Should I Increase My Credit Card Limit?

Comments(6)

• 
  edmeyer21st February, 2005

  A higher line of credit will likely cause your credit scores to go down-- at least for a time. The credit scoring companies will assume you will max out your card and be a higher risk.
  
  Your policy of paying off your credit card debt every month is good. Since you can afford to pay it off you might think of writing checks or carrying a little more cash to cover expenses. This might eliminate the need to increase your credit card limit by a large amount.

• 
  edmeyer22nd February, 2005

  Nathan14,
  
  I am not joking. There are many sources on the internet that discuss new credit and attempts to get new credit. Every one of these that I have found indicates a negative effect on credit scores. My mortgage broker tells me the same thing. Going from a limit of $6.2K to $20K is a substantial leap of faith for Credit Reporting Agencies to swallow.
  
  Over time as the credit becomes more mature and if the average loan balance is small compared to available credit and payments are made on time, then credit scores will become more favorable.

• 
  joecrane23rd February, 2005

  Nathan,
  
  Those are interesting percentages. Where did you get those. I was wondering how the FICO was calculated.

• 
  joecrane23rd February, 2005

  Nathan,
  
  Those are interesting percentages. Where did you get those. I was wondering how the FICO was calculated.

• 
  j_owley27th February, 2005

  always increase & use

• 
  ysoft9th March, 2005

  So is it good to increase some credit limits as the balance/credit ratio will decrease? Or is it better to hold off any changes to credit limits. Is is bad to open some extra credit cards (with very little balance)? How about debit cards? Will they affect credit scores?
  
  I will need to get finances soon, so I would like to be able to increase credit scores (not decrease).
  
  Thanks!