Money Tips: How do I get a credit line increase on my MBNA credit card account?

Posted On: September 16, 2006

Guest: Polonius
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Post subject: How do I get a credit line increase on my MBNA credit card account?
Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:57 am

Thanks again, Bikshu.

I’m wondering if you can give us some more info on what HAL is looking for in the way of retail purchases. Frequent small charges? Occasional big charges? A particular mixture? More specifically, would my chances for a good offer or CLI be greater if I made a bunch of small purchases (say, $20 or less) every month or if I made a single purchase of, say, $2500, in a month?

And how does using MBNA BillPay fit in to the equation? There are no interchange fees for that. Does MBNA like people to use that feature or not? Does it help or hurt?

Finally, what about finance charges. Does HAL prefer cardholders to carry a balance now and then, not carry a balance, carry a balance every month?

I’m about to start a little investment venture where I can spend $10,000 per month on a credit card or credit cards–in a single large charge or a bunch of smaller charges. It’s a purchase, not a BT. I’m trying to decide the right card or cards to use for this.

I’ve paid off my entire MBNA balance as the promo BT offer is coming to an end. Now I’ve got a credit–and the only BT offer showing in my account is 7.9% with a 3% fee, max $75…
_________________
Polonius
“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend”

Guest: cled
Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 11:04 am

A LOT OF GREAT INFORMATION!

Thank you, Bikshu-

if i may ask…

How about accounts not used for a certain period of time (say at least 3months)?

does it make one a “risky” consumer?
and may eventually get adverse actions?

Thank you in advance…

Guest: Bikshu
Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:18 pm

Quote:

How about accounts not used for a certain period of time (say at least 3months)?

does it make one a “risky” consumer?
and may eventually get adverse actions?

No, not using a card makes you of 0 risk because you’ve got 0 balance. No money is at stake whatsoever on the bank’s side. We will never “reprice” (increase the contract rates) someone simply because their card has sat idle for a few months. Now if you are sitting idle with us, and simultaneously we detect very risky behavior on other accounts with other banks, that is a horse of a different color. I suppose that could result in a repricing (but in that case you would likely have been repriced whether your MBNA card was sitting idle or not).

Now here’s an interesting little tidbit. If your account sits idle for a very long time, let’s say a year or longer, we may reprice you. And this has nothing to do with risk. The reason we will reprice you is because we hope that when your rate increases, you will call in to complain about it. Then, once we have you on the phone we can ask you why you haven’t been using your account. Have you been using another bank instead? If so what are they giving you that we are not? Have you cut up all of your cards and gone cash only? If so why? Do you currently have any balances with those other banks you want to consolidate? You get the picture.

We don’t want to cold call all those folks who stop using our card out of the blue to start interrogating them. A bulk repricing of a large number of inactive accounts always leads to a lot of those folks actively calling us up to complain. We can then find out what it was that we were doing wrong in the first place, correct it, and win back their business.

Likewise, many times we will force an upgrade on a large number of inactive accounts for exactly the same reason. We’ll add on a rewards program. We’ll upgrade you from Platinum to Signature or World. That type of thing. We hope it will beat whatever card you’ve been using instead, and when you do call to activate the card we can ask you officially what we were doing wrong in the first place.

So these things are sometimes done purely as yet another marketing gimmick (and quite an inventive one at that if I do say so myself). But this is done pretty randomly. I’ve seen some accounts that have sat idle for four years without a repricing or upgrade. I’ve seen others that have sat idle only one year and do get repriced or upgraded. I’m not entirely sure how HAL decides which to change in this case…

Polonius: I’ll try to get to yours in a bit. But I’ve got some college football to watch for now. Later all…

Guest: cled
Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 3:03 pm

Bikshu wrote:
Quote:

How about accounts not used for a certain period of time (say at least 3months)?

does it make one a “risky” consumer?
and may eventually get adverse actions?

No, not using a card makes you of 0 risk because you’ve got 0 balance. No money is at stake whatsoever on the bank’s side. We will never “reprice” (increase the contract rates) someone simply because their card has sat idle for a few months. Now if you are sitting idle with us, and simultaneously we detect very risky behavior on other accounts with other banks, that is a horse of a different color. I suppose that could result in a repricing (but in that case you would likely have been repriced whether your MBNA card was sitting idle or not).

Now here’s an interesting little tidbit. If your account sits idle for a very long time, let’s say a year or longer, we may reprice you. And this has nothing to do with risk. The reason we will reprice you is because we hope that when your rate increases, you will call in to complain about it. Then, once we have you on the phone we can ask you why you haven’t been using your account. Have you been using another bank instead? If so what are they giving you that we are not? Have you cut up all of your cards and gone cash only? If so why? Do you currently have any balances with those other banks you want to consolidate? You get the picture.

We don’t want to cold call all those folks who stop using our card out of the blue to start interrogating them. A bulk repricing of a large number of inactive accounts always leads to a lot of those folks actively calling us up to complain. We can then find out what it was that we were doing wrong in the first place, correct it, and win back their business.

Likewise, many times we will force an upgrade on a large number of inactive accounts for exactly the same reason. We’ll add on a rewards program. We’ll upgrade you from Platinum to Signature or World. That type of thing. We hope it will beat whatever card you’ve been using instead, and when you do call to activate the card we can ask you officially what we were doing wrong in the first place.

So these things are sometimes done purely as yet another marketing gimmick (and quite an inventive one at that if I do say so myself). But this is done pretty randomly. I’ve seen some accounts that have sat idle for four years without a repricing or upgrade. I’ve seen others that have sat idle only one year and do get repriced or upgraded. I’m not entirely sure how HAL decides which to change in this case…

Polonius: I’ll try to get to yours in a bit. But I’ve got some college football to watch for now. Later all…

Bikshu,

Thank you very much!