Increasing credit limit on Amex Blue

[max105]

I'm 22 yrs old, 1 year of good credit, and just started working as a full-time programmer.

My current credit limit on AMEX Blue student card is $1000. I upgraded it to a BlueCash card but that won't take effect until March. Unfortunately, that didn't increase my credit limit so I have to make a separate request for that. I called AMEX customer service and they said it would take 7-10 days to be approved (if it is approved).

Question 1: Does it really take that long to get approved? I thought it usually takes hours to get approved.

Question 2: What are my odds of increasing my credit line from $1000 to $3000?

 

[crt1530]

1. Not usually.
2. Depends on your stated income, credit score, and spending habits on your AmEx card.

 

[RagingBITCH]

200% jump? Doubtful...especially for 1 year of good credit. Maybe $500, $1000 is a stretch, but not $3k.

 

[Ketteringo]

All you have to do is sign into your online account, and there is a button under account summary to increase credit limit. Click on it and it with either say you are pre approved for $x,xxx increase, click here to accept (this is good), or it will ask you for personal information (income, time at job, etc. etc., this is bad, dont do it as it may result in a hit on your credit score). Just do that every 3 months or so and you can get your limit up pretty high

 

[max105]

I just checked my online account...didn't get the pre-approved credit increase. I also remembered that I haven't updated my profile to show my current employment status so that might dampen my chances of getting a credit increase.

If I make a credit limit increase and get denied...does that mean I have to wait another 6 months to make a credit limit increase? Does it also hurt my credit rating?

 

[NutBucket]

Just call them and ask the nice person you will speak to. I love dealing with AMEX. I've never come across a rude CSR yet!

 

[CrazyDe1]

hahahahah...good luck. I've been trying to get credit limit increases since I got the card when I was 19. Each time they'd only give me 500 dollar increases and it's now at 3200. This is preapproved...I could have waited longer but I think they do a hard inquiry. This is despite the fact that I have a 752 credit score. Keep in mind that I max it out and pay it off 3 or 4 times a month. I think my last statement the total balance was like 9000 with 8000 in payments and they still wont' raise my limit. I think it's 1 increase every 6 monthes. Your best bet is to call them up and request a certain amount...like 5k and see what they tell you...chances are they'll give you 3.2k. If you do the automatic online increases you're only gonna get 500 at a time.

 

[max105]

If I give them a credit limit figure that's too high for their comfort...will they simply reject it or will they offer me a lower increase? If they'll offer me a small increase, I don't mind. I'm trying to make a laptop purchase which I'm predicting will be in the $1500-$1700 range. I usually charge about $400 on my credit card each month. So I'd like to have a minimum of $2100-2200 credit limit to be safe.

 

[Ameesh]

i called and told them i would cancel the card if they didnt extend me more credit, they put me on hold and said they could raise it to 15K, i said that enough for right now.

 

[max105]

Who did you talk to? Did you just talk to a regular CSR or did you talk to one of their financial decision guys?

 

[CrazyDe1]

Originally posted by: max105
If I give them a credit limit figure that's too high for their comfort...will they simply reject it or will they offer me a lower increase? If they'll offer me a small increase, I don't mind. I'm trying to make a laptop purchase which I'm predicting will be in the $1500-$1700 range. I usually charge about $400 on my credit card each month. So I'd like to have a minimum of $2100-2200 credit limit to be safe.

They'll offer you as much as they can based on a computer program assessing your risk and your credit score. They'll give you the max of what you could have gotten. Let's say you could have gotten 4k but you asked for 2k, you'll get 2k. Let's say you just ask for an increase they'll give you 500. Let's say you ask for 10k but they can only approve 4k...they'd give you 4k. Now, if you asked for 4k they'd give you 4k as well but you don't really know what their high # is so it's better to just tell them you want something really high. Let me tell you, it's a pain in the ass waiting for preauths to bet taken off and have 2k of dead credit on a 3.2k card when you need to make 3k of purchases. The more the merrier You can never have too much credit.

The funny thing is they just gave me an unlimited credit gold card but has to be paid off at the end of every month. That's what I needed anyways.

