Consumer complaint received 2025-08-24 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Credit card company won't increase or decrease your credit limit
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: NC

Complaint narrative:
We received your complaint. Thank you. 
We will review your complaint. Depending on what we find, we will typically : Send your complaint to the company for a response ; or Send your complaint to another state or federal agency, or help you get in touch with your state or local consumer protection office ; or Let you know if we need more information to continue our work. 
YOUR COMPLAINT I applied for the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature card, issued by Elan XXXX XXXX, and was auto-approvedbut only for a {$500.00} credit limit. This limit is completely disconnected from my financial profile. I have an XXXX  XXXX score of XXXX ( verified by Elan 's own communication with me ), annual income of {$480000.00}, and no revolving credit card debt. A {$500.00} limit is not only impractical for daily use, it also negatively affects my credit utilization ratio and is inconsistent with any standard risk-based underwriting model. Immediately upon seeing the approval, I called Elan XXXX and explicitly requested a credit line increase, stating that {$500.00} is functionally unusable. I was told that the card was auto-approved at that amount and that a review could be initiated. The representative explained that Elans algorithm looks at the limits of existing cards and that, because a few of my store cards have relatively low limits ( as store cards typically do ), the system defaulted to {$500.00}. This ignores the broader context of my profile and penalizes me for something irrelevant to actual risk. With a XXXX  of XXXX, an income nearing half a million dollars, no revolving debt, and a clean credit history, what exactly is the risk being priced in? There is no rational credit risk justification for assigning a {$500.00} limit to a borrower in this tier. If your models assess risk based primarily on existing limitsrather than on capacity to repay, income, or creditworthinessthen they are materially flawed. A single purchase on this card would drive my utilization above 30 %, which would distort my credit metrics through no fault of my own. Elan did not provide any transparent criteria or justification. There was no manual underwriting path offered. Fidelity is lending its name to this card, but Elans handling of approvals and credit limits reflects poorly on their brand. I am requesting a full investigation into this decision, including : A formal explanation of the credit model or criteria used to justify this limit ; A reassessment of my credit line based on real risk metrics, not static comparisons to unrelated low-limit accounts ; Disclosure of whether income data is incorporated meaningfully into Elans underwriting or simply collected without impact. This decision is unjustifiable on the merits and appears to reflect systemic issues in Elans risk modeling practices. 

This is my second time attempting to obtain a response from the financial institution. I have received no communications either via email or mail, despite the bank claiming they did respond after the CFPB complaint filing. Complaint filing : XXXX

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation