Capital One Venture CLI strategy?

[vinster95]

Hey everyone. I was just apporved a few days ago for the Capital One Venture card. They gave me a starting limit of $3000. All these years of using an Amex Platinum, I've never prioritized  building up good credit limits. What's the best way to go about doing that? Specifically with Capital One and the Venture card?

I read things saying use 40 percent or so of your CL and then pay it in full each month? Should I do that? Should I be going even higher up to the $3000 and then paying in full, showing them I need more? Should I spend $1500, then pay it in full, then spend another $1500 and pay in full again in the same month? I'm very new to this, so any advice is greatly appreciated!

Side question for Capital One cardholders: When you request a CLI, is it worth just asking for a lot and then Capital One will counter with a lower one if they dont approve yours? Or is it better to request smaller amounts so they're approved?

[CreditPoor]

Capital One likes to see heavy spend on the card. I have a venture with starting limit of 6k and spend $5500 several times a month with immediate pay off. After about 6 months of that they increased it $500. If you're looking to grow big limits Capital One is not the place

[vinster95]

That's all they increased you after that spend on it? Wow? I've always heard Capital One was stingy. I don't need this card to grow into a 20k card. I'd like to at the very least have it be a 10k card, and then go get a Chase card. 

[FicoMike0]

I've gotten a $500 cli from Capone too.  I don't think they care what you ask for.

[addicted]

I was approved for $20K limit. After a month I requested CLI and they gave me $35K. I spent around $2,500 on the card and paid it back.

[jv_apex_perpetual88]

Hello vinster95 

Congrats on your new Cap1 Venture card.

Having been with Cap1 since 2017. I can say that it's been pretty hard to get large credit limit increases with them. I currently have the V1  PC from QS and only got a 1K increase recently. SV1 and just recently got a 1K increase. I also have a business card with them, but i'm not to happy with it and it reports to my CRAs.

I will mention that Cap1 are one of the more generous lenders who will help someone with a rebuild phase or low score, but keep them bucketed. I have not had any issues with Cap1 and I plan to keep them even though i hold a CSR and a Amex Gold.

Having the Venture card is a great start and I feel with this card, you will be able to get higher limits that will put you in Venture X territory. VX will start with a 10K SL because its a Visa Infinite.

When asking for CLI, 

I will ususally  just ask for my limit and then I will put that i will spend about half of that, but YMMV.

Good luck!

[nytokyobred79]

@vinster95  Congratulations on getting your Venture card. Is it the Venture Rewards? Depending on your credit profile at that time of approval AND whether or not Cap1 has bucketed you, in theory, those approval factors should influence the frequency and size of cli's you may achieve. Considering your 3K SL, you were definitely not bucketed  but with the 3K SL for your card ( assuming Rewards), Cap1 likely wants to see some spend and payment patterns ( they advertise the Rewards with a 5K minimum SL although not guaranteed).

If you search the forum, you will find cases of Cap1 one being cli stingy to both bucketed and un-bucketed folks. But then you'll see some cases where Cap1 is somewhat more generous to other profiles. I'd suggest that you use the card and PIF where possible and then even as early as a month, you could hit the CLI button.  The worst case scenario, the algorithm spits out the denial reason of "too early for a credit limit increase" or account not eligible. You can keep trying until you get approved but typically the soonest is after 6 months. But YMMV, and they could grant you a request after 3 months. And to your question about how much you should request, since it's algorithm driven, the algorithm will generate a counter offer if it determines you're eligible for an amount lower than you requested. You can choose to accept that counter or decline it. No penalty to decline and try again later. 

Good luck and let us know how it goes in a few months 😀

Added- as for spend, I think it varies with Cap1. I've seen cases of people getting cli's approved with limited spend and then with others, they need to spend a bit more heavily. Profile factors, etc. 

[vinster95]

Nice CLI there! Congrats! 

[vinster95]

Thanks, I appreciate it! When you said with a CLI you will ask for your limit, what do you mean by that exactly? So like if your limit is 10k, you'll ask for another 10k?

[vinster95]

Thanks, I appreciate it! So really, I guess it would be smart for me to start establishing payments right away? Like maybe make 3 payments in the first month and show them responsible payments. Making those payments in full.