I just got approved for a $500 Discover card!

[RichieRich2]

As the title says! I was just approved for a $500 Discover (now says Discover by Capital One. Okay) card. That was their counter, did this through their website applying for Discover It and this was their counter and I took it. 

 

Capital One used to give CLIs if you maintained good account history etc so... This is my chance to not max the card out and screw the opportunity up.

 

My question is, simply, how to best use it as far as how much to spend a month, how to calculate dates, and how to really manage this one well, since I have about 7-10 accounts to pay off, mostly revolving open and unsecured credit cards. I'm ignoring the "collections" for now. They are mostly dormant, so.. What is the best strategy about how to use and pay this $500 limit card?

 

Thank you!

[chicagorich]

What's your goal? If you have balances on multiple accounts, some late, you won't get many or any credit limit increases on the Dicso card.

[ShawnPY1972]

On 6/27/2026 at 8:28 AM, RichieRich2 said:

As the title says! I was just approved for a $500 Discover (now says Discover by Capital One. Okay) card. That was their counter, did this through their website applying for Discover It and this was their counter and I took it. 

 

Capital One used to give CLIs if you maintained good account history etc so... This is my chance to not max the card out and screw the opportunity up.

 

My question is, simply, how to best use it as far as how much to spend a month, how to calculate dates, and how to really manage this one well, since I have about 7-10 accounts to pay off, mostly revolving open and unsecured credit cards. I'm ignoring the "collections" for now. They are mostly dormant, so.. What is the best strategy about how to use and pay this $500 limit card?

 

Thank you!

 

What I do with most of my credit cards is anything I charge I pay whatever amount off prior to my account cycling so my account bills or cycles with no balance.  I always did this with Discover Card and Capital One and I still got credit line increases after 6 months.  Both of these accounts are closed now.  I had problems with my Capital One card pertaining to an authorized user and I decided to close out my cards with them.

[Flyingifr]

On 6/27/2026 at 11:28 AM, RichieRich2 said:

As the title says! I was just approved for a $500 Discover (now says Discover by Capital One. Okay) card. That was their counter, did this through their website applying for Discover It and this was their counter and I took it. 

 

Capital One used to give CLIs if you maintained good account history etc so... This is my chance to not max the card out and screw the opportunity up.

 

My question is, simply, how to best use it as far as how much to spend a month, how to calculate dates, and how to really manage this one well, since I have about 7-10 accounts to pay off, mostly revolving open and unsecured credit cards. I'm ignoring the "collections" for now. They are mostly dormant, so.. What is the best strategy about how to use and pay this $500 limit card?

 

Thank you!

Step 1 - put the card in your sock drawer.

Step 2 - on your birthday, remove the card from your sock drawer, fill up your gas tank using it, then promptly put the card back into your sock drawer.

Step 3 - wait 5 days, go on line to Cap1's web site and pay off the card.

Step 4 - Go to Step 1.

 

Follow that and you should never screw up that card again.

[ShawnPY1972]

On 7/6/2026 at 6:10 AM, Flyingifr said:

Step 1 - put the card in your sock drawer.

Step 2 - on your birthday, remove the card from your sock drawer, fill up your gas tank using it, then promptly put the card back into your sock drawer.

Step 3 - wait 5 days, go on line to Cap1's web site and pay off the card.

Step 4 - Go to Step 1.

 

Follow that and you should never screw up that card again.

 

I think at least one charge a month and promptly pay that off each month and every 6 months should qualify for higher credit line.

[Flyingifr]

You are talking about Cap1 - an bank that is stingier with CLI's than the Grinch.

[RichieRich2]

19 hours ago, Flyingifr said:

You are talking about Cap1 - an bank that is stingier with CLI's than the Grinch.

 

I second his question though.. isn't it important to show use? Like use that card once a month to fill up my tank, then return it to said drawer.

 

I also got approved for a $1000 First Premier card. I'm still debating Snowball vs Avalanche method for my other cards. The conclusion I keep coming to, is: "Pay off the largest balance which is larger by 4x than any of your other balances so it doesn't eat you alive, then turn the guns on your next highest balance" - about 2 or 3 months of this and I should be allll paid off, .... I am not sure if that is Snowball vs Avalanche but since all the interest rates are high, that seems my most logical point of attack. 

 

I still have the chance to manage this $500 Discover/Capital One card and $1000 First Premier card properly. I could have sworn that First Premier does NOT charge an Annual Fee but, given that is now my 3rd highest limit.. how do I handle that, too?

