Have you ever thought about that? The amount of money that’s available to you with just a swipe of a card? It’s really freaky. I’m not sure what the average credit limit people have these days, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t curious to find out (hence, the reason for this post!).
If it’s any indication of what one of my blogger friends found out – who got to this post first, that turd bucket – the numbers def. vary. Some commenters had a few thousand to their name, while others had upwards of $150k! Of course, there are a ton of variables that come into play: age, credit history, overall net worth (I think?), so it’s only natural we have varying limits. Plus, a lot of people don’t know you could sometimes up your limit with a quick phone call! You might not WANT to if you’re a spendy little mcspendster, but if you’re trying to work the credit score #’s (by lowering your debt to credit ratio) it’s always an option you have. Just don’t tell our friend Enemy of Debt, he can’t stand credit cards!
Anywho, here’s all the cards we have in our family – and don’t think this is some sort of competition or anything, it’s just for fun :) And also for future reference…like if you go on a game show or something.
- USAA Cash Rewards card – $30k (my card)
- USAA “World” Cash Rewards card – $25k (house card)
- The Wifey’s card – ? (she’s sleeping right now, I’ll have to edit later…)
We’ve got about $55k between the wife and I – up from $15k before we called to get it raised. I can’t fathom a time when we would actually NEED thousands like that (knock on wood) but it’s somewhat comforting knowing it’s there. If only because of the “credit crisis” we’re in.
Your turn. How many cards & total credit do you have in the hopper? Let’s see if we can beat out Bargaineering‘s extremes of $0.00 for the least (aka no credit cards at all), and $185,500 w/ the most!
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HELOC – $118,000 (balance 0). When DH was laid off (and the bank didn’t know) we had this raised to the maximum we qualified for, just in case. Never needed it and never bothered to have it reduced after he found a new job soon after.
Visa – $20,000 (balance 0) original card (from 25yrs ago) kept only for long credit history. Not actively used. Should check to see if we actually still need to keep this.
Visa – $15,000 (balance ~0) New card ~14mths ago. Earns flight miles and is used for everything. Paid off weekly.
Visa – $1,000 (balance 0) our low limit “internet card” used only for online purchases from unfamiliar sites.
AMEX – $20,000 (balance 0) Hubby’s corporate card for business travel. Paid within a week of charges (when expense check arrives).
TOTAL $174,000! Good thing misusing credit cards isn’t concern for us, just a tool for earning mileage for free vacation flights. I know if you are applying for a loan they look at all your available credit as actual debt, but I don’t foresee us ever applying for a loan in our lifetime. We’re paying off our mortgage ASAP and don’t intend to apply for another. We pay cash for our cars. Should it ever become an issue, we’ll simply have the HELOC cut down to something more normal.
Isn’t it scary how much we have at our fingertips? I wish all the other comments from the Blogger –> WordPress conversion came over :( We had a GREAT list going here…oh well, now we got yours – thanks! :)