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I would like to know how the credit limit works? How does a credit card company increase the credit limit? Can a credit card holder himself ask the cc company to increase the credit limit?
I have a credit card with Bank of America and I have good credit history with no late payments and charge offs. I hav heard that if a cc holder asks for a increase in credit limit, it results in hard inquiry and thus lowers the FICO score. Is it true?
how credit card companies increase credit limit
Hi Anya,
You as a credit card holder, can request your creditor to increase your credit limit, and this can be done once in 6 months. However, before the credit card company can increase your credit limit, they are going to check your credit history. This will result in a hard pull on your credit report, and your score will get lowered.
Thus, credit limit works on the credit history. The credit card company is going to increase your credit if you had been consistently paying each month, after usage of the available credit. However, you need to keep your usage within the credit limit. Some other things to qualify for a credit limit increase are frequent usage of the card, making more than minimum payments and making the payments within the time limit.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Aaron
I have heard of people calling in ahead of time and asking the customer service rep for the credit card company if the credit limit increase request will result in a hard or soft pull on the credit report first before deciding if they want to go through with it.
Sometimes the credit card companies will just do an account review.
Also some credit card companies will request income verification before they increase the credit limit.