How to reduce Credit Card limit permanently

[gowthamv]

From my experience so far I've seen that it is incredibly hard to get credit limits reduced. Both ICICI and Citi tried their best to talk me out of it. The Citi guy especially couldn't believe that someone would even request something like this

Anyway got ICICI reduced by 3 lakhs and Citi by 2 lakhs. Closed IndusInd Legend of 5L and BoB Easy RuPay of 1.5L. Still trying to get Standard Chartered (3.66L) and HDFC (3L) to reduce their limits.

how did you get your ICICI limit reduced? via email or phone?

 

[rogerthat]

how did you get your ICICI limit reduced? via email or phone?

I did, via phone. They told me that I have an option in the app to reduce the CL. It wasn't there and then they enabled it for me.

 

[SSV]

how did you get your ICICI limit reduced? via email or phone?

I did, via phone. They told me that I have an option in the app to reduce the CL. It wasn't there and then they enabled it for me.

We can do this in the APP and in the next iteration it will report the reduced limit to bureaus..

 

[rogerthat]

But why ?

So if you have too much unsecured loan (credit cards, personal loans) that exceed a multiple of your income (1.5x, 2x depending on the bank) they can deny you new credit saying you are over-leveraged to be in-line with latest RBI guidelines.

One of the methods to reduce leverage is to reduce your credit exposure by closing unnecessary cards and reducing CL. I have now made by total CL about 1.2x of my annual income which should be ok with most banks.

 

[SSV]

how did you get your ICICI limit reduced? via email or phone?

We can do this in the APP and in the next iteration it will report the reduced limit to bureaus..

This is how we do it...

 

[gowthamv]

I did, via phone. They told me that I have an option in the app to reduce the CL. It wasn't there and then they enabled it for me.

We can do this in the APP and in the next iteration it will report the reduced limit to bureaus..

Oh.. I thought reducing it in the App, just modifies the transaction preferences.

Never knew, the limit in the App will be the limit reported to CIBIL.

 

[Fini7777]

So if you have too much unsecured loan (credit cards, personal loans) that exceed a multiple of your income (1.5x, 2x depending on the bank) they can deny you new credit saying you are over-leveraged to be in-line with latest RBI guidelines.

One of the methods to reduce leverage is to reduce your credit exposure by closing unnecessary cards and reducing CL. I have now made by total CL about 1.2x of my annual income which should be ok with most banks.

ok, it make sense.. but as far as I know the SBI is the only one which is taking this factor into consideration before approving an application.
so, I suggest you not to reduce limit in your cards instead close the cards that you don't use often.
If your utilization ratio is good there won't be any impact of over-leverage on your future applications

 

[rogerthat]

ok, it make sense.. but as far as I know the SBI is the only one which is taking this factor into consideration before approving an application.
so, I suggest you not to reduce limit in your cards instead close the cards that you don't use often.
If your utilization ratio is good there won't be any impact of over-leverage on your future applications

As far as I know, SBI, SCB and RBL seemingly look at leverage, but SBI takes it way too seriously.

Yeah I have done exactly that. I've closed some and got credit limits reduced for others and cleaned my CIBIL too.

• Closed IndusInd Legend with 5L CL
• Closed HDFC Regalia Gold and Tata Neu Infinity 3L each
• Closed Axis Magnus 6.6L
• Closed BOB Eazy 1.5L
• Reduced Axis Atlas and Axis IOCL from 6.6L each to 6L each (individual CL reduction is not possible)
• Reduced ICICI Amazon Pay from 6.6L to 3.25L
• Reduced Citi PremierMiles from 4.8L to 2.05L
• Reduced SCB from 3.66L to 2L.
• Left IDFC Select (1.82L), SBI IRCTC (1L), AMEX MRCC (2.08L) and BoB Premier (1.5L) as it is.

Also cleaned up my CIBIL by getting four cards removed which were showing active despite being closed long ago.

• ICICI Coral with 2.5L (and 575 credit balance)
• HDFC Privilege Diners with 3L
• BoB Eterna with 1.5L
• SCB some account without a CL

On the way my CIBIL score improved from 747 to 764. I had some expenses last month so utilisation is now at 18%. I've paid off all those bills so it should come down to single digits next month. Planning to apply for Octane and a bunch of other cards after that.

Oh and also, my employment details in CIBIL are all wrong. The company name is my old company and monthly income is only a quarter of my actual income thanks to one SBI branch aunty. I think this was a reason why I was being rejected for everything.

 

[MS R]

We can do this in the APP and in the next iteration it will report the reduced limit to bureaus..

Will the limit be permanently reduced? If we wish to, can we return to the original limit?

 

[SSV]

Will the limit be permanently reduced? If we wish to, can we return to the original limit?

It is not permanent.. you can go back to original limit

 

[gowthamv]

This is how we do it...

