What percentage of your income, is your total credit limit?

[Lmoot]

I feel like my total credit limit/income ratio is much higher than typical. I'm sure that's because I'm conscientious about my utilization and therefore always try to get the maximum limit allowed, but I am surprised at how much I am allowed to have. My gross income bounces between $50-60k, and my total credit limit is around $75k. The current number is 133% of my income.

[Gone Fishing]

I haven't totaled it up, but mine could be 1000% for all I know! I've opened a lot of cards for the bonuses over the years.  The do get closed due to inactivity from time to time...

[SansSkill]

I've got a student credit card, limit is €1000,-.
But from a quick look at my bank's website even their best card has €6000,- as the max by default.

Probably because credit cards aren't really used in the Netherlands, almost no place supports it.
I only use mine for international purchases, though even then I usually use paypal.

[expatartist]

In Hong Kong where I live access to credit is ridiculously easy as long as you've got a job. Interest rates though are atrocious.

Just realized I forgot to include the AmEx recently acquired for AsiaMiles rewards. That brings the total to over 100% of my income.

[Dave1442397]

Just the cards in my wallet right now add up to $90,000 in credit. Add in the ones that are sitting in my desk drawer and it's over $200,000.

[CoffeeAndDonuts]

From credit card churning, we have many (50?).

Total official cl is at least 200% of hh income, possibly quite a bit higher.

Amex limits are soft. They even have a function on their web site to check spending limit at that moment. I've often found it to allow 50% more but lately, for me, 100% more. I run some hefty business related charges. The highest was approx $125k in a single charge. So, I have no real idea what our amex limits are! But reasonable expectations for me, based on my experience, are likely closer to 300%-400% of income.

[ducky19]

My spreadsheet tells me I'm up to a nice even $500k limit across all of my cards, income is ~$110k, so at least 4 times.

[wbranch]

Household income is ~110k. Credit limit is 130-140k or so. Never really thought about that before.

A few years ago I was talking to a friend about credit card churning and even just points on everyday spending. He said limited himself to one credit card with around 1k limit. We had 60k+ limit at the time and he didn't know how we didn't just spend all of that money on whatever we wanted!

[Astreja]

I have one credit card with the limit set at $2000, and a gross annual salary of about $42K, so about 4.7%.

[PoutineLover]

Funny, this just came up the other day because I've applied for some new cards to get the bonuses.
Total credit: 38.2k
Gross income: 42.5k
Just about 90%, but I never use more than a small fraction of it at a time and it always gets paid off monthly. I want to keep on applying to get more bonuses, but I'm worried that it'll ding my credit if I do too many too fast.

[use2betrix]

Income is around 200-250k. Have one credit card with a 10k limit. Have had it since college. It used to be around 2-3k. I called years ago to have it upped and they wanted it to go sky high. I had no need or desire for that, so I told the lady to cap it at $10k. She was so confused like no one has ever done that.

I’ve churned a ton of cards in the past but since closed them as I was getting denied for having “too many revolving accounts” or something like that. My credit is near flawless otherwise so it must have been the churning. Doesn’t sound like everyone has that issue though. 

[accolay]

I guess I don't really know. Should I care?

[MsPeacock]

Honestly - no idea. I only have to credit cards and don't open more and don't really keep anything on them. Not sure what their limits are.

[bluebelle]

I need clarification....do you mean just unsecured credit?  We have a secured line of credit up to 65% of the value of our Toronto home, so not insignificant.  If you're talking about credit card limits and unsecured lines of credit, it's only about 25%, I'm sure we could get more, but don't need it.  I don't want that many cards to manage.

[Zikoris]

Ah shit, I don't even know. I think one card is around 10K (they asked me that recently as a security question and accepted that answer, anyway). The other one - maybe 5-10K? So maybe 20-25% of our income? We don't have anything other than the credit cards.

