Has your Credit Card limit been reduced?

never-in-doubt

Fraggle,

Can you start your own thread please so that your questions get answered properly. You can't hijack a different topic or your post will be missed by others.

You would be looking to retrospectively claim back PPI + charges. There are letters here that can help, but no the lender cannot do this (well they can but you can fight them)!

Paulgonnabedebtfree

I've had a few limits reduced in the past year or so. Usually it's just been a matter of trimming them to a few hundred more than the current balance. However, there were two extreme examples where it went from 10 grand to £650 and 5 grand+ to £500. The only examples of pushing APRs up in a big way were with my MBNA accounts. Fortunately, they happened when I had £zero balances (I still do have zero balances with them for that reason).
Warning was given of any APR increases but not of credit limit reductions. On my first credit limit reduction, I was fortunate not to end up stranded in Spain as Goldfish trimmed it to a tiny bit above what I owed them. Luckily I had another cc with me. That may sound like bad planning but back then, credit limit reductions just weren't the done thing. I had always believed that if an account was managed correctly, reasonable notice would always be given. This was before the credit crunch really got going.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Both of mine have had their limts increased one from £5600 to £9700 with a 2% drop in interest and couple of good BT deals and the other from £10950 to £15950 with a good life of balance,transfer deal.
I also have another credit card that I've always paid off every month and that has never changed in the three years I've had it.

never-in-doubt

Going on the first few responses it does appear that the lenders are not sticking to what we thought was the 'norm' by reducing limits due to badly run accounts but across the board even to good customers who just retain a limit for emergencies.

Stranded abroad is a shocker and most of us take a card abroad, in line with what our banks tell us (for added protection) so to be left high and dry would make many of us mad! Maybe this is what is needed so we can sort these lenders out!

LilacPixie

Current account provider: Barclaycard
Credit Card limit before change: 4800
Credit Card balance at time: 129
New Credit Card limit after change: 500
Whether this happened due to the way you rrun your account: Nothing we use the card for petrol on a monthly basis then pay off.
Any charges incurred as a result: no
Whether you were notified beforehand: yes letter dated 28 days before limit change but only received 10 days before

theletter gave the usual waffle about reviewing my account and usage histories and how as responsible lenders they had to do it etc but the weirdest thing is I have recently closed my Virgin card and RBS cardand they are marked as settled on the credit report, Mortgage is being overpaid and I have just under £600 outstanding on a cap one 0% until march 10 card and our car HP has recently ended too so we are in a better financial position than we were 2-3 years ago when I applied for Barclaycard and certainly alot better than when they were increasing the balance limit by huge amounts in early 2008.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

never-in-doubt wrote: »

Going on the first few responses it does appear that the lenders are not sticking to what we thought was the 'norm' by reducing limits due to badly run accounts but across the board even to good customers who just retain a limit for emergencies.

Stranded abroad is a shocker and most of us take a card abroad, in line with what our banks tell us (for added protection) so to be left high and dry would make many of us mad! Maybe this is what is needed so we can sort these lenders out!

The conundrum being of course that lenders fear that if they give notice of CL reductions, the customer will go on a spending spree. In truth, I believe that only a very tiny percentage would do that becauase if that were the customer's intention, they would have already done it. As for the possibility of being stranded abroad, even if I had no other card with me, I was staying with friends who would have loaned me some money till I got back. It's not really the point though IMO.
I'm sure it must have happened to somebody though. Does anybody know what happens in such a situation. Do the CC companies hastily increase the limit a bit for an extra few weeks while you get it sorted out. I know that if I had the expenditure and hassle of needing to get to the Embassy to be repatriated, I would certainly be looking for some kind of redress.

fraggle-111

sorry never-in-doubt.. dont particularly know what i'm doing on here...

carlislelass

have stopped putting in lump sums, everytime i do that they reduce by the same amount>>>Barclaycard.

vet8

My OH and I have had several limits reduced recently, every one on cards that we used only for a BT. My OH's Halifax card reduces the limit every time he pays off a bit, last time it went down £50 - was it worth sending the letter !!

My Sainsbury's card on which I have a LOB BT reduced the limit from £13,000 to £8,200, just over the amount I owe still, which is annoying as it looks as though the card is maxed out which it was not at all.

On these cards we have never missed a payment, we pay the minimum so we can concentrate on paying off higher interest debt first, so I assume that the CCs reduce our limit as we are not making them much money.

vet8

As an addition to the previous post I also have an Amex card which I used for a LOB BT as recommended by Martin two years ago. I pay the minimum off that each month. I looked at my online acccount yesterday and it said I owe £1,932, my credit limit is £5,100, but my available balance was only £168!!!

This morning I received a letter from them saying that they had lowered my limit to £2,100. The reason is becaue I only pay off a small proportion of the balance each month. Of course I do, as that is a low interest rate I concentrate on paying off the higher interest cards. This does not bother me as I never use the card, I have burnt it in fact, but I have also never missed a payment as I don't want to lose the low interest rate.

Their letter says "American Express appreciates your business"! Yeah!