- 1). List all of your credit cards, the amount you can borrow and the amount you owe. Determine which accounts you can simply close to reduce your available credit card limits. These should be newer accounts that you do not owe any money on.
- 2). Determine how much available credit you want. You should have no more than 20 percent of your annual salary in available credit to be safe. For a salary of $30,000, you should have $6,000 maximum available once you total the credit limit of all of your cards.
- 3). Pay down your balances so that you will still have credit available once you request that your credit limit be cut. This will prevent you from negatively affecting your credit score when you reduce your credit card limits.
- 4). Contact the credit card companies by phone and request that they reduce your available credit to the limit you have chosen for each card. It is easier to have one or two cards rather than several cards with lower limits available to you.
- 5). Ask the companies to stop putting rate increases on your credit card. If you do this they will not raise your credit limit periodically. This can prevent the amount from going up in the future and keep your limits low.
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