[boarder42]

i have almost 300% when i came in here i expected answers to be higher than 100% now when i apply for cards it says i can use my spouses income as well that brings it down to almost 200% but with just my income and the personal cards the Credit Karma actually shows i'm around 300% probably closer to 350-400% if you count the business cards that use my same credit info.

[Dicey]

I guess I don't really know. Should I care?

I guess I don't really know. Should I care?

[davisgang90]

Probably about 100%.  In September, when I retire, that will double to 200%.  I plan to start closing some accounts after we finish closing on our retirement home in a week and a half!

[Rubic]

Due to credit card churning, well over 300%.  But if I ever got close to those
limits, I'm pretty sure I'd be getting some phone calls from the banks.

Obviously I pay off the full balances every month.

[sol]

This is all super useful information for someone planning to defraud credit card companies.  That's not why we're talking about this, right?

[Lmoot]

This is all super useful information for someone planning to defraud credit card companies.  That's not why we're talking about this, right?

How would this information be useful in defrauding? I’m genuinely curious. Are you referring to lying about one’s income? I feel like if someone will lie about their income on a credit card application, they’d attempt it regardless. I purposely did not ask for hard numbers, because I’m not comfortable being that bold.

I’ve just  always been fascinated by “credit card science” since I use them as feee loans. But I’m only basic level as I have not really gotten into churning (not on purpose anyway), and don’t see myself doing so as it seems too difficult and I don’t want to use all my chips chasing rewards as my primary reason for getting a new card is for upcoming large expenses (like when I renovated my rental property last year)).

 I have less than 10 credit cards (oldest is a couple decades old) and have only cancelled 3 cards in my life. I don’t take opening CC lightly and if I were going to lie about my income to a cc company I would certainly go higher than $50-60k LOL (though this is the most I’ve ever earned and I’m happy for it).

Hope that clears things up. I didn’t conceive that this topic could assist in fraudulent behavior, as that wasn’t my intention.

Anyway, the poll shows what I guess I already knew: Mustachians are atypical as hell. Reading in other corners of the web, it seemed like a lot of folks had way less limit (credit cards), than their income. But as someone alluded to earlier, adding other lines of credit, or loans, would definitely skew that number. I only have a mortgage and credit cards so I didn’t even think of that.

*edited to make personal details more vague

[ysette9]

I’m in the camp of “no idea and not sure it matters”. I expect it is whatever our limits were 10 years ago. I know at one point I asked to have one card lowered, though I can’t even remember now my reasoning.

It’s at least the several thousand a month we regularly put on one card as part of our normal spending.

[Lmoot]

The reason why I was curious is because I have yet to be denied a card or limit increase due to too high of a total limit, and I was wondering how high the ceiling could get,  above one’s income. And the reason why it matters to me is because credit cards are my main form of leverage. I’ve borrowed over 50 K just in the last few years, interest free, for periods ranging from 15 months-2 years...and longer when a couple of my existing cards offered free balance transfers at 0%, which allowed me to extend some of the debt for another 18 months interest-free.

The higher the limit I can get, the better because then I can use more of my limit, while still staying in a healthy utilization range, so that I can get the best rates (mortgage and possibly car loan). So it’s a balancing act of “how much can it help, before it starts to hurt”.

[MDfive21]

between the wife and me, roughly 4x HHI spread over 30ish cards. 

[sol]

How would this information be useful in defrauding?

Some people want the highest possible credit limit they can get so they can max out all of the cards and then skip town.  It's free money.  They buy stuff to hit their $100k credit limit in a month, pay it all off (with bogus checks), buy another $100k of stuff, and then walk away before they get caught.  Boom, $200k of free money in 45 days and all it cost you was a burned out credit profile that you can buy on the dark web for $35.  Rinse and repeat to fund your lavish life of crime.  Cars, drugs, women, guns.  Maybe spend some of your ill-gotten gains on a secure residence in a non-extradition country.

Or, you know, spend thirty years in a beige cubicle making $40 an hour.

