Increasing Your Credit Limit

Your credit score is extremely important. It can affect if you can get a large loan like a mortgage. If you are able to get one, it will affect how much you pay in interest, which could be the different between saving or spending thousands of dollars. It is vital to your financial future!

That said, a lot of people do not know what goes into the credit score, or what you can do to improve it. One thing that impacts your score is the amount of money that you owe, and the percentage of that amount compared to your limit. In other words, your credit utilization. So, if you are able to increase your credit limit (and increase the amount that you could spend), it will lower your utilization, which could help your credit score.

So how do you increase your credit limit? The first thing is to make sure that you have a solid financial foundation and look like someone worthy of a high limit. That means you need to be someone who pays their bills on time, and hopefully has a long relationship with the creditor (so that they know you are trustworthy). If you are frequently making late payments, nobody will want to give you an increase.

The next step is having a reason to increase your limit, and be able to state that to the creditor. When you call to ask for an increase, give them a reason for your asking for an increased limit (perhaps an upcoming vacation, or even that you know it can help your credit score), and you need to be able to tell them why they should give you a higher limit. If you have a higher income than when you first got the card, or have paid off other debts, those types of things that could help convince them to increase the limit.

Last, you simply need to call the creditor and ask for the increase. Once you know you have a strong case, you have good reasons, and you are someone who is a good customer for them, call them and ask. If you don't take the first step in asking, it's not going to happen for you.