MyCardBlog

There are many reasons to increase your credit limits. Basically we can boost our credit scores by lower the usage of your line of credit. We can get more free money from banks and earn more interests. Sometimes the credit card issuers will increase your limits without a request. However, you may want to increase you limits for some reason. And you can’t wait to get an automatic increase. Here, I summarized the process on how to increase your credit limit with different banks.

Citi Cards
1) Log in your citi account.
2) Go to the menu bar, go to Manage My Account>Credit line Increase Request.
3) After clicking that button, you will get two results: Instant Approved with a specific amount. This will not get a hard pull on your credit report, since Citi review your credit report monthly. And the decision is based on the last soft pull. I got $800 increase from $2,000 to $2,800 after 6 months. Another result is you have to put some information and go to manual review process. Usually a hard pull will reflect on your credit report. So please be careful to full in the form.

Chase
Usually they will pull a credit report every time you ask for increasing your credit limit except for the automatic increase. You can submit the request online (similar to Citi) or call chase customer service. When the CSR asks your annual income, they will pull your credit report. So be careful about that. Ask them whether or not to pull your credit report before give them the authorization.

American Express
There is no hard pulls for increasing credit limit from American Express. There will be a soft pull on your credit report although they ask for your annual income. This is the most friendly credit card issuer for credit limit increase. Log in you AMEX account, go to account services, and then click “credit management”. You will see “Increase Your Line of Credit”. They will ask for your annual income and you have to fill in the amount you want. Fill in the form and then there will be a decision for you. You can get instant approval. Sometimes the amount will be smaller than you requested. Sometimes, you can get the amount you requested. Usually a high household income will help you to get higher limit. If you see a notice for 7-10 days, it doesn’t mean they deny your request. At this time, you can call in and talk to a credit analyst directly. Usually the increased amount will appear in less than 15 min. Again, no hard pulls. Generally, the credit line under $24,900 is safe.

Bank of America
You can ask for a credit limit increase online. (Just on the left side of your account information.) You have to fill in some information like occupation, income and housing payment. They will not pull your credit report. If they want to access your credit report, they will notify you. SO there is a soft pull on your credit report. The process is similar to that of American Express. Someone indicated that there’s a trick on how to increase credit limit if you have two credit cards from BOA. Can you figure out it?

Discover
Call customer service 1-800-347-2683 and they will ask you some questions. From my understanding, they will also increase your credit limit automatically. When you call them up for increase your credit limit, please ask them not pull your credit report. To my knowledge, there will be a soft pull but you have to require them to do so.

HSBC
They will pull your credit report if you can’t get automatic increase. Somebody said the HSBC was operated by a bunch of “Space Monkeys.” Even though you can get $10,000 from other credit card issuers, you might get $500/$750 from HSBC. No matter how high your credit score and how long your credit history is they just give you what they think should be.

Capital One
I believe they will pull (soft) your credit report from 3 credit bureaus and they will increase your limit automatically. However, please don’t expect too much from it. When you apply for their card, they will also pull your credit report from 3 bureaus. That’s why I don’t suggest my readers use their cards. Their credit limit usually sucks. For your credit score’s sake, please don’t touch Capital One!

WaMu
They claim they will periodically review your account. If you maintain a good standing with your account with them, they will increase for you automatically. Some report a huge increase while others report tiny increase. I hope I can get a huge jump on my account.

These days, I am always thinking which credit card company is the best from our customers’ eyes. This morning I was trying to find out the answer by using Google. It seems I have luck with me. Yesterday, JD Power and Associates just released the “2007 Credit Card Satisfaction Study”. And the final winner is American Express!

I’m not surprised about the fact. Honestly speaking, American Express provides the best customer services compared to other companies. You can always find an American customer service representative even in the late night. I was very surprised to talk to a balance transfer specialist at 10:30 pm when a general customer service representative couldn’t solve my problem about balance transfer, although I was held for about 15 min. If I call Citi in the late night, I should be prepared to hear Indian English and accept the fact that I can’t get what I want. I don’t know the operation system in a bank but I would say Citi is not so good. For example, they claim that they are offering $200 sign-up bonus for a new checking account. However, when you read carefully, there are some fine prints say the offer expires on 08/31/2007. Then the problem is they still put it online. I called them up and ask them for reasons. They couldn’t find the answer until now. I dare not to open a new account with Citi. At the same time, I should mention that the “Financial Review” process is also a problem for American Express. They should try to fix the drawback in the future. From what I know, the business card may be the major source of a “Financial Review”. If they couldn’t confirm your business, they will be worried that you can’t afford the expense. Not to mention that there are always no pre-set spending limits for business cards. Another point is not carrying high balance. Generally, lower than 70% of credit limit is acceptable.

