How to Increase Your Credit Limit

You can increase your credit limit by requesting a higher limit from your credit card’s issuer over the phone, through your online account, or at a branch. Alternatively, you can wait for your credit card company to automatically raise your limit.

Other strategies include adding to the deposit on a secured credit card or applying for a new credit card account to raise your overall limit. Which option you choose depends on what type of credit card you have and whether you’re looking for more spending power or a higher limit for credit-improvement purposes.

Key Things to Know About Credit Limit Increases

• What Is a Credit Limit? A credit limit is the maximum amount you can spend with your credit card. Once your balance reaches this amount, you can’t spend any more without paying off part of what you owe.
• How to Request an Increase: Credit card issuers allow you to ask for a credit limit increase online, through their mobile apps, by phone or at a branch.
• When to Request an Increase: It’s best to wait until you’ve made at least six consecutive on-time payments before requesting a credit limit increase, to maximize your chances. After receiving an increase, you should wait at least six more months before requesting another.
• Minimum Timeline: You’ll usually need to have your card open for at least three months before asking for an increase, but this may differ depending on the issuer.
• How Often You Can Get an Increase: Your issuer will have its own rules about how often you can request a credit limit increase, but it’s usually around six to 12 months after your previous request.
• Amount of the Increase: You could get an increase of hundreds to thousands of dollars. The amount depends on factors like your current limit, existing debts, credit history, and income.
• Credit Checks: Depending on the credit card issuer, you may need to agree to a hard pull of your credit when requesting a credit limit increase. This could temporarily lower your credit score by a few points.
• Automatic Increases: Your issuer may periodically review your account and offer you an increase automatically. This will not trigger a hard pull since hard pulls require your permission. But automatic increases aren’t guaranteed and may not give you the amount you want.
• What Is a High Credit Limit? WalletHub considers a high limit to be $10,000+.

How to Increase Your Credit Limit

1. Request a Higher Credit Limit
2. Wait for an Automatic Credit Limit Increase
3. Add to a Secured Credit Card’s Security Deposit
4. Apply for a New Credit Card Account

Request a Higher Credit Limit

Log in to your credit card company’s website or mobile app, pull up your account’s main menu and look for the option to ask for a higher limit. Then, answer the questions about your income, expenses and desired credit limit, and submit the request. Make sure to read the fine print about whether submitting your request will trigger a hard credit pull.

You can also request a credit limit increase by calling customer service at the number on the back of your card. You might even be able to request one in person by visiting one of your issuer’s branch locations.

You have the best chance of receiving a credit limit increase on credit cards that have been open for at least six months, on which you’ve always made on-time payments.

Wait for an Automatic Credit Limit Increase

Credit card companies evaluate existing accounts regularly, usually beginning once an account has been open for five or six months. If you pay your bill on time every month, you may automatically receive a higher limit from time to time. This option is more of a happy surprise than something you can count on, as it’s never guaranteed.

Add to a Secured Credit Card’s Security Deposit

Secured cards require users to place a refundable security deposit. The amount of the deposit usually becomes the card’s credit limit, though there are some cases where the limit can be slightly higher than the deposit amount. You can increase your limit simply by adding to your deposit.

This option doesn’t really let you borrow more, since you’re essentially borrowing against your own money, but it may help your credit score improve faster.

Apply for a New Credit Card Account

Opening a new credit card account will likely increase your overall spending power more than requesting a higher credit limit on an existing card. You may even get some extra perks in the process, such as a rewards bonus or a 0% introductory APR.

This option is best for people whose credit scores have improved since the last time they applied for a credit card. You can check your latest credit score for free here on WalletHub.

Compare High Limit Credit Cards

How Is a Credit Limit Determined?

Credit card companies all do things a bit differently when it comes to setting credit card limits. However, most base their credit limits on the same overall factors:

• Credit History & Disposable Income: The more disposable income you have and the longer your track record of financial responsibility is, the higher your spending limit will likely be.
• Economic Climate: If the economic outlook is gloomy, credit card companies are much more likely to be conservative in their credit offers to all of their customers. In these cases, even if your credit score has risen, you might not get additional credit.
• Security Deposit: The security deposit on a secured credit card is typically equal to the credit limit. To increase your credit limit, you can deposit more funds.
• No Preset Spending Limit: Another segment of the credit card market never actually discloses exact spending limits, even once your account is active. No preset spending limit cards and charge cards – which some consumers mistake to be limitless – have dynamic spending limits that are established on a monthly basis.

