Abstract: An over-limit analysis system is presented for approving an over-limit amount in real-time and in response to a credit request from a borrower, which includes an over-limit amount. An over-limit cushion to which the borrower is entitled is determined by comparing financial and other information collected from the borrower to analogous account data relating to the credit accounts of other borrowers according to an optimal strategy. As a result, the borrower may be approved for an over-limit amount as a function of an over-limit cushion associated with accounts that have similar account-related data. So that the borrower's credit account-related information may be compared with the account data of other borrowers, a segmentation model is used to organize the account data into segments according to one or more optimization constraints. Each segment is associated with an over-limit cushion so that the over-limit cushion for each segment is optimized according to one or more optimization constraints.