I secured a $49,000 credit limit with Navy Federal on a single card in today's video I'm going to show you exactly how to apply for a credit limit increase the best strategies to use and how to navigate Navy Federal's rules and requirements to maximize your chances of approvals and amounts so we all know that Navy Federal has a pretty good reputation when it comes to its members they are pretty friendly for those with less than excellent credit and they are known to hand out pretty high credit limits right off the bat with Navy Federal you can get a combined cray limit of $80,000 across all all your Navy Federal credit cards there have been a few members that have greater limits than this but they tend to get it claw back to under 80k Navy Fed currently has five unsecured credit cards with the maximum number of credit cards that you can have is three with the flagship card you can get a maximum credit limit of $80,000 and with the others you can get up to $50,000 for each one of those cards people often under why why would you need such a high cred limit for me there are times where a high credit has really helped out for example for this year's taxes I had a pretty huge tax bill roughly around $40,000 for my personal taxes one of the few cards I was able to use to pay this off amount was my Navy Federal Credit Card I also decided to use this card because there is a fee to pay your taxes and it was a little bit under 2% so this card gave me a 2% cash back which pretty much canceled out that fee the second reason to have higher credit limits is that it can definitely help you with your credit score if you have any balances on your credit cards having a higher credit limit can show that you have a lower overall utilization and a third reason of why having a high credit limit can be helpful is that it can be better for future applications not just with n Federal but with other issuers as well if they see that you can handle a higher credit limit they' be more inclined to offer you a higher credit limit as well now let's talk about the credit bureau that's used for requesting a credit limit increase Navy Federal will use your eifax F9 credit score for credit limit increases it's really hard to find this credit score unless you purchase it directly through my FICO or ecopax but having a ballpark number through any of the free credit score apps like Credit Karma can give you a rough idea so before you actually request for a credit limit increase you need to know that typically credit limit increases then through the phone or to the website usually results in a soft inquiry if you request for a credum increase through the phone this will most likely result in a hard pull one way to prevent this from happening is by freezing your credit with Equifax you can simply do this by creating an account with Equifax and freezing your credit through them link will be down below but again it is recommended to request through the mobile app or online now before you actually request for a increase there is another criteria that you need to meet first you're going to have to wait at least 91 days and three full statement Cycles this is also known as a 913 rule although many data point have shown people getting credit limit increases exactly on day 91 it is best to wait at least a few days after to ensure that you meet your 91 day requirement what I usually like to do is to set a reminder or a calendar date exactly 92 days after I got approved for the credit card to remind me to request for a credit limit increase now if you previously requested for a credit limit increase and were approved you would have to wait at least 181 days or 6 billion cycles this waiting period applies to all future credit limit increases so if this is the case for you then set a reminder exactly 182 days after your last request if you requested a credit limit increase before knowing all of the details in this video you won't be penalized most likely you would just get denied but you can just always reapply right after you meet the waiting period now what if you are unsure of when you last requested your increase or when did you open your card there are two ways to find out the easiest is probably calling Navy Federal and asking them when your credit card was open or when was your last credit limit increase was requested if you prefer not to actually talk to a person you can actually go onto your statements and backdate this information now if you recently graduated from the N rewards secureity card this will count towards your first credit limit increase you would have to wait another 181 days or six billing Cycles before you make another request now let's talk about some strategies for success even when you request for a credum increase through the app or online it will be a self-enquiry this will mean that they will still take a look at your credit although this may not hurt your personal credit profile they will still take a brief snapshot to see what's your current standing this will be a factor whether or not you get approved if you have high balances especially on other Navy Federal credit cards or if you have a high balance on your current credit card that you're requesting for a credit limit increase for you will have a hard time getting approved I have seen people with low account balances in their checking accounts and high balances on their credit cards and get turned down because they're going to be seen as higher risk for NE Federal to extend more credit to so whenever you are thinking about requesting for a credit limit increase just make sure that your credit utilization on that card is low I prefer to be as close to as paid off as possible and your other credit card accounts should be below 30% utilization this will give you a much better chance of getting approved for your requests if you have any recent derogatory remarks like within the past one to two years you could still try to get a credit limit increase but I highly doubt that you will get approved since this negative information is still so new if this describes your current situation I would highly recommend trying to repair your credit if you want to save some money and do it yourself I do have a DIY software that allows you to repair your own credit just with a few clicks you can print out your own letters and track everything all in one place it is called credit rehab Pro if you guys want to check it out the link will be down in the description some people have mentioned that building an internal score before asking for a increase may help but based on many data points internal scores really only matter when it comes to credit card applications and nothing else but since Navy Federal is a credit union and they really favor relationships having more than one account with Navy Fed can only help this means by having checking and savings accounts CDs autol loans and other Financial products may make it more favorable but the biggest factors when it comes to kedim increases is your current credit profile your spending habits and your income now let's walk through an actual credit limit increase application step by step first you would want to click on the account for the credit card that you wish to increase the credit limit for from there click on manage card then if it's a joint account click on the primary card once you scroll down to maintenance you will click on the increased credit limit next update any personal information if there are any changes if there are no changes then just click continue here's where I see a lot of people mess up this is where you would enter your requested credit limit this is the amount of the total credit limit that you want to have not the amount that you want it to be increased for instance I currently have a crer limit of $49,000 and I want it to be increased to $57,000 so I would just enter $57,000 currently NV Federal is only giving you three times your current limit or a total of $8,000 whichever is lower so if you're starting off with a much lower credit limit such as $11,000 you would only get approved for $3,000 rather than $10,000 so for this instance there's no way that I could request for three times a credit limit since it's not possible so I would just have to put down $57,000 if you overshoot it really doesn't matter they can always counter and give you a lower limit so there's really no problem if you ask for more than what you can get once you click continue they will ask you for your employer or your sources of income this can be your employer's name or if you're self-employed it is recommended to put down your business's name rather than just putting business owner or self-employed next you want to enter your total annual income before taxes make sure you include all of your income so you have better odds of approval the more money that you make the higher the chance that you have of being able to pay back any debt that you owe so if you are a spouse or an adult living with your parents and they cover your expenses you can include that income as well next you would have to include your housing information if you own a home rent or Live Free and Clear just click on whatever applies and enter your payment amount now remember if you're living with roommates or pay a portion of the mortgage only factor into the amount that you pay into this box once you hit continue at the very bottom we will take you to a new window where you can review all of your application details before you hit submit once this happens you will instantly know if you have a Corum increase or if your request is still being reviewed if you were approved you can usually see this reflected in the credit available in the dashboard of that particular card however it can take some time for them to approve this which can take between two to three business days but if it takes anything longer than this then this usually results in a denial if you do get a denial you will receive an adverse action letter in the mail which will explain of why they couldn't approve you this will give you a blueprint of what you need to do and to give you better odds of approval for next time now you can ask for a reconsideration if you get a denial but just keep in mind that this will result in a hard inquiry so if you had a inquiry in the first place they can actually use that same inquiry to review your application to see if you can get the denial overturned now if you done it through the mobile app or online since this is just a soft pole it really doesn't hurt to try it again once you get some of those problems fixed earlier I mentioned the importance of understanding these strategies to increase your credit limit with Navy Federal but if you don't choose the right Navy Federal Credit Card you might not be maximizing the benefits available to you so watch this video over here where I'll show you how to choose the best nav Federal Credit Card based off your needs and goals