Ok. Here is the story about Credit Card Satisfaction Study.
Customer Satisfaction Score>—Customer satisfaction, based on 1,000-point scale
American Express 735
Discover 728
Citi Cards 652
Chase 651
US Bank 646
Washington Mutual 638
Wells Fargo 636
Capital One 617
Bank of America 607
HSBC 571
Based on online survey of 7,812 credit card customers in June and July.

(Click to see large image)
American Express and Discover showed the highest satisfaction levels in the J.D. Power and Associates study, reflecting that an estimated 90 percent of their customers aren’t charged interest because they pay off balances in full every month. Conversely, the companies with the lowest satisfaction ratings, including HSBC and Bank of America, tended to be those with higher percentages of customers who carry balances.
Power divided card customers into “transactors” – those who, like most credit card holders, pay off balances and use the products as charge cards – and “revolvers” – those who don’t pay their balances in full and must pay finance charges. Transactors had an average satisfaction rating of 681 on a 1,000 point scale, compared with 613 for revolvers.
A credit card issuer’s “percentage of transactors pretty much drives the rankings,” said Jeff Taylor, senior director for banking at Power.
Similarly, among card networks, American Express and Discover outscored MasterCard and Visa. That was because banks that issue MasterCard and Visa had greater proportions of customers with outstanding balances.
The lower satisfaction of those who carried balances stemmed from customer unhappiness with interest rates, as well as other financial factors such as low credit limits. (HSBC has the problem. I’m complaining here!)
HSBC, the issuer that scored lowest in the survey, said it had not seen the report.
For those who don’t carry balances, card benefits, features and rewards, such as airline miles, were most important. American Express and Discover scored well in part because almost all their customers are enrolled in rewards programs. (Personally, I don’t think the rewards programs from Discover is very good. HSBC 2% cash back card is really good!)
Customers reported wide differences in problems with their card issuers. On the high end, 11 percent of Bank of America and Citi Cards customers said they had experienced a problem such as a billing mistake in the past 12 months. Only 5 percent of Washington Mutual and Discover customers said they had had a problem.
In part adapted from San Francisco Chronicle by the author Sam.

I think this is really an interesting idea to rent your credit score to those who in need of good credit score.

When I read the articles about renting credit score, I think I should write something about it for my readers. However, I am not encouraging you guys to rent your credit score. It seems unethical for me and you should also consider the risk of losing your personal information to others.

These days, having a good credit score means everything. It will make a lot of things easier for you if your credit history is clean, including renting out an apartment. The credit score is extremely important for those who want to buy a house. But in fact, lots of people might have insufficient credit score when they file an application. How could they do? There is a fast-growing business on the Internet: companies that claim to boost credit scores by transplanting the credit DNA of people with excellent payment histories into the credit files of people with sub-par histories. Most companies claim that they can increase the credit score by about 20 to 250 points, or more, by adding those with low credit score as authorized users onto the credit card accounts of people with excellent FICO scores.

In this way, the positive payment information of those with excellent credit score will flow into those with low credit score. Actually, our parents are always adding their sons or daughters as authorized users into their accounts. Obviously, it’s legal to add someone as your authorized users. And that’s why this kind of business is boosting on the Internet. Someone can rent their credit score for about $1,500 to $2,000 for 180 days or more. Some companies claim that they can increase their clients’ credit score by 150 to 250 points for just months with a price of $750! For those who want to boost their credit scores, they don’t have physical credit cards. So they can’t use the credit account. However, they may see the new account appear on their credit report which is the cause of the increase of credit score.

How much can you get paid for renting your credit scores? The amount you can get varies. It depends on the age of the credit card and the credit limit. There used to be a website named rentyourcreditcards.com is no longer. However, it’s no longer available now, in part I think due to the questionnaire from credit card companies and credit report agencies.

Anyway, I think this is an interesting idea to rent your credit score to others and that why some companies can make money from it. This post is just an introduction, and I’m not encouraging you to do this business. Again, it doesn’t seem a good idea to me. But I think you can learn something from it.

