Credit limits and outstanding balance

yebaws

Hi,

I have a couple of questions for the experts out there.

I have been stoozing for years, and used to have no problem getting several cards at once with 4-6K limit on each of them. I have a squeaky clean credit record.

Now days it's a bit more difficult and I sometimes find I am given a tiny credit limit or even rejected.

I suspect that this is to do with the cc companies now sharing info with each others, checking up on available credit, outstanding balances and obvious stoozers. So I have a couple of questions which, when answered, will hopefully help me to be more successful in the future.

1. Is available credit a big factor and do companies share this info? For example, Barclaycard AMEX have just offered to up the limit on my card (which I use regularly for cashback) by about 3K. I don't need the extra limit, so should I ask them not to do this (or even decrease my existing limit) to increase my chances of getting other cards in future (with a decent limit)

2. Is outstanding balance on other cards at the time of application a big factor? I do most of my spending through cashback cards, so at any one time might have 3 or 4K outstanding, although this is paid off in full each month. Does the company I'm applying to see that I pay off the balance each month and not take too much notice of this, or is the system less sophisticated, meaning that I should maybe time new applications to when I have just paid off my cashback cards so that there is a zero or low balance on them?

Thanks for your help!

[Deleted User]

Lenders have always reported limits and balances.

Make sure you manage both in relation to your income.

Westminster

A 'technique' which may work is setting up your Direct Debit to be a little more than the minimum payment.

iammunro94

I have also on the edge on my credit limit. I max out my account and paying it monthly. But other cc companies wont give me another cc due to my records on other banks.

5557223

There are multiple factors that come in to play such as ontime payments, utilisation %, average age of credit accounts, number of accounts, inquiries etc.

If you don't have any delayed payments and utilisation is low (<10%) then CC companies will still want you, like you etc.

In the end it drills down to each CC company's risk appetite.