This is exactly why credit card companies don't like tradeline sales.  You are helping a random person get a higher credit limit, and that person may be a nonpayment risk to the bank because you have subverted their risk profile analysis with your staid credit history from your beige cubicle.  The bank eats those losses, and passes the cost on to law abiding customers in the form of higher interest rates for consumer credit.

If you're (legally and industriously) gaming the credit card system with back to back 0% introductory offers and sign up bonuses, you're playing the exact same game (in the minor leagues) as a professional fraudster buying burner SSNs on the dark web from his mansion in Venezuela.  You're extracting personal profit from the credit card industry.  If you're selling tradelines (I am) then you've potentially moved up from the minor leagues to being a supporting player for the pros.

[elliha]

I am not American so I like most people I know don't use credit cards, only debit cards. At the moment I don't want a credit card at all but when we are more stable financially I will get one to pay for trips with (for insurance). I seriously doubt I would be comfortable with having a higher credit than 3 monthly salaries and I would also not go trips that would cost more than that either.

[swampwiz]

To make it interesting, I used my total unsecured debt before I filed for Chapter 7.  If I use the income that I presumed I could have had I been able to find work like I had years earlier that that time, it would have been at about 400%.  The plan had been to wait out the stock market plunge in the late aughts and get a big home loan for the replacement home that got destroyed in a major hurricane a few years prior.  Looking back, I think I had always had in the back of mind that Chapter 7 bankruptcy would be an option if things didn't work out as planned.  They didn't work out as planned, so I made the best of it by optimizing my post-bankruptcy estate, which I think I did a very good job with.

[I'm a red panda]

I don't know.
I have 14 cards right now (I think, I might have lost count). At least two of them have limits that are higher than my gross income. Store cards are typically low limits, though. 

So altogether, it would likely be 800-900%?

The limit, like the interest rate, is irrelevant to me. I just need to know what the rewards are.

[I'm a red panda]

If you're (legally and industriously) gaming the credit card system with back to back 0% introductory offers and sign up bonuses, you're playing the exact same game (in the minor leagues) as a professional fraudster buying burner SSNs on the dark web from his mansion in Venezuela. 

I really disagree. The CC companies make money of people who get these bonuses because of transaction fees. They offer them for a reason and it isn't being nice.

This is nothing like illegal sales of SSNs.

[sol]

This is nothing like illegal sales of SSNs.

You don't have to buy any SSNs to run this scam.  You can use the number you already have, and if you have total limits as high as the ones reported in this thread, you could be instantly FI in many many countries by skipping out on your debts.

[I'm a red panda]

This is nothing like illegal sales of SSNs.

You don't have to buy any SSNs to run this scam.  You can use the number you already have, and if you have total limits as high as the ones reported in this thread, you could be instantly FI in many many countries by skipping out on your debts.

What scam? Your original post was about collecting sign up offers, through legal means.  Now you are talking about skipping out on debt.  Not the same thing.

[ketchup]

Around 300% across a silly amount of cards, almost entirely opened for those juicy sign-up bonuses.

[accolay]

I guess I don't really know. Should I care?

I guess I don't really know. Should I care?

Is this a grammar nazi thing? Should I care?

[maizefolk]

Are you folks with multiples of household income in unsecured credit card debt just carrying dozens of open credit cards? Or can people really get high five figure or six figure limits on individual credit cards?

I totaled my own unsecured credit up and I'm at 23% of last year's W-2 income, and that's with being pretty systematic about requesting credit limit increases to decrease percent utilization.

[secondcor521]

Current total unsecured credit / 2017 federal AGI = 15.16, or 1,516%.  That and a quarter will buy me a cup of coffee.

It's not really a fair calculation though.  Most of my credit I collected before I retired, and my 2017 tax return is from after I retired.  If I used my pre-retirement income, I'd be somewhere around 300%.

[sol]

What scam? Your original post was about collecting sign up offers, through legal means.  Now you are talking about skipping out on debt.  Not the same thing.

