Should I Decrease My Citi Credit Limits?

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My Citi Premier application last week was the first time Citi told me that even with moving credit from an existing card, my overall credit with them was at a level that a senior manager needed to approve the application. The application was approved several days later, $2,000 in new credit plus moving some from an existing card.

I have built up a Citi collection of little-used credit:

  • Prestige: $35,000
  • ThankYou Premier: $10,300 (new)
  • ThankYou Preferred 1: $10,000
  • ThankYou Preferred 2: $10,000
  • ThankYou Preferred 3: $10,000
  • Dividend 1: $18,000
  • Dividend 2: $10,000
  • Dividend 3: $5,000
  • AA Platinum: $10,700
  • AT&T Access: $12,500 (recent downgrade from AA Executive)

Total: $131,500

The conventional wisdom is to not give up credit unless to trade for a new account, however when hitting limits it may be savvy to proactively reduce. I have done this for Barclaycard (no success for new approvals) and BofA (mixed results).

I realize there are many factors such as utilization, income, etc so no two cases are alike. With that caveat, I am interested in hearing others’ experiences with Citi credit limits.

One recommendation I heard was to put cards at $5,000 each which is a common baseline for cards such as those that are Visa Signature so it doesn’t look too small or too large.

Should I reduce and to what levels per card?

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Lively
Lively
9 years ago

Citi just closed 2 of my Hilton Honors cards without even asking me (and I wasn’t applying for any new cards). They said it due to inactivity. But I was shocked nonetheless.

John
John
9 years ago

RTC, by the way, was there any sign-up bonus when you downgraded to the ATT Access card?

John
John
9 years ago

I once had at least five or six Citi cards (each with 10-20k credit lines) and I am now down to two, and soon down to one. The attrition is due to annual fees and, in one case, Citi closed the account, a card that I had not used since downgrading an AA card. So, my question is, do you keep spend on all of those cards? Even in the case where I get the annual fee waived, there really isn’t any benefit to having two of the same card (as in the case of my AA cards). I don’t… Read more »

mason
mason
9 years ago

i think it is wise to proactively reduce credit limits. why hold on to all that unused credit line when you can get rid of it and likely increase your chance for automatic approval?

Mark
Mark
9 years ago

Somewhat off-topic: I never have any problems with approvals except with Barclaycard. I have 2 US Air cards (now Aviator) that I don’t use often and only keep open for the 10K annual bonus. I had the LH card a couple years back and cancelled before the fee hit (I can’t recall if they would or wouldn’t let me downgrade). When calling the recon line for new cards they state that too many inquiries is the reason for declining (and my offer to move credit from my existing cards is also declined). Do you have any recommendations that could increase… Read more »

PedroNY
PedroNY
9 years ago

Close all of these cards, and keep on churning, set up an 18 month schedule on cards that require it, and churn ones that do not every 33 days.

Good luck,

PedroNY

Dan
Dan
9 years ago

I did that with Chase and I had trouble with them next time I applied for a card because the rep said I had too much credit with them even though I had previously canceled a card with a large credit limit and I was canceling a card and replacing it with a different one. When I pointed out that I had a larger limit previously and higher income currently the rep switched to complaining about my total revolving credit. I got the card in the end after a second call but it was a pain. So in the future… Read more »

Dino
Dino
9 years ago

RTC, I also downgraded my exec to the AT&T card. The 2x bonus online category seems to be hit or miss. I tried buying a $200 amex GC but ther’s no way for me to determine if it earned double points. The points summary doesnt seem to be detailed like UR points. Unless I’m missing something? I called them to ask but the agent had no clue either. What’s your experience been so far?

Al
Al
9 years ago

your credit score can only be boosted by so much with a large credit line and there is no upside if you are the type to pay your credit card balances BEFORE statement generation. that said, i really dont see why you are carrying such large credit limits across so many cards. my vote: decrease everything to 5k except for 1 card for that emergency situation where you need to charge over 10k.

Becky
9 years ago

Looking forward to trading advice. Recently had Citi say the absolute max they could extend was $10,300 on Prestige due to existing credit among other accounts. They proactively asked if I wanted to move credit from an existing account to the new Prestige (I declined; $10K is plenty)…however, I’m sure it would be prudent to reduce some other accounts before yet another application.