Is requesting an increase in a credit card limit treated the same as an application for new credit for FICO?
I know that applying for a new card will reduce my FICO, and that increasing credit limits (while keeping debt amounts constant) will increase my score – but this would not be the case if requesting the increase in credit limit is treated as a new credit card application?
Depends. Some banks do a hard pull on your reports and check your scores which is called a hard pull. Sometimes they do a soft pull. A hard pull is a new inquiry on your report just like a new application and has to be authorized by you. A soft pull isn’t a new inquiry and can be done by your card companies periodically. Soft pull is like account maintainance. Chase always does a hard pull as far as I know for CLI. When you request your CLI, ask them to do a soft pull and not a hard pull and see if they will do that. I tried this with RBS, they dont do soft pulls. Capital One and HSBC did and increased my credit without a hard pull. Cards that offer automatic CLIs tend to do it via soft pulls. As long as it is not a hard pull, it wont count against your FICO scores. Read the difference in the following article.
http://credit-free-report.blogspot.com/2007/12/hard-pull-vs-soft-pull.html