That's a good question. I'm not sure what is the answer to your question. I'll do some investigation and get back to you if I bump into an useful answer. You should email the people at Discover Card as they probably could give you an answer..

Umm...yea...I'm not much of a "math" guy...I'm more of a "throw it out there and see what sticks" kind of guy...

I would probably go with $6k, it's a little less than twice your current highest limit. Baby steps!!.

As to the discover, it sure wouldn't hurt to pay that down first, I guess it depends on how quickly you want the card..

I screwed up today and applied for the citi forward for the 5% restaurants/amazon and forgot I had a amex charge card balance of $49k (forgot to PIF before statement cut - highest reporting was about $100k) and I was declined for it. I called in and they said that was why and to submit an updated report or proof showing a zero balance. So I did and now I wait. Had I been more patient, I could have waited about a week for the amex to report zero balance and I'm sure I would have been approved. So moral of my story is I would probably wait if it were me..

This post has been edited by.

Verdegallardo.

: 14 January 2010 - 09:20 PM..

Applied for, and approved (phone call within 10 minutes) on a $7500 limit, 10.49% APR Visa Platinum....

Very happy with it (more than double my highest credit limit), but I wonder if I should have went for 10,000....

I somewhat felt like I was pushing it with 7500. They pulled EX, which is my ugliest looking report (tons of inqs, TU and EQ are both inq free)..

5 minute application and 3 minute phone call = 154.6% increase in my combined available credit...!.

The guy on the phone said he was impressed with my credit - which kinda surprised me a little. There's only two late Discover credit card payments on my EX report (2001 and 2007), but there's still a crappy paid collection - the last remains of the identity theft my father stuck me with..

Edit: The guy just called me back apologizing - he misquoted the interest rate. It's actually 14.49%..

Fastest rate jack ever?.

This post has been edited by.

MB82x.

: 14 January 2010 - 09:55 PM..

I actually got an idea... I should have put $17,500 - if I get approved, great... if not, I call it a typo. >.>;..

Thrilled with it - but I was hoping I'd get the lowest of low rates they offer (8.49%) - I'm guessing those are reserved for 750+ credit scores?.

As of right now, my $1700 balance is at a 16.99% APR....

Reminds me, I got to call and yell at Discover. They called me early one morning telling me about some protection plan. I was half asleep and understood it as "can we send you the information about this program"? I muttered "yeah, go ahead". Apparently that was authorization for them to charge me 89 cents per $100 (so $15) to my Discover card bill...

WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO LEARN THAT.

"AVAILABLE".

IS NOT DEBT???.

WHO HAS THE GUN TO THEIR HEAD MAKING THEM SPEND EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR OF THE $50,000???..

Available = Risk of Debt.

If they grant me a $50,000 credit limit, how do they know I won't max it out and disappear into the night with all my shiny new stuff?..

I agree, but because credit unions play safe/conservative, they are in better shape than the banks...

Pay off any card to below 10% and dispute any negative you have. You always want to go into a app with your best hand and not hope they fall for a bluff, they won't...

I'm surprised no one has come up with "credit boosting" credit cards... Absurdly high limits, but the card locks at say, 10% utilization. (Card user is giving a 50,000 credit limit, but is not allowed to go over 10% utilization... in effect, they really have a $5000 limit and always have low utilization...).

Unless there are laws to prevent this...

FYI, I guess the $7500 was a "pre-approval" - because I actually only ended up with $4000. Cited that my oldest open card is only ~2 years old..

I pointed out my two school loans (08/2000) and (08/2001) with perfect payment history - no dice, they were more interested in the Discover credit card history..

A little disappointed, but I'll take it for now... I hope to move up to higher limits pretty quick - just because it's more "fuel in my tank" when I go for a mortgage later on..

Aside from keeping my utilization down and making payments on time, what else can I do to prove to my CU I'm worthy? I do all my checking and savings with them, and have been saving quite a bit so far this year ($1600 this year... my goal is to have $10,000 saved up for the year*). Do CUs take high savings into consideration? Once I hit $10,000 - should I ask them for a $10,000 secured card? I'm really looking for optimal behavior to impress my CU into giving me a higher CL in a few months or a year or so.....

Yes, but if you had used a sophisticated mathematical modeling technique like me you would have come up with a exact number and not such a big range :-)..