Easy credit wins: Asking for credit limit increases for existing credit cards without hard inquiries Upgraded to Economy, July 7, 2023July 9, 2023 The fastest way to get more credit is to apply for an entirely new credit card. You’ll be a lot more likely to receive a larger chunk of credit this way, especially if you have a stellar payment history and a high income. But I wouldn’t call this the easiest way. Applying for a new line of credit means a hard inquiry on your account. For some people, this is infeasible, as maybe they have applied for too many lines of credit recently and don’t need further dings on their credit report. At the same time, if their total credit limit is low, then spending a few thousand dollars can immediately add up enough to cause their total credit utilization to exceed 10% or 30%. Those are thresholds that are important to the credit reporting agencies. Ideally, credit utilization should remain below 10% across all of one’s accounts, as well as on each account. If 10% isn’t possible, keeping it below at least 30% is considered good but not great. Unfortunately, credit utilization above 30% can have a significant negative impact on one’s credit score. In these cases, it’s very helpful to look at your existing lines of credit and see if you can extend them a bit further. Some card issuers, but not all, allow you to request credit limit increases without needing a hard inquiry. These are great because you can increase your total line of credit without having to lower your credit score any further. These are the focus of this article and what we’ll be talking about for the rest of this post. (For the purposes of this article, banks and card issuers refer to the same thing: the bank that issues your credit card.) While there are no concrete parameters that guarantee whether any card issuer will approve your request for a credit limit increase, here are some general things to look out for: Your balance should be paid down as much as possible when you apply. In the eyes of the bank, if you still have a balance on your card, what’s stopping you from simply carrying it further? Pay it off before you ask so you can make a stronger case for why they should increase your credit limit. (And if you are carrying a balance, don’t even think about getting a credit limit increase.) You haven’t recently requested a credit limit increase. Asking for an increase within a few months of receiving one is almost certain to result in a denial. You should have consistent history of use of this card. If you have previously requested a credit limit increase, you should have had more spending on your card since then. When you apply for the credit limit increase, banks will ask for your current income and sometimes your monthly rent payments. They use this information to determine how much they can extend your credit limit by. The higher the better. Answer honestly, but do recognize that if your income has increased versus stayed the same, this could affect your odds of getting a credit limit increase and/or the magnitude of increase you’ll be getting. The most important thing to stress: not all banks/card issuers will be willing to consider a credit limit increase without doing a hard inquiry on your credit report. You should avoid those unless you for some reason absolutely need to increase your credit limit without applying for a new card. (But at that point, if you are getting a hard inquiry on your report, why not just apply for a new card anyway? Might as well.) If you have the following cards, you can ask for a credit limit increase without a hard inquiry: Apple Card: Text the Apple Card support and ask “can I get a credit limit increase?”. The chatbot will reply to you with a link to fill out a form to request increasing your credit limit. Most decisions are made instantly but Goldman Sachs might need more time to make a decision. Bilt: Call Wells Fargo to request a credit limit increase. They will let you know if they need to make a hard inquiry in order to process your increase. Online reports suggest a hard inquiry is seldom, if ever, required for consideration. Discover: They make it easy for you to request a credit limit increase. Log in to your Discover account and look for “Card Services” -> “Credit Line Increase”. If approved, they will offer you an increase amount, and they will let you choose how much of that to accept. You should take all of what they offer you. (I’m not even sure why they let you choose—there’s not really a reason to not accept more to your credit limit.) Most decisions are made instantly but some could take longer for manual review. Don’t fret if that happens—you can still be approved. If you are denied an increase, Discover will send you snail mail in two weeks explaining why your request was denied. I have requested credit limit increases many times in the past from card issuers who don’t ask for hard inquiries. Sometimes, I am approved for an increase, and other times I have been denied. Because there’s no harm to my credit score, there’s no harm in me asking for an increase when I deem there’s a chance I could be approved for one. I understand getting a constant stream of rejections can get pretty annoying, but because card issuers are obligated to tell you why your request was denied, you can use that information to work on building a stronger case next time. For instance, if the reason it was denied is because it hasn’t been very long since you asked for one recently, wait longer. If it’s because you haven’t used your card enough, spend more and pay it all down before asking again. One issuer I typically shy away from requesting a credit limit increase on is Chase. They will do a hard inquiry if I request consideration for a credit limit increase. I have only asked for it once in the past and I would highly recommend avoiding doing this if at all possible, as it’s much more worth it to simply apply for a new card from them. In the future, I will be applying for more lines of credit with Chase while also redistributing my credit line from one Chase card to another, which is a great way for me to add more credit to my frequently used cards from credit limits of my less frequently used cards. Best of luck! I hope this helps with improving your credit score, even if you can’t afford another hard inquiry on your account. 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