie
's gravatar image

Ellie
434

GatorDeb | 38 posts since Jul 2002 68.96.224.14 | 04.17.2003 @ 15:57.

What the heck..

It is a Bank of America Platinum. I started with 5k and did some balance transfers and some purchases. I used up the line then paid it off, used it up paid it off, etc. Out of 8 months, I made minimum payments for around 3 of those (and the other months I made payments of 700, 1000, 300, etc)..

I was told I can ask for another line increase in 4 months. It was raised to 7700 after four minutes on hold on the phone..

So does that mean that Bank of America has trust in me? Would someone with a better history have gotten it raised to 10k, or is what I got the norm? Should I be glad of getting an increase period?.

I had a Bank Transfer of 5,500 with BofA, paid it off in several months. Didn't use it for several years, and asked for an increas. Was raised to 8,000..

I didn't use it after the BT...

answered Feb 28 at 21:59

Jeremiah's gravatar image

Jeremiah
1456

Gator deb my nine months is up in may I will let you know original limit was 7500 ...

answered Feb 28 at 22:29

Brenna
's gravatar image

Brenna
1504

MandyB try ALL credit cards closed by credit grantor. I had CitiBank ($5000), MBNA ($2500), Discover ($1000), a Credit Union CC ($500), CompUSA ($700), and OfficeMax ($1500)..

July 2001 is when I turned it all around. I'm an A+ customer now :).

I now have Bank of America Platinum ($7700), Bank of America Secured Gold ($250, comes up for review on August, perfect history so far - I use and pay off around 5-6 times a month), Dillards ($1000), and Mobil ($250). The Dillards is a sock drawer card - it was opened in 1999 so I wanted to keep it open. The Mobil is a gas card/pay off monthly card. The Secured Gold is my "debit" card - I use it for daily purchases. My Platinum was my Balance Transfer card and big, planned out purchases card :).

I sent the PlanetFeedback to CitiBank last week. Here's hoping. That's my oldest card and would greatly boost up my rating..

My balances are:.

Bank of America - $3200.

School Loan - $5100.

MBNA - $1500.

Medical Bill (&#^@& student insurance) - $2000.

$11,800..

When I started I was around:.

CitiBank - $6700.

Discover - $1600.

MBNA - $2200.

CompUSA - $750.

OfficeMax - $1400.

Medical Collection - $1800.

Medical Bill (same one as of now) - $2500.

School Loan - $5500.

Allergy (#&$*# student Insurance) - $600.

Credit Union - $500.

Those were my STARTING balances on July 2001 - $23,550. Add to that interest paid, and you get over $24k...

answered Feb 28 at 23:54

Mateo's gravatar image

Mateo
3464

Good for you! Congrats on turning it all around so quickly. You must be very proud of yourself and righfully so. Your CL increases will come...

answered Mar 01 at 00:10

Brennan's gravatar image

Brennan
1652

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