[RichieRich2]

So, for anyone still following.. I ran up about ~$225 to $275 of charges in approximately the first week or week and a half of having the card. I paid that balance off IN FULL, not leaving 10 cents not leaving one dollar not leaving 2 dollars not leaving 5 dollars not leaving 10 dollars.. IN FULL this morning. Can anyone refresh me how to read my statement closing date, reporting date, etc, I could use a refresher on that. So that's a successful "paying it off before the balance hits"....

 

I also WAS approved for, received, and spent about half my credit limit on First Premier Bank, $1000 limit and I have to do the same, set up my online account log in and should I do the same, pay it off IN FULL within the next 3 weeks, ?

[chicagorich]

On 7/21/2026 at 8:39 AM, RichieRich2 said:

So, for anyone still following.. I ran up about ~$225 to $275 of charges in approximately the first week or week and a half of having the card. I paid that balance off IN FULL, not leaving 10 cents not leaving one dollar not leaving 2 dollars not leaving 5 dollars not leaving 10 dollars.. IN FULL this morning. Can anyone refresh me how to read my statement closing date, reporting date, etc, I could use a refresher on that. So that's a successful "paying it off before the balance hits"....

 

I also WAS approved for, received, and spent about half my credit limit on First Premier Bank, $1000 limit and I have to do the same, set up my online account log in and should I do the same, pay it off IN FULL within the next 3 weeks, ?

Your card has a due date for payments, so if you have anything due, it must be paid by then. The statement cutoff date occurs a few days after the payment due date. The number of days varies by creditor. Discover used to be the next day, whether that changes with Cap1, we'll see. Creditors have different policies for reporting balances to the bureaus.

[supern8ural]

17 hours ago, chicagorich said:

Your card has a due date for payments, so if you have anything due, it must be paid by then. The statement cutoff date occurs a few days after the payment due date. The number of days varies by creditor. Discover used to be the next day, whether that changes with Cap1, we'll see. Creditors have different policies for reporting balances to the bureaus.

 

My most recent Discover statement cut on the 15th although it is not the same day every month.  It has varied from the 12th to the 15th this year.  Last year, pre-Capital One, it was the 12th every month.

 

Next due 8/9; next statement 8/15

July due 7/9; July statement 7/15

June due 6/9; June statement 6/13

May due 5/9; May statement 5/15

April due 4/9; April statement 4/14

March due 3/9; March statement 3/14

Feb. due 2/9; Feb. statement 2/12 (2/12 was the first statement that said "Discover by Capital One")

Jan. due 1/9; Jan. statement 1/12

 

so it appears my due date is always on the 9th (I assume anyone else's may be different) but my statement date varies from 3 to 6 days after the statement date.  I don't really have any explanation why this is; at first I thought it might be statement dates falling on a weekend but some of them were Saturdays.  'tis a mystery...  At least on my statements now it tells me when my next statement will cut, so if it's important for something like AZEO I can plan for it.  (It didn't say pre-Cap1 but as I said it was always on the 12th so I could plan then too)

 

Edited July 23 by supern8ural

[RichieRich2]

Update for those following: I am meeting my goals of 100% paying off the purchases before the due dates on the new cards.

 

Now, should I show use each month.... ?

[shifter]

On 7/28/2026 at 4:16 PM, RichieRich2 said:

Update for those following: I am meeting my goals of 100% paying off the purchases before the due dates on the new cards.

 

Now, should I show use each month.... ?

Disco used to like to see action and it would result in regular CLIs. C1 on the other hand, I haven't gotten a single CLI in 10 years. Still remains to be seen if Disco under C1 will be like the old Disco or like C1.

 

I tried a CLI request on my Disco that was migrated over to C1 today and it came back with:

- Your request can’t be processed at this time due to account migration

Edited July 31 by shifter

[ShawnPY1972]

On 7/28/2026 at 1:16 PM, RichieRich2 said:

Update for those following: I am meeting my goals of 100% paying off the purchases before the due dates on the new cards.

 

Now, should I show use each month.... ?

 

That is still considered you using the cards.  This is how I pay my cards each month.  98% of my cards have a zero balance when the account cycles and I still get credit line increases quite often.

[supern8ural]

On 7/31/2026 at 4:23 PM, shifter said:

Disco used to like to see action and it would result in regular CLIs. C1 on the other hand, I haven't gotten a single CLI in 10 years. Still remains to be seen if Disco under C1 will be like the old Disco or like C1.

 

I tried a CLI request on my Disco that was migrated over to C1 today and it came back with:

- Your request can’t be processed at this time due to account migration

 

see the funny thing is I opened cards with both C1 and Discover just about 3 years ago.  C1 has been much more generous with me, whereas Discover I plateaued at $10k for over a year and just last week finally got my first CLI in ages to $12k.

 

The only thing that was different was that I opened a C1 and a Citi card on the same day so I had two new accounts when I applied for Discover a couple months later.