A while back I (technically, my wife) got a Banana Republic credit card, one of the many in Synchrony’s retail portfolio, in the hope that I’d one day get a really sweet promotion.

That day finally came, and the BR card is now our daily spender through the end of the year. The problem, though, was that the card had a paltry $1,400 credit limit. Our household has a few Synchrony cards and they all have credit limits within spitting distance of $1,000.

I therefore had no idea what to expect when Mrs. PFD called up to ask for a credit line increase. Will they be generous or stingy? Is the process quick, or is it long and drawn out? There isn’t a ton of info out there outside of people who are in the process of repairing their credit, so I thought I’d pass along our experience in case anybody else was wondering.

And our experience was that it was quick and painless. They essentially asked our income, asked how much of a credit line we wanted, and boom! Done. We asked for six grand and they gave it to us, which left me thinking I should have asked for more. Live and learn.

Some of you may be wondering: hard pull or soft pull? My lazy answer is that I don’t know and don’t care too much. I’ve never tracked my hard/soft pulls that religiously since I don’t go all-out in maximizing credit cards to the degree that some others do. Between my full-time job, my part-time blog, and my family I don’t have as much time and energy to do everything I’d like. For what it’s worth, Doctor of Credit says that Synchrony (formerly known as GE) is usually a soft pull, although that article is a bit old.

Anybody else who has data points to contribute regarding a Synchrony CLI, feel free to chime in below.

I recently heard from the lovely folks who issue my Banana Republic credit card. They wanted me to know that a new card and new benefits are on the way. I could care less about the look of the new card, but I always perk up when folks start talking about new benefits.

Here’s a page describing the new changes. What caught my eye was this:

Upgrading to Luxe has never been easier.

• 5,000 base points qualifies you for Luxe
• For Visa Cardmembers, your spend in and out of our brands counts towards you based points

Now up to this point you could only get Luxe status by spending $800 at the Banana Republic / Gap family of stores. But if I’m reading this correctly, you can now get Luxe status by spending $5,000 anywhere you want, since you get 1 point per dollar spent outside of the stores.

I checked the T&C’s for clarification and it said this:

Cardholders must earn 5,000 points (excluding bonus points) to upgrade to Luxe, Silver or Navyist status. Visa cardholders will qualify for status by making purchases outside of Gap, Inc. locations.

So yes, it seems you can get Luxe via spending outside of the Gap, Inc. family. I also noticed this bullet point:

Gap Silver, Banana Republic Luxe and Navyist by Old Navy accounts will earn a 20% rewards bonus each calendar quarter.

…Which makes this card 1.2% on everything, and 6% back at the stores. And today I received a promotion in the mail: 3X back on everything next month, which would be 3.6% back on everything with Luxe status. I may need to think about putting some spending on this thing. As far as I can tell, Luxe/Silver/Navyist status isn’t all that great. Here are the benefits as per the website:

• FREE shipping on all online purchases7
• 15% off Choose Your Own Sale Day offer8
• FREE basic alterations on all Banana Republic purchases9
• Luxe-only offers and shopping events like Triple Points Days
• Exclusive toll-free Luxe priority line

If there are some good coupons / discounts, then $5K of spending at 3.6% looks a little more enticing. Anybody have any experience with status at the Gap brands? (MilesAbound, I’m looking at you.)