Answer for max cap is 1000. possibilities no one can say on it.
personally feel you should give a try as I see from forum aug last week guy got his CC charged and currently cap is 553. so, Still have an edge with the current numbers.
I am surprised to know they told you its 3 months, I have just checked the DD that was issued to me in september it was clearly mentioned 6 months validity. Not sure on MO.
Regarding credit card I would not suggest as many things need to be checked allthrough , like the validity of the card, availabilty of the balance all the time till charging and also the risk of keeping the credit card safe.
Yes there is a chance of decrease for speaking and writing part, although rare
and you can decide if you want to use the latest IELTS result or old IELTS result.
when I tried to re-evaluate only for speaking part, it didnt work, score was same....
As per CIC website, number of complete set of applications being accepted in 348 as of Oct 10...not really sure if its fine to apply as per this info...