Barclaycard - Credit limit drastically reduced. Why?

WLITC

Can someone shed some light on this? I got a letter from Barclaycard today telling me that my credit limit has been reduced from around £12000 to £500.00. Says that Barclaycard regularly reviews the credit limit of its customers etc and this decision has been made after assessing your account history with other lenders from information provided by the credit ref agency.


Now just to clarify, I have never exceeded my limit with them. Over the years I have always paid on time and spent and cleared the balance back and fore. Then about 12 months ago I cleared it completely and although I have used it regularly since (rarely no more than £100 a month) I’ve always cleared the balance off before the payment was due so I’d have little or no interest. Can someone please explain why such a drastic cut? Has my credit suddenly gone bad or is the whole “after assessing your account history with other lenders from information provided by the credit ref agency” just a load of bull and they are just using that line to get rid of customers that don’t make them money?

bookworm1363

welshladinthecity wrote: »

just a load of bull and they are just using that line to get rid of customers that don’t make them money?

There's your answer.

dgl1001

welshladinthecity wrote: »

. Then about 5-6 months ago I cleared it completely and although I have used it regularly since (rarely no more than £100 a month) I’ve always cleared the balance off before the payment was due so I’d have little or no interest.

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hur575

I agree with above answer too, op said he is only using couple hundred for the last 5-6 months.

naijapower

They are just making excuses and looking for tales to explain their decisions. Not fair and rather inconsistent from Barclaycard.
My OH was issued a barclaycard last Oct and few days ago contacted them for an increase. Was granted. New limit is £1500 from original £1000.
Customer Adviser told her it is reviewed every 3 months and encouraged her to call again in 3 months time cos she would be eligible for another increase.Wonder how adviser worked that out??
My OH never clears her balance in full but pays religously above the minimum

thriftymomma

If you haven't exceeded your nex credit limit over the last year, they probably think that is all you need. Plus if you have 14k on another card and then 8k that you could run up tomorrow if you fancied, then that is bound to make lenders a bit twitchy.

naijapower

thriftymomma wrote: »

If you haven't exceeded your nex credit limit over the last year, they probably think that is all you need. Plus if you have 14k on another card and then 8k that you could run up tomorrow if you fancied, then that is bound to make lenders a bit twitchy.

I see what you mean but it doesnt make much sense or wisdom. It is rather inconsistent cos i know people who have up to 45 - 50k limit on 3 to 4 cards. unmaxed and ready to spend but they dont use it yet their limit is still same...no reduction.

WLITC

bookworm1363 wrote: »

There's your answer.

If thats the case its really annoying because the insinuation is that there is something wrong with my credit. Didn’t everyone get p*ssed off when Egg did this to people with excellent credit scores. I’d rather they just came up with some other b*ll crap why of saying it without suggestion its something to do with your credit rating.

MABLE

On one of my BCs I have a limit of £5,500 and the most I have ever spent on it is £260.00. With the other BC I have a limit of £4,200 and the most I have spent is £1,200. If anything they have increased the limits recently.

Must be another reason why the OP limit has been cut.

jonnyb

basically finance companies have to ensure sufficient reserves to cover all their possible exposure.
so someone with a high limit, who has spending patterns that suggest they do not need that limit, is an easy target for them to reduce their potential exposure.

just business - no reflection on the individual's credit history.

byebyedebt

Its not just you. Therre are losts of posts on here from people that have had drastic reductions in their Barclaycard limits. They have to insure themselves against you running up the whole balance and then not paying it off.

They can now see the enhanced Virgin information. Ie How much you owe, how much you paid off each month, if you only paid the minimum and any cash advances.

Re Egg, I always suspected that the reason they got rid of customers was because of the unenforcibility issue in their agreement, any ideas anyone?