 

[skim milk]

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1
hahahahah...good luck. I've been trying to get credit limit increases since I got the card when I was 19. Each time they'd only give me 500 dollar increases and it's now at 3200. This is preapproved...I could have waited longer but I think they do a hard inquiry. This is despite the fact that I have a 752 credit score. Keep in mind that I max it out and pay it off 3 or 4 times a month. I think my last statement the total balance was like 9000 with 8000 in payments and they still wont' raise my limit. I think it's 1 increase every 6 monthes. Your best bet is to call them up and request a certain amount...like 5k and see what they tell you...chances are they'll give you 3.2k. If you do the automatic online increases you're only gonna get 500 at a time.

what do you mean by paying it off 3 or 4 times a month?

i thought you can only pay your bill once a month? every statement period

please let me know otherwise

 

[max105]

When I signed up for the credit card, I used my parent's address as my contact info. I plan to change my contact info to my apartment address but I'm probably gonna move to another apartment in a month or so. I don't want to change my address yet since I want to avoid mailing address conflicts. So if I kept my parents address and updated the household annual salary...could I just add my personal salary to what my parents earn? E.g, if my parents make 50k and I make 50k...then would they accept the "household income" as 100k or would they only be concerned with what I earned? I'm just trying to figure out how to maximize my chances of increasing my credit line.

 

[CrazyDe1]

Originally posted by: fritolays

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1
hahahahah...good luck. I've been trying to get credit limit increases since I got the card when I was 19. Each time they'd only give me 500 dollar increases and it's now at 3200. This is preapproved...I could have waited longer but I think they do a hard inquiry. This is despite the fact that I have a 752 credit score. Keep in mind that I max it out and pay it off 3 or 4 times a month. I think my last statement the total balance was like 9000 with 8000 in payments and they still wont' raise my limit. I think it's 1 increase every 6 monthes. Your best bet is to call them up and request a certain amount...like 5k and see what they tell you...chances are they'll give you 3.2k. If you do the automatic online increases you're only gonna get 500 at a time.

what do you mean by paying it off 3 or 4 times a month?

i thought you can only pay your bill once a month? every statement period

please let me know otherwise

I pay it online all the time. I'll basically max it out, pay it off again, max it out, pay it off again. I do this on 3 of my cards a few times a month. The problem is they don't let you make payments above your balance so you have to wait until charges post. This creates problems because I then have 3 or 4 days of time where it says pending charges 2.5k, available credit, 200.00, but I can't make a payment because tehy have posted yet. Usually I go with my debit card or my parent's discover cashback so at least someone benefits from all the money I'm charging.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: fritolays

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1
hahahahah...good luck. I've been trying to get credit limit increases since I got the card when I was 19. Each time they'd only give me 500 dollar increases and it's now at 3200. This is preapproved...I could have waited longer but I think they do a hard inquiry. This is despite the fact that I have a 752 credit score. Keep in mind that I max it out and pay it off 3 or 4 times a month. I think my last statement the total balance was like 9000 with 8000 in payments and they still wont' raise my limit. I think it's 1 increase every 6 monthes. Your best bet is to call them up and request a certain amount...like 5k and see what they tell you...chances are they'll give you 3.2k. If you do the automatic online increases you're only gonna get 500 at a time.

what do you mean by paying it off 3 or 4 times a month?

i thought you can only pay your bill once a month? every statement period

please let me know otherwise

You can give them money anytime you want. It can be multiple times during a billing cycle.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: fritolays

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1
hahahahah...good luck. I've been trying to get credit limit increases since I got the card when I was 19. Each time they'd only give me 500 dollar increases and it's now at 3200. This is preapproved...I could have waited longer but I think they do a hard inquiry. This is despite the fact that I have a 752 credit score. Keep in mind that I max it out and pay it off 3 or 4 times a month. I think my last statement the total balance was like 9000 with 8000 in payments and they still wont' raise my limit. I think it's 1 increase every 6 monthes. Your best bet is to call them up and request a certain amount...like 5k and see what they tell you...chances are they'll give you 3.2k. If you do the automatic online increases you're only gonna get 500 at a time.

what do you mean by paying it off 3 or 4 times a month?

i thought you can only pay your bill once a month? every statement period

please let me know otherwise

You can give them money anytime you want. It can be multiple times during a billing cycle.

 

[max105]

If you don't mind me asking...what do you spend all that money on? Do you use it for all your daily normal stuff like grocery and meals?

 

[CrazyDe1]

Originally posted by: max105
When I signed up for the credit card, I used my parent's address as my contact info. I plan to change my contact info to my apartment address but I'm probably gonna move to another apartment in a month or so. I don't want to change my address yet since I don't want to avoid address conflicts. So if I kept my parents address and updated the household annual salary...could I just add my personal salary to what my parents earn? E.g, if my parents make 50k and I make 50k...then would they accept the "household income" as 100k or would they only be concerned with what I earned? I'm just trying to figure out how to maximize my chances of increasing my credit line.