You may have already known that cancel a credit card may influence your credit score. However, there are sometimes you just have to do it. For example, the annual fee ($125) is going to be charged on American Express Business Rewards Card, and you don’t want to pay that money. Sometimes you find that that card is no longer profitable for you and you want to get another wonderful credit card. You may say this will affect my credit score and I don’t want to try. Ok. The most important things for your credit score is the credit utilization and credit history. If you are not cancelling your first credit card, it won’t hurt you. If you have huge credit limit, it will also be Ok for you credit score. Of course, you have to make a choice by yourself. Here are some tips on how to make your cancelling process profitable.

1). Combine with other existing credit cards.
You can choose to combine the credit card with another credit card from the sane issuer. You can call them up and ask for “moving” the credit limit from this card to another credit card. This approach is very useful for most credit card companies. However, sometimes some ristrcitions may be applied. Sometimes the CSR might give you wrong answers. So if one CSR tells you that he/she can’t do that, just hang up and go for another call. I think it works for most issuers.

2). Switch to another credit card.
If you want to avoid the annual fee of a certain credit card, you can choose to switch this card to another no annual fee card or a card with lower annual fee. It’s especially useful for Citi PP-Elite and Citi PP card. You can get more sign-up bonus from the Elite level card, and waive the annual fee for switching to non-Elite card. You can earn simliar miles for both cards. This approach is also useful for Citi AA series cards.

3). Get bonus for staying.
I have the experience. When I called Chase to close Chase Freedom card, they gave me $10 to stay with that card and transfer credit limit from another card. Usually, when you called to cancel your credit card, you will be transferred to a person who is specially trained to handle this problem. They may give you some incentives to stay with that card. But remeber, don’t get angery. Stay calm and talk to the person kindly. The goal of that person is trying to get you stay with them. You can make profits for them! I hope you can get bonus for staying with them.

When you are ready to cancel a credit card, make sure you have a plan to deal with the credit card company. If you have any experience with this , please feel free to make a comment.

It seems we can’t make free money from balance transfer any longer. Most credit card issuers have terminated their zero fee introductory balance transfer offers with a transaction fee. For example, Citi Platinum Select Card,which used to offer 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for years, all with no fees, added 3% transaction fee with $250 cap! Discover stopped their no fee balance transfer offers on all of their cards, and added $50 or $75 cap on balance transfer. It’s very clear that the sweet age is gone. However, we can still find some cards are still offering o% APR on balance transfers without transaction fees. They all are from Citi. Here I summarized the cards from Citi Cards without transaction fees and I hope you can take the last train. The following cards are offering 0% APR on balance transfer with no fees for 12 months.

Citi Professional Cash Card

Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network (10,000 thank you point with you first purchase)

Citi professional Card (0% APR on purchase)

Citi Upromise Platinum Select MasterCard

How much can you get from Citi?
I think this is the most important question. SO I spent several hours to figure out a way to make an estimation on how much free money we can get by taking advantage of 0% APR on balance transfer. Here are some basic points I used: APY on saving or CD—5%; Start Balance—$10,000; minimum payment for each month—2% of the balance. Then how much can you get from Citi? My calculation told me that after 12 months, you can get $448.95. Other Citi cards may charge you $75 or more transaction fees. SO basically you can make a judgment on how much you can get from balance transfer. A warning is when you carry a large balance (a dramatic drop of your credit score), other credit card issuers might reduce your credit limit. And don’t forget to pay the bills, otherwise your 0% APR will be terminated by Citi.

Tips on balance transfer

1. Some friends claim that they can transfer balance to their checking accounts online from Citi professional. I don’t know. But I think is highly YMMV; 2. Use debit card to transfer balance. Although it may not succeed, it worths a try; 3. Transfer balance to another credit card and then ask for a refund check; 4. Use the balance transfer check (make sure it’s not a cash advance check) or request a balance transfer check; 5. Do balance transfer through a phone call. (this is useful when you want to pay off all or part of your car loan from your credit card)

For those who want to get more credit cards, I have a good suggestion. —Apply for Chase Credit Card!

