In the process of creating our “which credit card companies do a hard pull for credit limit increases” post we came across Navy Federal Credit Unions (NFCU) strange process and decided to their credit limit increase (CLI) process in full.
- You request a credit limit increase and it’s automatically approved, this will result in a soft pull and you should be able to request another increase and be approved without causing a hard pull.
- You request a credit limit and NFCU counters with a lower limit, this will result in a soft pull. If you request another CLI it will probably result in a hard pull.
- You request a credit limit increased and are told you will be notified of the outcome in 3-5 days, this will result in a hard pull and somebody manually looking at your credit report.
If you request a CLI and receive the 3-5 day notice you may be able to avoid a hard pull.
If you call up and ask them to cancel the CLI you may be able to avoid them doing a hard pull on your report, this used to work 100% of the time but it’s now more likely a 50% 50% proposition.
Rules for asking for a NFCU CLI
- Always ask for your credit limit to be increased to $25,000. Even if you have a credit limit of $1,000, worst case scenario they’ll counter-offer. By doing small credit limit increase requests you just increase your chances of being hit with a hard credit inquiry.
- You need to wait a minimum of three months before applying for a credit limit increase.
- You should also wait a minimum of 180 days in between applying for increases.
- The max limit you can have with NFCU across all cards is $180,000. Max limit for Flagship Visa is $80k, others are $50k
Hat tip to the myFICO forums
