Increasing your credit card’s credit limit provides additional purchasing power, and has the potential to improve your credit score. If you’re a Bank of America cardholder, asking for a credit limit increase is easy. In some cases, the bank will increase your limit automatically. Otherwise, you can submit a request over the phone, online or in a branch. But remember — if you’ve just opened your card or haven’t treated it responsibly, your request may not be granted.
Here’s what you need to know about how to ask for a credit limit increase on your Bank of America credit card.
There are three ways to request a credit limit increase with Bank of America — through online banking, the Bank of America app or over the phone. Bank of America will typically ask for some personal information and the amount you’d like to request. The maximum increase you can request at once depends on your account.
If you’re eligible for a credit limit increase, here are the steps to take:
You can also request a credit line increase using your Bank of America app.
Call the number on the back of your credit card to request a higher credit limit over the phone. You’ll need to prepare the same information that you’d provide to make the request online.
→ Learn more about how to increase your credit limit.
There are no specific guidelines for when to request a credit limit increase, but certain scenarios can increase your odds of approval:
→ Learn more about how to build credit with a credit card.
When submitting a request to Bank of America to increase your credit limit, you’ll need to say how much additional credit you want. Here are a few factors to consider when submitting your request:
No, a credit line increase with Bank of America won’t lower your credit score. When applying for new credit, most lenders perform a “hard inquiry” on your credit report that can temporarily lower your credit score. However, Bank of America does a “soft pull” before increasing your credit limit — this doesn’t affect your credit score, and other lenders can’t see the inquiry.
Tip: Getting a credit limit increase can actually improve your credit score by lowering your credit utilization ratio, which accounts for 30% of your FICO Score. This ratio is the amount of debt you have compared to your available credit.
For example, assume that you were carrying a $400 balance on a credit card with a $1,000 limit (40% utilization). If you have increased your limit to $1,500, you would lower your utilization to just under 27%, below the 30% ratio recommended by personal finance experts.
But, don’t allow a higher credit limit to tempt you into overspending. Only make purchases you know you can pay off when your bill is due. Otherwise, you could dig yourself into debt that you can’t pay off and harm your credit score.
→ Learn more about how a credit limit increase affects your credit score.
Unfortunately, Bank of America doesn’t approve every credit limit increase request. If your request was declined, here are a few options:
→ See all of the top Bank of America credit cards.
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