To learn more, check out WalletHub’s guide on how credit limits are determined.

Credit Limit Increase Policies by Major Credit Card Company

Opinions and ratings are our own. This content is not provided, commissioned or endorsed by any issuer. Information was independently collected in July 2025 and may have changed since. For the most current details, please refer to the issuer’s website.

Benefits of a Higher Credit Limit

Getting a higher credit limit is good for your credit score and makes spending money more convenient, as long as you use your card responsibly. Let’s go through the benefits in detail.

Lower Utilization

Credit utilization is a major component of the amounts owed section of your credit score, which accounts for about 30% of your total score. Credit utilization is calculated for each of your cards individually as well as for all of your cards in combination.

Having more credit available will decrease your overall utilization as well as the individual ratios of currently tapped out cards you get an increase on. It will also signal to lenders that you are a trustworthy borrower.

Added Spending Power

A higher credit limit obviously enables you to spend more money. This may be a blessing for some, who perhaps need to finance car repairs or pay medical bills.

Minimal Negative Credit Score Impact

Requesting and receiving a credit line increase is less detrimental to your credit standing than applying for and opening a new credit card. Yes, requesting a credit line increase will likely result in a hard credit pull, but the damage won’t be too severe. Using the higher credit limit responsibly will also lead to credit score gains.

Disadvantages of a Higher Credit Limit

There are a few downsides to getting a higher credit limit that are worth considering, as expanded spending power can bring temptation and make getting other loans more difficult. Let’s break down the disadvantages.

Potential for More Debt

U.S. consumers owe well over $1 trillion in credit card debt. We obviously have an overspending issue, and that clearly illustrates the danger inherent with a credit limit increase. Used irresponsibly, the added spending power could wind up representing the rope needed to hang your finances.

Inability to Get Other Loans & Lines of Credit

The more credit you already have at your disposal, the less likely another financial institution will be to extend you additional credit in the future. Your income and assets only enable you to support so much debt, after all, which means that a higher credit limit could make you less lendable moving forward.

What to Do If You’re Denied

If you don’t get approved for a credit limit increase, you should ask your credit card company for the reason why, if they don’t tell you upfront. Then, you can work on improving that issue and eventually submit another credit limit increase request when you’ve made sufficient progress.

To improve your chances of getting approved in the future, you should:

• Always pay your monthly bills on time
• Pay your balance in full each month, if possible
• Pay down other existing debts
• Raise your income
• Check your credit report for any inaccuracies and dispute them

If your initial credit limit increase request involved a hard inquiry and lowered your credit score, we recommend waiting six months or more before submitting your next request to give your score time to recover. Your card’s issuer might also have its own rules for how often you can submit a request, such as every six or 12 months.

It’s also worth noting that you might end up getting approved for a smaller credit limit increase than you were hoping for. In that case, you can try contacting your card’s issuer to see if they’ll reconsider. If that fails, just keep working on your credit and ask for another increase in six months.

Should You Increase Your Credit Limit?

In general, it’s a good idea to increase your credit limit because doing so can help raise your credit score by lowering your credit utilization ratio. It can also enable you to spend more money while maintaining the same credit utilization percentage. In addition, an increased credit limit gives you more wiggle room to charge things to your card in an emergency situation.

When You Shouldn’t Increase Your Credit Limit

1. When it will tempt you to overspend: If increasing your credit limit would cause you to spend more money than you can afford to repay, then it’s not a good idea. Carrying a balance on a credit card is very expensive and can quickly lead to unsustainable debt.
2. When you need the best possible credit score in the near future: Requesting a credit limit increase usually leads to a hard pull of your credit report, which will likely drop your score by around 5 points for a few months. It’s not a good idea to do this right before you’re applying for another form of credit such as a mortgage or car loan, as a little bit of temporary credit score damage could cost you a lot of money.

You can learn more about credit limits and their importance here on WalletHub.