The Best High Limit Credit Cards for Good Credit & Fair Credit [2020]

High limit credit cards are incredibly useful for when you need to make big purchases or up your monthly spending. Placing a large purchase on a single credit card is not only easier to process but it also just makes more sense for record keeping purposes. Here are some of the best high limit credit cards for good credit and fair credit and how to get them. I’ll also show you some good business credit cards for higher limits. 

Before getting into the specific high limit credit cards, here are a couple of factors to consider for getting approved for a credit card with a high limit.

#1 High Limit Credit Card

If you just want to get straight to it, my #1 high limit credit card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred and it’s because:

• Good reputation for high credit limits
• Valuable sign-up bonus of 60,000 points
• Ability to transfer points to solid transfer partners (like United and Southwest)
• Low annual fee of $95
• Great upgrade potential in the future
• Click here to read more about this card!

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

What is a high limit credit card?

What you consider to be a high limit credit card may not be a high limit credit card for somebody else. However, I would generally consider a high limit credit card to be a credit card with a credit limit of $15,000 to $20,000 or more.

Most Visa Signature credit cards will come with a credit limit of at least $5,000 and Visa Infinite cards will come with credit limits of at least a $10,000. So getting credit lines of $5,000 or $10,000 is not that difficult.

With that said, depending on your credit situation a credit card with a limit of $5,000 could be a lot to you. This is especially the case if you are new to credit cards and you are struggling to build up high credit lines. Therefore, in this article I am going to focus on credit cards that offer varying credit lines.

Credit score needed for a high limit credit card

Contrary to what you might think, you don’t need an 800+ credit score to get approved for a high limit credit card or even the perfect credit score of 850. If you have credit score at 720 or above and a few years of positive credit history (payments on time, etc.) to go along with that, you’ll stand a good chance to get a decent credit limit.

Of course, it’s impossible to know if you’ll get approved for these cards until you apply but don’t think that you need an outrageously high credit score to get approved for credit cards with high limits of $20,000+.

And what’s really great about getting approved for one card with a high credit limit is that it often sets off a trend of getting approved for other cards with high credit limits. A lot of times you’ll find that one $18,000 credit line approval will soon be followed by a $25,000 credit line, and so on.

If you have a decent credit score but are looking for ways to improve it a little higher there are a few things that you can do such as:

• Getting yourself added as an authorized user
• Transferring debt to an installment account
• Opening up credit cards with smaller limits first and building up to higher limits

Income needed for a high limit credit card

While your income does not directly affect your credit score, it does often determine the amount of credit offered. Some banks like Chase are known for limiting your credit limit to a certain percentage of your income (though that’s not always the case). This limit can vary but many times you’ll find that your overall credit limit will be limited to around 40% to 50% of your total stated income. 

Generally, the closer you get to a six figure income, the more likely you can expect to receive credit limits of $20,000 or more. But sometimes even with an income hovering around $50,000, you can still get approved for some relatively high credit limits.

It’s really important to remember that you can include income available to you if you are 21 or older. This means that you can combine the income from your spouse or partner in order to bolster your stated income.

Note that your credit limit could also be affected by things like your monthly rent/mortgage payments. If banks see that you are spread pretty thin on your bills, they might not view your income as favorably as someone else who has a lower monthly rent.

Utilization

Your utilization will likely play an important roll in getting approved for a high limit credit card. Utilization is how much of your total available revolving credit you’re currently using. So for example, if you have $30,000 worth of total credit lines and you have $10,000 worth of debt, then your utilization is 30%.

Generally, you want to keep your utilization at 30% or lower, though I recommend keeping it at 10%. If you have a very high utilization or you have maxed out or nearly maxed out credit cards, then you will probably struggle to get approved for high credit limits. That’s because the banks will see you as a risk until you show them that you can pay down your debt.

So if you have a good credit score in the 700s with good payment history, a decent income, and low utilization, you’ll be a good candidate for many of these cards.