Yes. I've recently learned this trick. Everyone in the household's income counts. Add it to your parent's. Usually amex won't verify financials. My other bank has me fax in income statements though. The household income can be interpreted very liberally.

By the way, don't worry about changing addresses. I change the address on my amex 5 or 6 times a month because I dropship items. For example, I'll change the address, get a private payments # then send something to someone so I don't have the hassle of it getting declined because I'm shipping to a different address than the billing address. Then for my next shipment I'll change it to the next address. I haven't had a problem with it in about 5 monthes of doing it.

THe only problem arises from the fact that if you change addresses it's harder to verify your credit report.

 

[CrazyDe1]

Originally posted by: max105
If you don't mind me asking...what do you spend all that money on? Do you use it for all your daily normal stuff like grocery and meals?

I buy things to sell on ebay but instead of setting up credit terms with people I just pay for it all up front on a credit card so I get rewards. I also charge normal stuff like groceries and gas and just about anything I buy.

 

[max105]

Just curious...does it matter if MY address doesn't match my credit card's address (my parent's address) on my credit report? I just want to make sure that I'm actually building credit and not being seen as relying on my parents.

 

[CrazyDe1]

Originally posted by: max105
Just curious...does it matter if MY address doesn't match my credit card's address on my credit report? I just want to make sure that I'm actually building credit and not being seen as relying on my parents.

Yeah I think it does. I had a college address for awhile that most of my cards were going to and when I typed in my PO box only the card that went to my PO box would pull up. Now that all cards bill to my PO box they all show up on my credit report.

 

[skim milk]

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1

Originally posted by: fritolays

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1
hahahahah...good luck. I've been trying to get credit limit increases since I got the card when I was 19. Each time they'd only give me 500 dollar increases and it's now at 3200. This is preapproved...I could have waited longer but I think they do a hard inquiry. This is despite the fact that I have a 752 credit score. Keep in mind that I max it out and pay it off 3 or 4 times a month. I think my last statement the total balance was like 9000 with 8000 in payments and they still wont' raise my limit. I think it's 1 increase every 6 monthes. Your best bet is to call them up and request a certain amount...like 5k and see what they tell you...chances are they'll give you 3.2k. If you do the automatic online increases you're only gonna get 500 at a time.

what do you mean by paying it off 3 or 4 times a month?

i thought you can only pay your bill once a month? every statement period

please let me know otherwise

I pay it online all the time. I'll basically max it out, pay it off again, max it out, pay it off again. I do this on 3 of my cards a few times a month. The problem is they don't let you make payments above your balance so you have to wait until charges post. This creates problems because I then have 3 or 4 days of time where it says pending charges 2.5k, available credit, 200.00, but I can't make a payment because tehy have posted yet. Usually I go with my debit card or my parent's discover cashback so at least someone benefits from all the money I'm charging.

yea, that sounds kind of confusing especially with three cards. I like to keep things very simple

I pay my bill online too..... let's say i have a $200 charge for the month combined... i just wait until the statement closes and then pay off the bill in full. And repeat. I usually don't go over my limit so I guess I don't have to worry about paying it off multiple times per billing period.

 

[darkshadow1]

watch out for a balance transfer offer from them...last time they offered one they also offered to increase my limit $1 for every $1 balance transfered...pretty useful.

 

[angrymaxx]

I've had my Blue (non student) for 3 years (for all those BVG deals from back in the day) and my limit was always $2k until this last month when they raised it to $7k for no reason. The return guarantees and extended warranties and free rewards program are great. I've noticed when it comes to getting credit increases, AMEX isnt as generous as other CC companies.

 

[LS20]

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1
I pay it online all the time. I'll basically max it out, pay it off again, max it out, pay it off again.

i used to try to do this. and, in actually, its not recommended. when i did my credit score check, one of the Pluses were for me always carrying a 'high balance' on my account... i never carried a high balance over a multiple billing cycles... i just max and pay.

i stopped wasting time on trying to maximize my credit history.... looking for the best strategies... jumping through hoops. i have 2 cards i just stick to and use when i need. i figure as long as i never miss a payment, not being able to pay, etc... my credit will be good. i mean, how can it not