Reply to "Credit card interest rate and credit limits"

FWIW, I recently called my credit card companies and had them lower my credit limits. They've given me automatic limit increases for years, and I just started getting concerned at the exposure should my credit card account be compromised in this day and age of identity theft. I also added cards to one of the accounts for my teenage children, and there was no way to set a lower limit on their cards.

The funny thing is that I went to Costco a couple weeks later (right before Christmas) and one of my cards was declined because my wife had hit the limit on it already. Embarrassing to say the least.

Also, if you find yourself refinancing your home mortgage, credit card limits can impact your debt to income ratio, and ultimately whether you qualify for the loan or not. When I was in lending many many moons ago, any credit account with a $10,000 limit or more was added to the borrowers debt service amount, regardless if there was anything owed on the account or not.