I trashed my credit when I was in grad school a few years ago - partly my fault, partly on account of co-signing for my father when I had no business co-signing and he had no business getting a loan. Since then, I've been trying to put my credit back together again, and have gotten my credit scores up into the mid-to-high 600s - lowest is 662, highest is 682, according to my bank. Unfortunately, I can't seem to buy a credit line increase on my Visa from B of A, which is my primary bank. Despite a $170k salary and a couple of years of consistent payments, they've kept my credit limit at $800 and just denied a request for a credit line increase. Is this normal? Am I getting screwed and should I move to another bank? Or is the credit market (or my credit) so bad right now that I'm going to have to wait another couple of years before getting a real credit card? I mainly use my debit card anyway (out of necessity, really), but it's ridiculous that I can't pay for a plane ticket on my credit card given my salary. Thanks!
Blame it on the current economic/credit/financial crisis. Banks no longer are willing to up credit limits even to people who have stellar credit histories. As a matter of fact they are slashing credit limits. They are anticipating the possibility of major defaults/rise in bankruptcies.
Is this your only card? Is it a secured card? What does the rest of your report look like--type of accounts, length of history, utilization?
I believe your score is high enough. I am saying that because mine is the same and I have received offers over this past year from cc companies. I do have my own business and maybe that helps.But it is weird how they decide how much to give you. I got 3 cards this year all business accounts CITI gave me 15K limit, Capitol One 1K and Advanta 3K. Do you get offers in the mail? If you do, see which ones are better and go for it.
I'm on ssd with a bk 7 and wama gave me a 1500 at 0.0%,juniper gave me a 600 at7.99 fixed and hsbc a rewards card only 500 cl.I guess it comes down to a coin flip in their office.
But--if this is a secured card, and the only credit card, that could account for it. That's why we need more information. It's hard to get a cc if you don't have a revolving history and a good ratio. If all of the other lines are installment loans, for example, it might not help to get a higher cc limit. Everyone's situation is different. When you've filed BK, they know you can't file again for some number of years.
I'm not sure what other information would help, without going into the gory details. No delinquencies of any kind in the last 12 months, but just one open credit card of $800 as I mentioned (not securitized), four card delinquencies in the past, a couple of public records from 2003/4. Anyway, my Equifax score is at 682, Experian is 673, Transunion 662. From what I could tell, the WhoPulledMyCredit excel chart is about 5 years out of date. Has this been kept current anywhere? Is this even worth looking into, or should I just suck it up, pay with my debit card for the foreseeable future, and hope that, when I want to buy a house in a couple of years, things have improved?
Chase??? They're doing the same thing - closing accounts/slashing limits. Two months ago they bought out Washington Mutual, and a lot of bad accounts. And with the economy as bad as it more and more folks will be defaulting/filing bankruptcies. So to avoid huge losses in the months to come they are playing it safe now by closing accounts and slashing limits.
Hmmm . . . hasn't happened to me (knock on wood). They're one of the strongest banks in the U.S. so I don't understand why they would.
Hasn't happened to me, either. But BoA is also one of the strongest banks in the US, and I hear they're doing it. I haven't had any changes in any of my BoA accounts yet.