View attachment 55150

Here it says "without changing the credit limit".?

 

[SSV]

View attachment 55433

Here it says "without changing the credit limit".?

Yes, try once..
What it means:
it won't change the granted limit by icici to you..means you can.go back to original limit when ever you want.

I read somewhere, the changed limit only gets reported to cibil..
You need to try and wait until it gets reported

You can even check after statement gets generated

 

[gowthamv]

Yes, try once..
What it means:
it won't change the granted limit by icici to you..means you can.go back to original limit when ever you want.

I read somewhere, the changed limit only gets reported to cibil..
You need to try and wait until it gets reported

You can even check after statement gets generated

yeah sure.. will try today..

 

[SSV]

yeah sure.. will try today..

And update us after the statement generation and
in 3 months time in cibil report
Ta

 

[Shin-Chan]

As far as I know, SBI, SCB and RBL seemingly look at leverage, but SBI takes it way too seriously.

Yeah I have done exactly that. I've closed some and got credit limits reduced for others and cleaned my CIBIL too.

• Closed IndusInd Legend with 5L CL
• Closed HDFC Regalia Gold and Tata Neu Infinity 3L each
• Closed Axis Magnus 6.6L
• Closed BOB Eazy 1.5L
• Reduced Axis Atlas and Axis IOCL from 6.6L each to 6L each (individual CL reduction is not possible)
• Reduced ICICI Amazon Pay from 6.6L to 3.25L
• Reduced Citi PremierMiles from 4.8L to 2.05L
• Reduced SCB from 3.66L to 2L.
• Left IDFC Select (1.82L), SBI IRCTC (1L), AMEX MRCC (2.08L) and BoB Premier (1.5L) as it is.

Also cleaned up my CIBIL by getting four cards removed which were showing active despite being closed long ago.

• ICICI Coral with 2.5L (and 575 credit balance)
• HDFC Privilege Diners with 3L
• BoB Eterna with 1.5L
• SCB some account without a CL

On the way my CIBIL score improved from 747 to 764. I had some expenses last month so utilisation is now at 18%. I've paid off all those bills so it should come down to single digits next month. Planning to apply for Octane and a bunch of other cards after that.

Oh and also, my employment details in CIBIL are all wrong. The company name is my old company and monthly income is only a quarter of my actual income thanks to one SBI branch aunty. I think this was a reason why I was being rejected for everything.

Sir you reduced leverage by 28L. I am certain the removal of Coral Card with balance and reduction in active accounts playing more role in CIBIL improvement than leverage reduction.


Leverage reduction is kind of increases Bank's Future confidence while higher Leverage (potential) shows past and present credit worthiness.

2x leverage of Annual Salary should be fine.

 

[pothi]

I like ICICI for this ability to reduce the credit limit temporarily. However, I can't find any info about Axis CC. I know the customer care can reduce the credit limit on request. However I'd like to know if the reduction is temporary or permanent with Axis?

 

[Shin-Chan]

I like ICICI for this ability to reduce the credit limit temporarily. However, I can't find any info about Axis CC. I know the customer care can reduce the credit limit on request. However I'd like to know if the reduction is temporary or permanent with Axis?

I want to know the same, I have ~30L limit on Axis while I am certain I will never need more than 5L on AXIS if SBI rejects me whenever I apply will surely reduce Axis to 5L

 

[MS R]

Also cleaned up my CIBIL by getting four cards removed which were showing active despite being closed long ago.

• ICICI Coral with 2.5L (and 575 credit balance)
• HDFC Privilege Diners with 3L
• BoB Eterna with 1.5L
• SCB some account without a CL

bro how did u clean up? i have couple of accounts with around 5L balance ,, i need to clean as well

 

[MS R]

bro how did u clean up? i have couple of accounts with around 5L balance ,, i need to clean as well

Cc @rogerthat ..

 

[rogerthat]

bro how did u clean up? i have couple of accounts with around 5L balance ,, i need to clean as well

Hi bro well first you need to identify which accounts to clean up in CIBIL and then call/email the banks and keep following up with them until the cards are closed and/or removed from CIBIL. It is a pain and you need a lot of patience... Especially when it comes to removing the accounts from CIBIL.

For me Citi was the easiest to deal with and BoB was the most difficult. IndusInd took around two weeks to close the card and around a month to remove it from CIBIL. BoB also took more than a week to close the cards but it took close to two months and endless follow ups to remove the cards from CIBIL. I had to escalate it until PNO to get the cards removed. HDFC is another story, the cards were closed immediately and removed from CIBIL but another card that I closed long ago was still stuck there like a ghost. I had to do multiple follow ups to get that one removed. And then the cards were still showing up in netbanking and had to raise yet another request to get those removed. Reducing CL was easy though they all tried a lot to talk me out of it.