The inner workings of Chase’s credit card business have Consumerist reader Jon scratching his head. After being turned down for small limit increase on one credit card, the bank goes ahead and nearly doubles the credit limit on a second card with an already higher limit.

Jon actually has three Chase credit cards: One with an $11,000 limit (but no rewards) that he uses for emergencies; one with a $4,500 limit that gives him points and a third that also gives him rewards points with a $3,000 limit that is a hold-over from his college days. He tells Consumerist that he always pays the full amount due and on time for all cards.

We’ll let Jon take over for a minute:

I called up customer service and asked if I could increase the smallest one to $4,500. This would be a $1,500 increase. The very nice customer service professional submitted the request and then informed me that the system had rejected the increase and that in about a week I would be getting a detailed letter explaining the reasons for this.

About a week later I got a letter saying that since I had recently taken on more debt, a new car lease, they could not justify increasing my credit limit. I figured at least there is a reason and I sort of understand where they are coming from.

Fast Forward to 3 days later. I get a letter in the mail from Chase again. This time they have decided to automatically increase one of my other credit cards from a $4,500 limit to a $8,500 one.

This is an increase of $4,000. That is 233% more than my initial request on the other card that was rejected. Thanks Chase!

We know that some of you out there have inside knowledge of credit card companies and banks. Anyone care to take a stab in the dark as to why Chase might have denied Jon’s initial request only to pile on an extra $4,000 in credit on a different card?

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