The reason is very simple—as the second credit card issuer in the US, Chase is trying to explore the credit card market. They want to attract more customers in the most competitive market. I have a limited credit history (less than one year) but I get two credit cards in August. I applied for Chase Sony card on Aug 1. However, I missed a call from Chase fraud department which asked me to send out some materials to verify my address. Then one month later, I received the card from Chase. I then applied for Chase Amazon.com Visa Card on Aug 27. This time I got the call from Chase. After some questions, I can see the new Chase Amazon.com Visa card show up in my Chase account in two days. Amazing! I didn’t expect to receive two cards! Some of my friends also successfully get credit cards from Chase. I applied for two Citi cards both of which were rejected! Then I called them up to ask for the reason—they told me that my credit history was too short. They suggest me apply for Citi cards two months later. It’s also the case for most of my friends. SO my conclusion is it’s a right time to get credit cards from Chase.

For your reference, I give some posts about Chase Credit Card.

http://www.mycardblog.com/2007/09/chase-freedom/

http://www.mycardblog.com/2007/09/move-credit-line-with-chase/

http://www.mycardblog.com/2007/09/100-from-chase-freedom-credit-card/

http://www.mycardblog.com/2007/09/chase-freedom-credit-card/

Every time when you use your credit card, you are making money for credit card companies. It’s obvious that credit card companies are willing to establish good relationship with their card holders. They want you to use their cards! So how can you take advantage of it? Here are several tips on how to deal with credit card companies:

Call: you can easily find the phone number at any where. You can call to ask for low interest rate, waive or reduce any fees. If you miss a payment and come up with a late payment fee, call then up and request them to reduce or waive the fee. If your APR is too high, just call them up and request to lower the rate. If they simply decline your request, you can go further and request to close the account! Tell them that you have other better choices then to use this card. Remember: the credit card market is extremely competitive. If they lose a cardholder, they lose the chance to get profit.

Consolidate credit lines: this is especially useful for those who have multiple cards from a card issuer. In this way you can lower the utilization of your credit card and boost your credit score. You can also lower the chance to get over limit fees. Increase your credit limit without credit pulls: most credit card issuers request to pull your credit report every time you ask to increase your credit lines. Talk to them directly and see what will happen. Switch your card or rewards program: usually you can change your card to another card which might be better meeting your needs. You should notice that you can switch cards within similar class. For example, a student card can’t be converted to a business card. Sometimes you find out you are not a frequent flyer but you have a mileage rewards card. What should you do? Call them up and switch to a cash back card/program.

Warranty extension: lots of credit cards now are offering extend or double manufacture’s warranty plan. Figure out which card offers such benefit and take advantage of it when you make large purchase.

Auto rental insurance: I believe most cards are offering such benefit. Keep an eye on it.
Foreign transaction fee: discover card and capital one provide on transaction fee for foreign transactions. HSBC household card and orchard card offer 2% cash back and 1% foreign transaction fee. Try to avoid the transaction. Other benefits: some credit card offer better discount trough special online shopping in their website such as VIP lounge access, free upgrade to coach or business seat, free companion ticket etc.Remember: 1. credit card companies are trying their best to make as much money as possible. 2. They have well defined rules, policies and procedures. 3. They are willing to sacrifice 2 for 1.

Today I read a paper on busineesweek. The article is written by MADLEN READ (Associated Press). Title is “JPMorgan Chase ramps up rewards program”. According to this article, JPMrogan Chase issued more than 1.5 million Freedom Cards since it launched the product last year. Notice that JPMorgan Chase has issued more than 154 million credit cards totally, Freedom card is one of the most important card in chase credit card market. We can see freedom card on the national TV programs, magazines and newspapers. (no wonder why they didn’t let me close my account) So from the data we can smell something from Chase. Chase is trying to spread this card to the market. As the second credit card issuer in US, Chase is trying to attract more card holders. Thus they launch the dynamic rewards program for chase freedom card.

Before the cardholders can get 3 points for very dollar at gas stations, fast service restaurants and grocery stores. Now our card holder can get 3 points from 15 categories wherever they spent most each month. —The truth seems our card holders just sue this card and Chase will figure out how to maximize the rewards for us. Another important information we should note from this report is: in a recent conference call with analysts, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the company was cutting back on teaser rates and balance transfers and looking instead to profit from greater growth in existing accounts. I really expect that you can get a Freedom card with limited credit history. If you can’t get instant approval, maybe they need get the verification by a credit analyst. I believe you can get the card.

BTW: From my previous posts, we can get either $50 or $100 sign up bonus from Chase Freedom card.