Dear Consumerist,

I am a Senior in college, great credit, never had to put deposits down for utilities and I have one line of credit. The credit line is a credit card which is currently at 3K limit and a low interest rate, of course rarely use the card, pay it off every month, only use it to show future creditors that I have had credit for a long time.

I recently received an offer to have the card upgraded to a 6K limit, I of course never intend to charge that much, however could having a 6K card with a 0 balance be bad at all for my credit and not good?

Thank You for a great website!

-Josh

Josh,

First of all, congratulations on being responsible with your credit. As far as your credit limit goes: Is is possible that a higher limit could hurt your credit score?

It’s possible, but it isn’t likely. The basic idea is that you want to have a good “credit ratio.” That’s the amount of available credit vs. utilized credit. That section of the score is just one section of a larger portion of your FICO called “Amounts Owed.” Amounts Owed = 30% of your FICO.

Is it a big deal to add 3k to your ratio? Probably not. It might even help. Just don’t run out and apply for 150,000 credit cards and rack up $400,000 in available credit. Moderation, my friend.

(Photo:meghannmarco)

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