Shifting credit

One of the most important factors to remember when pursuing cards with high credit limits is that some banks allow you to easily transfer credit lines from one car to another. For example, Chase is great about this. If you had a card like the Sapphire Preferred and the Freedom you could push most of the credit line from one of those cards to the other. You will have to keep a certain amount of credit line available on one card but sometimes that amount can be very low.

High Limit Credit Cards for Good Credit

Chase Sapphire Reserve

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is a Visa Infinite credit card, which is a premium Visa card that comes with special perks. These cards must come with a minimum credit limit of $10,000. If your income is on the higher side, it’s also pretty easy to get a credit limit much higher than this.

The Sapphire Reserve is a tremendous credit card with amazing perks like 3X on dining and travel, a $300 travel statement credit, travel redemptions at 1.5 cents per point, primary rental car insurance, and Priority Pass lounge access. It also comes with a valuable sign-up bonus of 50,000 points after you spend $4,000 within the first 3 months. That bonus is worth at least $750 or even more if you utilize it on certain transfer partners.

It’s great if you’re looking for a high limit credit card and you have a good credit score. If you’ve opened a few cards in the past couple of years, make sure you’re aware of the Chase application rules since this card is subject to 5/24.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is very similar to the Chase Sapphire Reserve, it’s just a cheaper version of it. The Sapphire Preferred comes with 2X on dining and travel, primary rental car insurance, and a low annual fee of only $95.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a Visa Signature credit card which means that it typically comes with a minimum credit limit of $5,000. However, you can receive substantially higher credit limits. When Brad first got approved for this card his starting limit was well over $20,000!

Chase Freedom

The Chase Freedom cards can also be good options to go with. Some of the Freedom cards are Visa Signature cards which means that your starting credit line should be at around $5,000.

The Chase Freedom card offers you the ability to earn 5% back on rotating categories on up to $1500 worth of spend each quarter. So the problem with this is that you can only earn that 5X on $1500 worth of spend each quarter which amounts to about $500 each month. If you are a high spender, you could easily max that out sometimes and so it might not be the best option for you.

 Chase Ink Preferred

The Chase Ink Preferred is a business card so it won’t report to your personal credit report. This means that it won’t affect your 5/24 status and that’s a major reason why you would want to pursue it first. The Chase Ink Preferred has a high sign-up bonus of 100,000 points after you spend $15,000 in the first three months. The card also earns 3X per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on all of the following categories:

• Travel, including airfare, hotels, rental cars, train tickets and taxis
• Shipping purchases
• Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
• Internet, cable and phone services

With its high sign-up bonus of 80,000 points and solid bonus categories, this is the #1 business card offered by Chase and one of the best ways to quickly accumulate Ultimate Rewards. If you’re okay with signing up for a small business credit card then the Ink Preferred could be a great choice.

Chase Ink Cash

The Chase Ink Cash also won’t report to your personal credit report so again this is one of the first cards you’d want to consider if you were under 5/24. The Ink Cash comes with a great sign-up bonus of 75,000 Ultimate Rewards after you spend $7,500 in the first three months along with a 0% APR period.

That’s worth at least $750 which is very competitive for a no annual fee credit card but the card also has some fantastic bonus categories. The Chase Ink Cash earns 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases each account anniversary year at:

• Internet
• Cable
• Phone services
• Office supply stores

And it also earns 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases each year at:

• Gas stations
• Restaurants

Amex charge cards

The Amex charge cards aren’t “credit cards” in the typical sense but they are worth mentioning. With these charge cards, you need to pay off the balance each month in order to avoid fees. The great thing about these charge cards is that there are no set spending limits like a traditional credit card.

This doesn’t mean that you’ll have an unlimited credit limit. Typically, Amex will require you to work your way up to a higher credit limit by showing them your spending habits for a couple of months. At some point, it’s likely that they will offer you the Pay Over Time option which essentially converts the charge card into a normal credit card that can carry a balance.

They often provide you with an incentive like extra points for enrolling in Pay Over Time, too!

Regardless of whether or not you “convert” your charge card into credit card with Pay Over Time, these charge cards will often provide you with some of the best flexibility for high spending.

