(no subject)

[which_chick]

The nice people at Chase (my credit card company) have sent me the happy news that they've jacked my credit limit to the point where it is within a few hundred dollars of being what I get paid in a year.



Maybe it's a matter of perspective. Perhaps I don't know what things look like for other people.

If you would, participate here in a little consumer-credit survey for me. Gather up all your plastic (visa, mastercard, store cards if you have any), find out the limits for same, total 'em up, and divide by your pre-tax income to get the percentage. For example, if you have 45,000 in assorted credit card credit lines and your actual gross income (before taxes) was 34,000, then you have 132% of your income in credit line. I don't want to know how much you make or how much your credit line is. I want to know the relationship between the two.

It's quite possible that I'm sort of stick-in-the-mud, here. Maybe I'm reactionary. Possibly everyone has a hundred per cent of annual income in plastic. Might be that I'm on the low end by way of having only one plastic. Let me know.

In addition, it would seem that I am not spending enough on my plastic. (Buh?!?) Chase has now mailed me twice about how I should make all (my) plans a reality. They're promising me the freedom to follow through on purchases (I've) been putting off. Well. Isn't that special! :)

Comments

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

I only JUST got a job, which is 5h/week just for this quarter, so...estimating, I have about 240% my "yearly" income in credit.

What do I use my credit card for? Paying rent because my debit card is usually broken, then immediately paying the balance off in full with the money the school gives me to pay my rent (because I can pay it online and it doesn't matter if the card doesn't work.)

[sara-merry99.livejournal.com]

Umm you want math huh....ummm...crap, I don't have a calculator handy...more than 10%, less than 15%. Is that close enough? But I only have one credit card, I just got it a little over a year ago (and yes, they've doubled my credit limit since I got it) and I deliberately chose this card for a low limit.

[ksleet.livejournal.com]

I have about 33% of my annual income available as credit. However, I've never made any effort to get more credit than the one single card I've had since college.

[fooliv.livejournal.com]

The thing is, the single card you have since college, is probably one of those sucker-bait cards like the one I had from MBNA for a decade or more. They just keep rolling up the credit available on those suckers, unless you're totally inactive or defaulting.

Either you make a truly scary amount of money, or they have somehow overlooked you in their "automatically pump his credit into the stratosphere" database.

[ladyivy.livejournal.com]

I have several cards I do not cancel b/c part of your credit score is how long you have had credit, and if you cancel out a card and use newer cards it looks like you have had credit for less time. If you only count the two cards I use the percentage of available credit to income is about 40%. If you count all the cards I have available to me - this adds several store cards and two more major credit cards - it goes up to about 75%.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

5%.

I haven't tried very hard, admittedly.

[cousin-sue.livejournal.com]

Been getting rid of our plastic.

Hope to continue doing so.

[fooliv.livejournal.com]

MBNA used to pull the same thing with me, except I think it was in excess of what I actually made in a year, on account of my being a minimally-employable history-degree misfire of a twentysomething at the time. I eventually figured out it was a shell-game designed to keep me sending in those late fees & rolling balances, and I now have a debit card, and nothing else. And I *don't* have to play late-fee bingo every month or try to remember when it is that I'm supposed to be paying my credit card bill. I'm not paying a credit card bill. If I don't have the money, I don't buy it, and it wasn't as if I didn't ever keep enough of a bumper in my checking account to cover whatever I might bill to the card in a given month, anyways.

Long story short: credit card companies evil. Not necessary to deal with them: win!

[jaltemba-bay.livejournal.com]

Don't know what my total credit is. Have about 8-10 cards but only two are active. You know how I feel about these things; amount doesn't matter as long as all balances are pait each month. Interest is to collecdt not pay.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

I've stopped using my credit cards entirely. The only communication I have with them is when I send them a check each month. Trying to get out of credit card debt sucks, hard.