Did you read my post?  Someone asked why information about higher total credit limits might be useful, and I explained how some people will get (or buy with tradelines) a bunch of high limit cards and then max them out.  You can do this totally legally, with your own SSN.  If you then move to a non-extradition country, you get to keep all of that money.  It's one way that people make money from credit card companies.

Getting 0% introductory offers and collecting sign up bonuses is another way.  In both cases, the cost of your profit is passed on to other credit card users in the form of higher interest rates.

[Paul der Krake]

Does anyone actually leave the country forever for a measly 200-300k?

[WhiteTrashCash]

I have 120% credit available compared to our household income. More than that would be pointless in my opinion. I already have enough to handle any extreme emergency.

[sol]

Does anyone actually leave the country forever for a measly 200-300k?

Probably not people on this board, no.  But people in general?  Yea, some of them.

Especially the ones who have 1000% of their annual salary in credit, and get to spend it all twice before fleeing.

Especially the criminals who can appropriate unused credit profiles every month or two, and do this repeatedly.

[gooki]

A huge 2% here.

[BTDretire]

 We are now at 31%, but that doubled when my wife got a Sam's card
and ask for the same limit as our Mastercard.

[Clever Name]

I have about $90k in available unsecured credit, and a personal income of about $130-140k. So somewhere around 70%.

[Rosy]

Voted - roughly 125% of my income.
I am surprised by how many people said that they were not sure or questioned why they should care.

[Zamboni]

Based upon the results of this survey, I can see how so many people get into trouble with their credit card debt!

[sol]

Based upon the results of this survey, I can see how so many people get into trouble with their credit card debt!

Meh, I'm one of the people who has no idea what my total available credit is.  Why would it matter, to someone who just paid the balances in full every month?

Let's be sure to draw a distinction between credit card "debt" which I know pretty precisely at any given moment, and credit "limit" which is the total amount you are allowed to borrow.  Surely this forum, of all places, naturally sees these two things as fundamentally unrelated. 

[Zamboni]

I agree, sol, and I'm in the same boat. No idea what my total credit limit is off the top of my head . . . it is not particularly relevant to me. But just thinking about the number of cards I have and the typical limit on those cards, it has to be much more than 100% of my annual salary. Of course, I could technically liquidate a fraction of my investments to cover it even if I maxed out all the cards . . . maybe that is why it is so high?  I just looked at my credit report and see that my current utilization of credit is 6%, which includes a giant planned purchase from last week.

Although the rates don't affect me because I pay off balances each month, the rates are high. My lowest card interest rate is just over 10% these days, while 17-18% is more typical and some of the rewards cards are even higher. I bought something very expensive on a card a couple of months ago and then goofed because I was traveling overseas and the payment got there a couple of days late. The interest that popped up was $92! They reversed it, but sheesh, how do people afford to carry balances?!

So, it is enlightening to me that so many people can borrow 90+% of their income (I'm assuming on cards and other revolving debt). Many Americans have no savings and little hope of paying those balances off rapidly if they overdo it for any reason. What a trap!

[KBecks]

I don't use credit and don't know my credit limit.  My husband has a credit card and I don't know his credit limit.  It is very unlikely that we would ever use it to the max.

[TornWonder]

Are you folks with multiples of household income in unsecured credit card debt just carrying dozens of open credit cards? Or can people really get high five figure or six figure limits on individual credit cards?

I totaled my own unsecured credit up and I'm at 23% of last year's W-2 income, and that's with being pretty systematic about requesting credit limit increases to decrease percent utilization.

I have a card with a $70,000 limit.  It was originally 4 different cards and when I closed the 3 extra cards (to avoid annual fees) they combined the limits onto the remaining card. 

[I'm a red panda]

Are you folks with multiples of household income in unsecured credit card debt just carrying dozens of open credit cards? Or can people really get high five figure or six figure limits on individual credit cards?

I have 1 cards with a six figure limit and a number of cards with high 5-figures.

My first house was below one of my credit card's limit.

[talltexan]

I'm reading this and setting some new goals. It's clear that having three cards with the same bank totaling $24,000 in limits is nothing special around here.