>If you pay before the billing cycle comes due, the banks will first insist you don't need a high credit limit and they will also insist you're a financial risk

>If you pay before the billing cycle comes due, the banks will first insist you don't need a high credit limit and they will also insist you're a financial risk. Not my experience at all. I pay multiple times per credit cycle and have never had an issue getting CLIs. My total available LoC is a few of multiples of my annual income and the only reason I stopped asking for CLIs is because I got bored with it and had enough available credit that I basically never carry more than a 1-3% total balance even if I'm floating large purchases. I'd go farther and suggest that this advice is potentially harmful with the recent changes to FICO scoring where balances have a rolling average impact -- having a balance hit your credit report because payment posted after your bank's reporting date will now follow you for considerably longer than in the past. Discover and AmEx are pretty generous with CLI requests IME. I went through a period where they both seemed intent on being my highest LoC card and would often unilaterally extend a CLI after a CLI from the other hit my credit report. BoA is also fairly generous. Citi and Chase seem to extend more grounded credit lines. Wells Fargo is hilariously stingy. The big thing with any of them is asking, though. None of them unilaterally offer CLIs very often IME. All IME, YMMMV.