I am a relatively high earning young career professional. I have a doctorate with about $300k in student loans unfortunately, but a clear plan to pay them off in the coming years as I am expecting a large income increase in the next few years. My gross income is currently about $98K and will hopefully double in about a year if not go to a higher amount than that. I have had a discover it card for about 9 years now and have had a credit limit around only $5k for at least 3 years now. I have applied for a credit line increase about every year with them and have been denied each time. This has been somewhat of an issue because my credit utilization is around 80-90% most months. It seems like this is to the point where that is brining down my credit score because my utilization percent is high. I pay my total balance each month, have never payed a cent of credit card interest or missed a payment. The only other additional account I have open on my credit report is a shared credit card with my wife that has a limit of $22k and utilization around 20-30% most months. What is going on? Any thoughts about how to get the line to increase? I have also been considering opening another credit card with better perks than the Discover it card and to decrease the utilization on it, but don't want the penalty of another open account on my credit score. Thanks in advance for your help!
Issues getting credit increase
byu/AutomaticCounter4 inCreditCards
Posted by AutomaticCounter4
3 Comments
> it, but don’t want the penalty of another open account on my credit score
If you need another card, get (or at least try) another card. With a decade of credit history, you’ll be fine.
Why does your credit score even matter to you if you’re afraid to pursue credit in the first place? You’re foregoing long term credit building by worrying about minor, short term, trivial fluctuations.
So 2 answers
Number one, read the bot response, the utilization bringing down your credit score is temporary and resets each month, you don’t need to worry about that apart from the 1-2 months before applying for big credit like a auto or home loan.
Number two discover may be looking at your profile and assessing that your income, combined with how much you spend on the card, combined with your student loan payments is at their risk threshold and they won’t increase the amount they are lending you.
Your option if they don’t give you a CLI is pretty much to open a new card unless anyone else has any ideas. You could go for a higher tier card like a visa infinite most of those are 10k minimum limits or a Amex charge card since they have no limit
But those also commonly come with annual fees
That utilization is definitely hurting your score more than the student loans probably are. Since you’re paying in full every month maybe try calling them instead of doing online requests – sometimes talking to actual person helps when you can explain the income situation better.
The new card idea makes sense too especially with your income going up soon. One hard inquiry isnt gonna kill your score and having more available credit will drop that utilization fast.