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I'm designing an interface of a web-based application and want to let users increase their credit amount online in one of its sections. What is a label for this action? Is there a technical banking term for it, or should I use a simple term like credit increase?

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I'd ask a banker. – onomatomaniak Oct 10 '11 at 13:53
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I don't think there's a standard technical term. Even if there were, it would probably not be easily understood by OP's users, who are presumably not banking specialists themselves. I suggest a suitable on-screen legend would be Increase credit limit, which should be meaningful to anyone in context. – FumbleFingers Oct 10 '11 at 14:00
You wouldn't happen to be able to show us a design scheme? You can have Increase and Decrease as actions in a credit section under the heading 'Credit Increase', for example. Have you actually ran into a problem where people can't interpret something without the specific phrase? Is 'Increase Credit' too many characters for some region? Even if you were to use 'appreciation', you'd only be saving three characters. Let's say 'repute' were a perfect fit. People wouldn't inherently know that, anyway, so they wouldn't know where to click, after all. 'Credit' works, but also has dual meaning. – Wolfpack'08 Oct 11 '11 at 11:15
So, unless you're using a functional page hierarchy, I think your best bet is to use the old standard: "Credit Increase". The only other word I can think of is "Trust". – Wolfpack'08 Oct 11 '11 at 11:19

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The usual phrasing, I think, is to talk about a person's "credit limit" or "credit line", and to do things to that limit, typically "raise" or "lower" it (or increase or decrease it). My bank has a link called "request an increase to my credit line".

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up vote -1 down vote

Expand, appreciate....

-Edit- Considering the part of speech: expansion, appreciation. I think that 'appreciation' is most accurate. Appreciation means '[general] value increase', though. The measure of the value, be it credit or otherwise, assumed.

There are lots of words like that. Try using a "reverse dictionary". Check google and find a good one. :) However, I've already tried searching for terms like "increase one's credit" and "to increase one's credit". Nothing's come up. Banker's language sites list 'credit' and 'credit increase' as technical terms.

Maybe the word you are looking for is "employ"? As in, "I got a job," which is synonymous with, "my credit increased". Yuck yuck.

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Here's a reverse dictionary: onelook.com/?w=*:increase_credit&ws1=1&first=101 – Wolfpack'08 Oct 10 '11 at 17:13
-1: You can (just about) speak of a positive balance in an account appreciating in value, though it's normally used of non-monetary assets. But I'm sure that word would never be used in respect of an increased credit limit. – FumbleFingers Oct 10 '11 at 17:30
Nah. You're wrong. Actually, the terms 'credit' and 'appreciation' are interchangeable. P.S. - -1 to you too. – Wolfpack'08 Oct 11 '11 at 3:04
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The article in your link has been deleted. I just googled "credit appreciation", and the only relevant link in the first 20 hits was Indian Companies Betting On Carbon Credit Appreciation In Future. Perhaps your commercials in Reno use a highly specialised vocabulary or local vernacular. To me, assets appreciate, but credit limits increase. In that example, carbon credits are an asset. – FumbleFingers Oct 11 '11 at 3:19
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I've never heard these words used interchangeably. "Credit" is the amount of money available to borrow or a line on a balance sheet, as in "credits and debits." "Appreciation" in the increase in an asset's value. I can't offer a good single word for credit increase. – JoeTaxpayer Oct 11 '11 at 3:40
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