EDIT: if you would like to ASK QUESTIONS or TALK STRATEGY about making smaller lines larger, please do so here

There are considerable advantages to having a very high limit on one's credit cards or lines of credit. They include:

A. more buying or balance transfer power

B. credit scores will be higher because % utilization of existing limits will be lower

C. other higher limits and line increases will generally be more readily approved, given that your report shows others have trusted you with higher lines. Institutions that normally require income documentation have been known to forgo requiring it when the applicant's (penfed.org, for example) forgo this entirely once they pulled our credit and saw the presence of several high-limit lines on it.)

Many credit card/LOC issuers will not extend credit lines above $25-30,000 under typical circumstances. They might not issue such lines at all, or require proof of very high income or assets (via tax returns, financial statements, etc.) in order to exceed that level. For example, AMEX, Citibank, Discover, and Farm Bureau Bank have all cited the $25K figure at one time or another, with Chase more recently citing $30K.

The purpose of this thread is to discuss where and how we have obtained or can obtain large UNSECURED credit lines like these. If you or those who finances you are privy to have such lines, please list your >$25,000 limits from highest to lowest, including issuer, limit, and any info you might have concerning how the limit was obtained.

If you are a bank or cc employee, or otherwise have INFORMED knowledge of how folks are being granted large lines, please include those also. Brief observations about policies of credit issuers are welcome here, but please keep discussion of those issuers in seperate threads.

Please keep discussion on topic. This thread is designed for reporting our experiences, in as much detail as possible. Please post questions, theories, etc. that are not directly responsive to the posts here in other threads.

In general, our own largest lines were all obtained in one of three ways: (1) providing financial statements, (2) line consolidation, or (3) large BT requests upon opening the card. While #1 is of course dependent on income (unless one lies, something I don't recommend), 2 and 3 are available to just about anyone who plans out a strategy over a longer period (I'd say a year or greater.) Going forward into evolving "credit crunch" environment that began unfolding in late 2007, it's not clear how well these tactics will fare, especially line consolidation. Data points members can add about such info would likely be especially helpful to readers.

Edit updated 3/31/04 for AMEX Costco Business Captial line increase.

Edit updated 7/12/04 for Wells Fargo card, US Bank line, and Chase line increase. Added request to keep posts restricted to experiences and questions directly responsive to same.

Edit updated 5/1/05 for miscellaneous increases.

Edit updated 7/3/05 for the bump on Chase and other changes.

Edit updated 12/17/05 for AMEX consolidation, Penfed cards, Principal bank card, CapOne auto increase, and other changes.

Edit updated 07/16/06 for AMEX cards and consolidation, BofA Power Rewards, CitiBusiness PremierPass Card, other updates, and a request for input from bankers and other professionals.

Edit updated 07/23/06 to link to the "So you want higher credit limits?" thread into the OP.

Edit updated 02/19/08 with new links and other misc changes.

Good idea for a thread, Dave.

I've only got one open unsecured line greater than $25,000. It's a First USA Visa that was opened originally in July 1997 with a $22,500 line. I did a low-rate balance transfer for the full amount almost immediately. They raised my limit by $5k the first statement and have been raising it pretty regularly on an ongoing basis. It now stands at $36,300.

[edit: added dates]

If you want a high credit card limit, I recommend opening a credit card account with MBNA. I opened my first account with them when I was in college (1991), and they just kept automatically raising the limit to the ridiculous level my card is now at ($42k).

Until very recently, my MBNA card has been a secondary card that I've used sparingly, so it wasn't raised due to heavy purchase activity...

FWIW, the limit was $5k in 1993, $15k in 1994, $20k in 1996, $30k in 1998, and $40k sometime in 1999-2000. I never asked for a boost in my credit limit once and some of the largest increses occurred when I hadn't used this particular card for months at a time.

Thanks zender, LIR, and polaris.

Very interesting that MBNA has given 2 of you such mammoth lines just though your having your account open with them for a long time. I wish I hadn't closed my original line with them years ago.


DWJoe, I'm 100% certain that this helps with SEVERAL CC issuers--a few have even told me this.

Example: My wife, with a very similar credit profile to mine, applied for a Cap1 in early 2002 without a BT. She got a $7K line. Two months later, I applied for two Cap1 offers, doing $19,500 BTs each time. BOTH were approved, at $20K each.

This makes sense when one considers that they're hoping you'll keep paying interest to them on the BT, which is nice income stream for them.

MBNA (joint)- $51,000 from 3 account consolidations (not currently used), unfortunately a joint account with spouse so double the FICO beating if utilizing all for a BT. Used it before for a good >1 yr free 0% BT offer. Now infrequent 0% BT offers are shorter term and have max fees of approx $250.

AMEX Blue Cash (spouse's)- $31,500... opened last month with initial CL of $15K, tried to move $24K CL from Delta AMEX which should have given me $39K on AMEX Blue but they haven't quite gotten it right yet, though they removed that much from the Delta card. Apparently AMEX can't reallocate lines quite as easily when they exceed $30K I was told. AMEX CS has been a bit of a PITA on both this and now trying to just cancel the Delta AMEX.

AMEX Starwood (mine)- $29,600, from CL increases only I believe. Had about $35K CL , but moved some out to Delta and Hilton. Going to try to cancel this Delta card and reallocate back to Starwood.

Found Citi to not be as generous with CLs. But for whatever reason they seem to be somewhat more generous with their Universal cards.

Another MBNA. I got a University card through them in 1993. They kept raising the LOC to 37,100.

Just recently called AMEX Optima to inquire about getting a CL Increase. Back in 97, My initial CL was 4K-5K. Last year through balance xfers, I got it to 10,800. AMEX Optima asked for my household income including rental Income ( this helped ! ). CL now $25,000. I did not need to provide any Income Documentation..


Question ?

What other forms of Income Documentation will credit card companies take ( If not available at the time of applying )other than W-2's, Tax Returns, Rental Agreements ?

Has any provided and/or successfully provided copies of cashed checks, front and back, to document for Rental Income ? Would this be considered a valid way to provide Inc Doc ?
Many banks and credit unions let you view copies of cashed checks online. In this case, cashed checks to the various Lenders. I am just thinking of a quick way to get this info over to the credit card companies. You can either Scan the Copies, FAX, or mail the info immediately from your desktop. ! This can be done when on the phone with a CSR.

DaveHanson said:

<< ...interesting that MBNA has given 2 of you such mammoth lines just though your having your account open with them for a long time. I wish I hadn't closed my original line with them... >>

I second that sentiment Dave. I also closed not one, but two lines with MBNA over the last several years. One with a $25 CL and the other was I believe at $15k. I opened a new line early this year and it's been recently increased to $24,500 from a starting point of $20k. That large opening CL resulted from an immediate BT.

Also, in my experience, AMEX will sends the BT checks "with the opportunity to increase your credit line dollar for dollar up to $10k" on credit lines that are UNDER $10k. When my Hilton Hhonors AMEX card was $16000, I didnt received the CL increase BT offers, but when I moved about half the credit line to my Cash Rebate card, then I got the offer on the Hilton card to bring itup to about $18k...


Has AMEX offered the BT checks which would increase a credit line ABOVE $20k?

I'd like to be able to consolidate all the new CLs onto an older card, thus keeping the long average account age and a high CL being reported, but the only problem is that the older cards werent rewards cards, whereas the newly opened ones are the better cards....


It sounds like theres a definite advantage to consolidating AMEX CLs, since when one line gets low, they seem to quickly offer to increase it with a BT! Given recent AMEX threads and the requests for docs, though, Im hesitant to combine my AMEX limits since all are now near $20k.