Platinum Card from American Express

The Platinum Card from American Express is rich in benefits. With this card, you’ll be able to get into Amex Centurion Lounges, Delta Sky Clubs (when flying Delta), and Priority Pass lounges. The Platinum Card also gives you gold elite status with Hilton and Marriott so you can enjoy perks like upgrades and late checkout at both Hilton and Marriott while Hilton also offers free breakfast.

And while the Platinum Card has a high $550 annual fee, you get $200 worth of annual airline credits along with $200 of Uber credits each year, making it very easy to knock the effective annual fee down to $150.

The Platinum Card also earns 5X on flights booked directly with airlines and 5X on hotels booked through Amex Travel. The standard welcome offer for the Platinum Card is 75,000 Membership Rewards after you make $5,000 in purchases within the first 3 months. Which is quite high compared to other cards (although targeted offers roll around from time to time).

American Express Gold Card

The new Amex Gold Card is a very attractive option. You can find referral offers that offer 60,000 Membership Rewards Points after you make $4,000 in purchases within the first 6 months.

But what really makes this card stand out are the bonus categories which are:

• 3X on airfare 
• 4X points at Restaurants
• 4X points at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 in spend per calendar year)

The card also comes with a $120 dining credit, which offers a $10 monthly credit that can be used at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and Shake Shack (read more about that credit here). With the addition of a $100 airline credit, it’s very easy knock down the effective annual fee to just $30.

I plan on putting all of my dining and supermarket spend on this card for the foreseeable future and am very excited about the prospect of earning more rewards. And just like the Platinum Card, it’s charge card so you’ll be able to take advantage of the higher spending limits.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One Venture card is on here based on my personal experience. I’ve opened up over 30 credit cards over the past few years from all sorts of different banks; American Express, Chase, Citi, etc., and my highest credit limit ever came from the Capital Once Venture. This credit limit was above $30,000. 

The Venture card comes with a solid 60,000 points early spend bonus after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months. It earns 2% back towards travel for all purchases. If you’re looking for a simplified rewards system for a high limit credit card, then the Venture is certainly an option to think about.

Hilton Honors Aspire Card

If you are interested in staying at Hilton properties then the Amex Hilton Aspire should be on your radar for several reasons. Since this is a premium credit card, you might be able to get approved for one of the higher credit limits.

• 14X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio worldwide
• 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com, car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies and at U.S. restaurants
• 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on other purchases

The Aspire also comes with a number of credits that help offset the $450 annual fee:

• $250 airline incidental fee statement credit
• $250 Hilton resort statement credit
• $100 on property credit at Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts and Conrad Hotels & Resorts when booking the exclusive Aspire Card package

You’ll also earn complimentary Hilton Honors Diamond status and one weekend night at any hotel or resort in the Hilton portfolio (upon opening account and on account anniversary). For someone looking for meaningful hotel benefits, it’s harder to find a better hotel credit card than the Hilton Aspire.

Luxury cards | Mastercard Black Card

There are a number of different Luxury cards like the Mastercard Black Card that are known for being high limit credit cards for good credit.

The Mastercard Black Card comes with the following perks: 1 point for every dollar spent, 2% back when used for airfare, 1.5% back on all purchases, $100 airline credit, $100 Global Entry credit, Priority Pass Select, 0% introductory APR for the first fifteen billing cycles following a balance transfer, and $495 annual fee (Terms and conditions apply).

Overall, it’s not as valuable a credit card as many of the others since it doesn’t offer a sign-up bonus. However, the Luxury cards are known to come with high credit limits so if you can get approved for it, you’ll probably end up with a very high credit limit.

There’s also the Amex Centurion Card which is even harder to get and you can read more about it here.

Final word

It’s never easy to predict which banks will approve you and for how much credit. But if you have good credit and a decent income, you will stand a good shot of getting a high credit limit with many of these cards. If your credit limit is not as high as you wish, don’t forget that you can always request a credit limit increase later on down the line or you can often shift credit from your other credit cards to create a higher credit limit.