Requesting a credit limit increase can help you spend more and improve your credit score by lowering your credit utilization ratio. However, each credit card issuer handles these requests differently. This guide explains how major banks manage credit limit increases, including whether they do a hard or soft credit pull and when to request an increase. Here are the details by issuer:

American Express

• Most requests do not result in a hard credit pull.
• You can request a credit increase in as little as 60 days from opening the account. There are a lot of data points saying that they got up to a 200% increase from their current credit line.
• It is recommended to wait six months between requests.

Barclay

• A credit line increase usually results in a hard credit pull.
• You can request a credit line increase at any time over the phone, or online – under account management.

Bank of America

• A credit increase will result in a soft credit pull only.
• It is recommended to wait six months before you request another credit increase.

Capital One

• No hard credit pull.
• You can request a credit increase every six months over the phone.
• Capital One will usually want to see high credit usage before approving a credit line increase.

Chase

• Update: Chase no longer does hard pulls for credit limit increases. A credit limit increase will only result in a soft pull.
• A credit line increase can be requested over the phone or online.

Citi

• No hard credit pull.
• It is recommended to wait six months before requesting a credit increase.

Discover

• Discover usually does not do a hard pull when requesting a credit increase. If they do need to do a hard pull they will notify you.
• You can request a credit increase once every 90 days over the phone or online.

US Bank

• No hard credit pull.
• It can be done online or by phone.

Wells Fargo

• You can request a credit line increase with a soft pull. If you’re not approved, then you can request a credit line increase with a hard pull.

Synchrony

• A credit limit increase can be done without a hard pull.
• It can be done by phone or online.
• Some suggest requesting the increase by phone rather than online; they claim approval rates are higher by phone than online.