CL strategy

[rabbim]

my sister in law received an American Express everyday card targeted offer for 25,000 points. She is new to points ( she's not really into ms) but would like to learn more.

The application was approved for a credit limit of 20,000 and she is concerned that will limit her ability to apply for future AMEX cards with reasonable credit limits, especially with the 13 month rule for moving credit limit around.

They told her she could reduce the credit line after she receives the card in the mail which they said it would be before it was reported to the credit reporting agencies. Does this sound like a good strategy? Reduce the credit limit to 8,000 so there is room for more cards as she gets offers?

Thanks for your input.

 

[Kenme111]

Leave the limit as is, good for her utilization. If she wants another Amex card just apply and if needed move part of her CL from the Everyday account.

 

[rabbim]

That's the problem. Amex won't move credit from cars to card until they are both 13 months old.

 

[Kenme111]

Just reduce the CL then.

 

[Gloobnib]

That's the problem. Amex won't move credit from cars to card until they are both 13 months old.

FWIW - Amex has approved an aggregate CL for me (across all cards) that is over 50% of my reported annual income. I was honestly quite surprised that they kept on approving me for larger CLs each time I applied.

My (personal) take is if they offered her a $20K CL on her first card, there is at least two more cards in her future. I wouldn't worry about running out of CL until you get a card approval for 'only' $5-8K. Even then, you can probably use the 3X CLI trick to boost that last cards CL after X days (can't remember if it is 61 or 91 days).

Obviously YMMV. My personal opinion only.

 

[rhinodh]

My (personal) take is if they offered her a $20K CL on her first card, there is at least two more cards in her future. I wouldn't worry about running out of CL until you get a card approval for 'only' $5-8K. Even then, you can probably use the 3X CLI trick to boost that last cards CL after X days (can't remember if it is 61 or 91 days).

Obviously YMMV. My personal opinion only.

I agree with this. If they gave her $20k to start, they probably will give her more cards in the future. I wouldn't worry about lowering it yet.

But yes, as @Gloobnib said, YMMV.