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How to Increase Your Credit Limit with Capital One

You can manually request a credit limit increase with Capital One by submitting an online request or speaking to someone over the phone.

By Ben Walker, CEPF, CFEI®

Edited by Yahia Barakah, CEPF

Updated Dec. 17, 2024

To request a credit limit increase, Capital One gives you a few different options. You can manually request one through your online account or over the phone. You can also wait for an automatic credit line increase or open a new Capital One credit card to raise your overall credit limit.

Keep in mind that there are pros and cons to each strategy. For example, a manual credit limit increase request may involve a hard inquiry, which may cause a slight dip in your credit score.

Let’s explore the details of credit limit increases with Capital One to see which method may be best for you.

In this article

4 ways to increase your credit limit with Capital One
Is it hard to get approved for a credit limit increase?
FAQs about credit limit increase requests
Bottom line

4 ways to increase your credit limit with Capital One

Your credit limit is simply the amount of credit you can use with a credit product. For example, for credit cards it’s the maximum amount you can charge to a card before your transactions are declined.

You may want to request a credit limit increase for various reasons, such as funding an upcoming large purchase or helping increase your credit score. There are four main ways to increase your credit card limit with Capital One.

1. Submit an online credit limit increase request

If you have one of the Capital One credit cards, you can quickly request a credit limit increase through your online account:

Web browser: Log into your account from a web browser, select your credit card, choose the “I Want To” option, and click on “Request Credit Line Increase.”
Mobile app: Log into your Capital One account from the mobile app and choose the “Request Credit Line Increase” option from the “Account & Feature Settings” menu.

Capital One typically requests the following information before you can submit a credit limit increase request:

Total annual income
Employment status
Occupation
Monthly mortgage or rent payment
Projected monthly spending
Maximum desired credit line

Capital One typically uses soft inquiries, which don’t affect your credit score. Many credit card issuers do a hard credit pull on your credit report when you manually request a credit limit increase. A hard credit pull can temporarily drop your credit score by a small amount.

2. Request a credit limit increase over the phone

You can also request a credit limit increase over the phone by calling the number listed on the back of your Capital One credit card. The main customer service line for Capital One credit card support is 1-800-227-4825.

Let the customer service representative know you want to request a credit limit increase and specify which card (if you have multiple) you want the increase on.

You typically need to provide the same information about your annual income, employment status, occupation, and more. The representative may also ask why you’re requesting a credit limit increase.

3. Wait for an automatic credit limit increase

If you don’t want to manually request a credit limit increase online or over the phone, you can also wait for an automatic increase. Capital One states that it performs automatic credit line reviews after you’ve had one of its cards for at least six months.

During its credit limit review, Capital One considers whether you make on-time payments on all your credit cards, not just your Capital One credit card. It also considers whether you make large payments to pay down any balance you have.

Keep in mind

While an automatic credit limit increase sounds easy enough, there’s no guarantee that it will increase your credit limit. You may wait for it, yet nothing happens.

Even though automatic credit limit increases can happen, It probably makes more sense to request a credit limit increase manually. That’s because Capital One doesn’t perform hard inquiries for this request type.

4. Open a new Capital One credit card

This isn’t guaranteed to work, as it depends on your credit score and other factors, but you can apply for a new credit card account to help increase your overall credit limit. If approved, you should receive more credit than you started with.

More total credit is typically a good thing. How much credit you use of your total available credit is called your credit utilization ratio. It’s often recommended to stay below 30% credit utilization, or your credit score can go down. Having a higher credit limit can help you keep your credit utilization down.

Is it hard to get approved for a credit limit increase?

It’s not necessarily hard to get approved for a credit limit increase, but there are certain factors to keep in mind.

Timing and account age

Capital One doesn’t start its automatic credit line reviews until you’ve had a credit card for at least six months. This means you’re unlikely to be eligible for a credit limit increase on a credit card that’s only been open for a few months.

You’re also unlikely to be eligible for a credit limit increase if you’ve received a credit line increase or decrease in the past few months. Capital One doesn’t specify an exact number of months, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to space requests between three and six months apart.

Financial situation

A good time to request a credit limit increase can be after receiving a pay raise or having an increase in your credit score. It can also make sense to request a credit limit increase if you have a good or excellent credit score. According to the FICO scoring model, a good credit score is at least 670, but remember that credit score is only one factor that Capital One will take into account and having a certain score does not guarantee a credit limit increase

Capital One reviews your larger financial situation when you request a credit limit increase. This may include asking you questions about your annual income and doing a soft inquiry to view your credit history on a credit report.

Credit card companies want to lend credit to low-risk cardholders, which means having more money to pay off your debt and increasing your credit score are good things.

Keep in mind

You may want to avoid requesting a credit limit increase if your credit score has recently dropped or your total annual income has gone down.

Timely payments

Are you making on-time payments on your Capital One credit card? What about any other credit cards or loans you have with other lenders, such as Chase, American Express, or Citi?

Capital One will review your financial situation, including checking if you make on-time monthly payments with all lenders. That’s why you may have more success with your credit limit increase request if you consistently use your credit products and make full and on-time payments each month.

But if your payment history shows any late payments or you’ve only been making the minimum payments on large balances, it might make sense to hold off on requesting a credit limit increase.

Type of credit card

In most cases, it doesn’t matter what kind of credit card you have if you want to request a credit limit increase. You can request an increase on travel cards, cashback cards, or introductory-rate cards.

The one exception is secured credit cards. You typically can’t request a credit limit increase with Capital One on a secured credit card. This is because a secured credit card requires a security deposit, which acts as collateral for the credit limit.

Since the size of the security deposit already determines the credit limit, there is usually no method of requesting a credit limit increase.

FAQs about credit limit increase requests

Does it hurt my credit to ask for a credit limit increase?

Requesting a credit limit increase may result in a hard inquiry on your credit report, which often has a small negative impact on your credit score. But this impact typically doesn’t last more than a year, and a credit limit increase may help boost your credit score. More available credit can also lower your credit utilization ratio and increase your credit score.

How much should I ask for when requesting a credit limit increase?

When you request a credit limit increase, you should stay within the limits of what you need. For example, you may decide to request an increase of 10% to 25% over what you currently have. You can also ask how much a credit card issuer is willing to give since you may get more credit than you initially thought.

Having more credit is generally better as long as you don’t spend more than you can afford and always make on-time payments.

Does Capital One automatically raise credit limits?

Capital One is known for doing automatic credit line reviews with specific credit cards after having one of them for at least six months. This doesn’t mean you’ll always receive a credit limit increase, as it depends on certain factors, including:

Making on-time payments
Pay down your balance

Bottom line

Capital One makes it easy to request a credit limit increase. Simply log into your online account, select your credit card, and find the “Request Credit Line Increase” option in the “I Want To” menu.

Remember that manually requesting a line of credit increase may cause a small dip in your credit score when your card issuer uses a hard pull. However, Capital One is known for using soft pulls, which don’t affect your credit score.

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