Situation and Questions Iapplied for and received a BofA card back in February w/a CL of $6800 for a Balance Transfer rate of 8.9% for life. The balance is now down to about $5220. This means my amount owed to CL is about 76%. We owe a total of about 19K, but this is my highest in use card and I want to be *attractive* to get other BT offers. Does BofA do automatic reviews and credit line increases? Can I expect to get any further offers from BofA ? Should I simply pay the minimum due to the BofA and pay more to my 9.9% cards. Cherie
Call and ask if they have any "PRE-APPROVED" (no credit report) credit limit increases available for you. I have PRIME till paid BT...(DON'T KNOW ABOUT AVAILABILITY)...NEW PRODUCT...
Advertised as 6.50%, but PRIME is now 5.00%, so I will see when I get a bill. There is usually a "LAG" time with rates. Says rate was correct as of some date... Just ask for PRIME...you have nothing to lose... You may have to PAY IN FULL, because "OLD" BT balance would stay at 8.90%.
You can now pay off other credit cards at a low variable rate of only 6.5% until those balances are paid in full. This rate is variable and is equal to the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate. (See terms for details)
Cherie, BofA told me that they don't do CL increases until 9 months after the account is opened. Another person on this board posted the same information as well. If you opened your account in February, barring any account snafu's (overlimit/late), you should already or nearly qualify for a credit line increase with regular customer service. If that doesn't work, then send a nice letter to BofA via PlanetFeedback. They will get the letter and respond personally - probably via e-mail. I'd be polite and professional in my letter and tell them" how much I appreciate and want to continue my business with them, but that I need a credit line increase to keep my account in good standing, and to lower the utilization issues". Be honest with them and talk about the credit score/utilization issues you've raised in this thread (not the "I want better offers from other places" part, though). Account managers always like customers who are financially informed, especially about credit - and in my experience - they sometimes ask the customer questions. It's a good way to create a friendly bond with the manager and put them in a helpful mood. As far as better balance transfer offers, you need to wait until your current offer expires. You may have more negotiating power if you move your entire balance to another card and ask for a better offer from BofA (with their balance at zero) to entice you to bring the balance back to them. They can give you "prime" (plus nothing else) for the life of the transfer. I'm paying off my account this week, will wait for my current offer to expire, and then hit hard for a prime BT offer for the life of the transfer. I'll let you know if it works. Hope this helps,
Marci.. Thanks for responding yesterday. I was kind of hoping that I would get an automatic credit line increase with BofA after a certain length of time, but you are not suggesting that is the case. I really don't want to ask for anymore credit right now.. expecially at the risk of an inquiy. Hubby and I are considering doing a home refinace on our exsisting loan balance.. and don't want to pull that FICO down any at all. The last check recently was somewhere around 732. down from a previous level of 744. That was using eloan.com. Tomorrow I am going back to helping someone with their house cleaning business..yuck-yuck.. BUT I am going to pick a card.. and make it my "cause". I hear some are getting good deals w/ citi-bank. Maybe I will ry to knock them off .. then see what else I can get. Let me know
No, I didn't suggest that you couldn't get an automatic increase. I wrote that if your account was opened in February, your account should *already* qualify for an automatic increase (if you call and ask them) - since the account is 9 months old. BofA doesn't give a first CL increase until 9 months into account history. Therefore, you qualify. But you do need to tell them (regular customer service) you want it. The computer will automatically give it to you. But, if for some reason you don't get it via the computer, then you can ask to be transferred to the "credit department", and ask for them to grant you an increase without pulling a hard inquiry. They may say that they need to pull a hard one, but they can do this without it. I know, because I requested a limit increase this morning from the credit dept, and the rep said he got around the "hard inquiry" issue. He still denied me b/c my account was only 5 months old and my TU score of 697 wasn't high enough. But he got the report through a soft "account review" inquiry.
Marci.. thanks.. just got in the house today and called BofA... oops.. this account is only in hubby's name.. now how did I do that since I was the one that applied for it orginally via the internet!?... soanyways the rep says hubby needs to call in and make the request.. and if he also wanted to make me a co-appliacant... rather that just an authorized user... but I didn't let the customer service rep hang up until I snuck in this question.. " before I call hubby at work can you tell me if the account credit limit is eligible at this time for an increase?"... ... YEP.. he says.. Thanks Marci. .. made the call to hubby.. got the answering service.. will let you know what the amount of that increase will be... unless you already know..
That sounds great, Cherie! They will ask your husband for the line of credit he wants. I think a $2K to $4K increase request is reasonable for BofA. I hope you guys get the increase and BT offer you're looking for.
Marci.... ta da.. from 6800 to 9300.. decreasing debt to credit limit from approximatly 76% to about 56%.. A blessing for today.. Now come on great new BT offers come to mamma!! lol Thanks for your input. Cherie
