Boost Your Credit Limit Safely: Avoid Score Dips!

• Credit limits are set by issuers based on your credit report, score, income, and repayment patterns, assessing risk.
• Key factors include repayment history, affordability (not just gross income), current debt load, and utilization ratio.
• Limit increases can be issuer-led (proactive offers, often smoother) or customer-requested, with the latter potentially causing a 'hard enquiry' score dip.
• To request safely: time it well with stable patterns, reduce utilization, update income, and ask if it triggers a 'hard enquiry'.
• A higher limit should lower utilization and provide flexibility, not encourage increased spending or funding unaffordable expenses.

Why It Matters: Increase your credit limit wisely to improve your score and flexibility, not to fund new debt.