Has your Credit Card limit been reduced?

Paulgonnabedebtfree

vet8 wrote: »

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

That's the bit isn't it? I think most people accept that being able to borrow money is a priveledge rather than a right. It's all the bull that goes with it though that I can find irritating. Honestly, I would rather a company write to say that they're reducing my limit because I owe so much and they're crapping their pants in case they don't get their money back. I would much rather that than all the BS flannel.

bms1972

I was very surprised to be given 'only' a £5k limit on a new CC recently. It's the first new CC I have applied for in maybe 5 or 6 years but previously I am used to getting much bigger limits (and I was earning a lot less back then and borrowing more). The limit was more than adequate for my needs, but does seem to indicate that either credit is being doled out more sensibly or that reducing my borrowings & credit applications has negatively effected my credit rating.

Lilith1980

Current account provider Halifax
Credit Card limit before change £1,500
Credit Card balance at time £1,293
New Credit Card limit after change £1,350
Whether this happened due to the way you run your account They didn't say anything but it
was a 0% balance transfer and I paid the minimum each month. Funny enough though the 0% period has just ended.
Any charges incurred as a result No
Whether you were notified beforehand No

snowymalone

Current account provider: Halifax
Credit Card limit before change: 10,500
Credit Card balance at time: 10,390 (all balance transfers, no purchases)
New Credit Card limit after change: 9,500
Whether this happened due to the way you run your account: no
Any charges incurred as a result: see below
Whether you were notified beforehand: absolutely not: again, see below.

I'd taken Martin's advice, and used various Halifax promotions (ave. 5-6% for lifetime of balance) and put a lot of transfers on this card for three or four years, and the balances were coming down nicely. Then, about March this year, while I had £2,000 available, they wrote to offer me another 5.5% life of balance deal. And then a week later rang me to offer it. And again. About five times over the subsequent week, in fact, stating that the offer closed at midnight on the Friday (very pushy callers, too) so I relented and t/f'd £1,800 from another card.

Then last month I got a letter from them stating they'd dropped my limit by a thousand, and I was now over my limit by £900, and I was to immediately make a payment. I rang them and pointed out I was only over the limit as they themselves had badgered me into it. After a lot of squabbling they raised the limit back up to £10,400, and I made my usual payment at the end of the month.

And then I got another letter this week, stating I hadn't made minimum payment, and demanding nearly £150 to cover the shortfall. I rang them immediately, only to be told my new minimums were closer to £300. Because, it transpires, when I defaulted (as they put it) all bets were off, all promotions immediately become void and I went straight to their top whack rate of over 20% APR.

Now: as we're about to enter a DMP, is it worth going to war with them over this, or just keep shtum and let CCCS handle them? Or should we tell CCCS this and will they negotiate re this once the DMP is running? Someone suggested that if they've broken their own agreement I may be entitled to reclaim all charges they've ever levied on me - is this just Guinness inspired optimisim or is there possibly some truth in it?

freeoffers

Wow, the banks can't win can they. They get lambasted for throwing credit around and moaned at for cutting back. Yeah i dont like the bull that comes with their letters either but its about time they stopped upping credit limits willy nilly.

never-in-doubt

freeoffers wrote: »

Wow, the banks can't win can they. They get lambasted for throwing credit around and moaned at for cutting back. Yeah i dont like the bull that comes with their letters either but its about time they stopped upping credit limits willy nilly.

think you'll find they stopped doing this a couple of years ago now

greenmantle

Neither of my credit limits have been reduced, but I myself requested that Egg cut my limit from 2100 to 900, as I was overseas for a while and didn't want quite so much ready credit in my wallet.

HSBC have a habit of sneaking limit increases in there. I remember years ago asking them to reverse an increase I hadn't requested, but sure enough it crept up again later. Hasn't gone up in a while though (there's no balance on it).

All of them have been playing silly !!!!!!s with interest rates, though, regardless of account conduct. HSBC upped my interest rate (paying off the full amount monthly) to 17.9, and when I asked them 'what the hell?' they said 'oops, you qualify for 15.9, actually' (1% below the standard variable). Egg is at about 26%, a high to which it sneaked at some unknown date in the past, and refuse to review the rate. So I'm just not using it.

Worst past experience for wildly fluctuating limits/interest rates was with Mint, when I had a transferred balance with them. They were more of the 'charge-creating' kind that took you unawares...

Dabooka

I've read the replies here and although I can appreciate people feeling hard done to having their limits cut etc when they're paid off in full most months or always, but surely the reason behind this is do you need the credit if that's the case, and if you owe nothing to them why should they risk having you suddenly bank up loads you (potentially) couldn't pay back?

That's not to say I agree with methods, timings etc, but try and understand it's an unnecessary risk for them.

Incidently, I only have an Amex (since 2002), no recent limit changes but a small increase in apr (can't even remember to what. About 17% I think?). Paid off in full every month, but still I get the letter. Why? I assume it's because I'll not pay much attention (as I have just proven!) because it's always paid off, and if I did build up a balance they'll make a little out of me.

Snowman4

Provider: Barclaycard
Limit to begin with - 8,500
Account balance under 1,000
new Limit - 1,000
Covering letter (rather sniffy) mentioned something about this being due to the way the account is operated - I took this to mean that my partner had been rumbled as tarting with this cards so presumably this is a result of the legislation that allows providers to look at other accounts.

Windscreen_Viper

Current account provider Marks & Spencer
Credit Card limit before change £5,000
Credit Card balance at time £2,500 (approx)
New Credit Card limit after change £2,500
Whether this happened due to the way you run your account They didn't say anything but it, but when I called them to ask why they tried to fob me off with what may be in my credit reference report (which is complete er.... round objects!)
Any charges incurred as a result No as I had just 10 days before paid off the full balance
Whether you were notified beforehand yes, but only just!

They now refuse to consider increasing it back again