Has your Credit Card limit been reduced?

CommitedToChange

Current account provider: Monument
Credit Card limit before change: 3,500
Credit Card balance at time: 200
New Credit Card limit after change: 300
Whether this happened due to the way you run your account: Had just started spending on it again so I'm baffled - their reason BLAH BLAH BLAH
Any charges incurred as a result: no
Whether you were notified beforehand: yes, well if one days notice counts!

OH and my account's being closed in 30 days (from date of letter 16/7 received today) :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Kindly they will let me keep paying it off though. - HA will pay it off by Augusts end - No more interest for you.

never-in-doubt

Thanks for posting - sorry to hear this (blessing in disguise though really)

Monument are in financial trouble, see their website and try to apply: https://www.themonumentcard.co.uk/offline.html

Thats been the case for almost a year now...... sod em, good riddance to them....

Out of interest, what was your APR with them?

CommitedToChange

LOL

It was about 16% but looks like they've put it up to 25% :mad:

Its sooo gone in 30 days - I'll give them 30 days!!! :rotfl:

cyclura

Current account provider: Barclaycard
Credit Card limit before change: 1000
Credit Card balance at time: 900
New Credit Card limit after change: 260
Whether this happened due to the way you run your account: I had just paid my whole balance off, before that I was just paying the minimum plus and extra £10 per month.n I do think its because I paid a lump sum off.
Whether you were notified beforehand: No I recieved a letter today to tell me my limit was reduced a week ago

wjordan

Current account provider: BA Amex
Credit Card limit before change: £14,000
Credit Card balance at time: £55
New Credit Card limit after change: £1,000
Whether this happened due to the way you run your account: no
Any charges incurred as a result: no
Whether you were notified beforehand: 5 days notice, but they sent the letter to a previous address (how, I don't know), so it took me a month to find out

They have also removed the ability to withdraw cash from ATMs (not that I would do that with a credit card)

I pay off my minimum every month by direct debit and the pay all the rest of the credit on time online using my debit card every month.

I have no unsecured debt, no loans, no mortgage. This is my only credit card.

It is very frustrating as the reduction means I can no longer use my BA Amex card to buy business flights. So, there is no point me having this card any more.

Cell

djm1972 wrote: »

There seems to be a bit of theme brewing - banks appear to want to reduce their exposure / liabilities quite aggressively at the moment.

I'm wondering if, for example, access to the funds in the wholesale money market - or perhaps more likely the interest rate charged for those funds - is being linked to exposure / liability - which would (should) certainly include credit card credit limits.

As I understand it they still want to lend to (new) people who meet their criteria but in terms of the balance sheet a large unused slice of credit for the customer shows up as a potential liability on the CC's bottom line meaning thay can't lend it out (because the unused credit might be called on at any time) and remain within 'safe' limits from an accountancy perspective.

If that makes any sense at all...

Cell

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.

As far as I understand that is exactly what they will not be able to do imminently. Unrequested credit limit increases are to be outlawed at some stage if my memory serves me correctly.

But this thread is clearly about the inability of people to be able to plan their credit usage and repayment with any degree of certainty.

My wife will soon be redundant and we will get a pay off. I am planning what best to do with it, but although my preference is to reduce expensive debt I would be doing so in the knowledge that if I paid off a large credit card bill it is possible that the credit limit will be reduced by the same amount. Can I afford to give up that capital in view of the uncertainty that many of us face? The answer is no, because anything could happen.

So the redundnacy payout will be placed on deposit and we will live on it as long as we can paying the same amounts off the cards as we do now - in other words no change until the payout is extinguished. Hopefully by then she will have another job.

In the interim the CC companies will continue to charge high APRs and profit from our uncertainty as to what they would do if we spent a large part of our capital on their debt.

It's silly to think that we might not need to use that credit line at some stage. If we spend the payout on repayments and then the card limit is reduced we could be in a position where we can't afford the utility bills, the mortgage etc because 'we did the right thing'.

All of this angst wouldn't be necessary if we hadn't got ourselves into debt in the first place but we have, and while I want to do what's best I'm finding it very difficult because it seems that the CC providers are likely to take any action at any time, even if you have tried to be prudent.

NickX

Cell wrote: »

My wife will soon be redundant and we will get a pay off. I am planning what best to do with it, but although my preference is to reduce expensive debt I would be doing so in the knowledge that if I paid off a large credit card bill it is possible that the credit limit will be reduced by the same amount. Can I afford to give up that capital in view of the uncertainty that many of us face? The answer is no, because anything could happen.

So the redundnacy payout will be placed on deposit and we will live on it as long as we can paying the same amounts off the cards as we do now - in other words no change until the payout is extinguished. Hopefully by then she will have another job.

Firstly, sorry to hear of your wife's employment problems.

Cell, it is up to you to decide how best to handle your wife's redundancy payout, but this is not really money saving and not how I would do things.

If you are paying high APR debts, then I would definitely use the funds to pay these off because you will not make very much in interest by keeping funds in the bank, and it may impact getting JSA (Job Seeker's Allowance).

With regard to ongoing living expenses, I would get a new 0% purchases card (Tesco currently offer 12 months at 0%) and use this for everything. If you apply NOW, you would not be lying if you put your wife's current employment details on the form. Then put all expenditure on this card and pay the minimum whilst in the promotional period.

This should buy you some time for your wife to get another job.

I know there are risks in this strategy but it is what I would do.

Hope things get sorted quickly.

lorraine66601

Received a letter from Monument to say they were decreasing my limit from £2000 to £1800 and then closing the account 30 days from the date of the letter. i have been with them for years never missed a payment once.then got a letter from Virgin saying they were increasing my interest rate to34.9% P.A giving me a option to opt out but if i did they would close account when i rang them to opt out they tried to get me to stay with them????

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Cell wrote: »

As far as I understand that is exactly what they will not be able to do imminently. Unrequested credit limit increases are to be outlawed at some stage if my memory serves me correctly.

But this thread is clearly about the inability of people to be able to plan their credit usage and repayment with any degree of certainty.

My wife will soon be redundant and we will get a pay off. I am planning what best to do with it, but although my preference is to reduce expensive debt I would be doing so in the knowledge that if I paid off a large credit card bill it is possible that the credit limit will be reduced by the same amount. Can I afford to give up that capital in view of the uncertainty that many of us face? The answer is no, because anything could happen.

So the redundnacy payout will be placed on deposit and we will live on it as long as we can paying the same amounts off the cards as we do now - in other words no change until the payout is extinguished. Hopefully by then she will have another job.

In the interim the CC companies will continue to charge high APRs and profit from our uncertainty as to what they would do if we spent a large part of our capital on their debt.

It's silly to think that we might not need to use that credit line at some stage. If we spend the payout on repayments and then the card limit is reduced we could be in a position where we can't afford the utility bills, the mortgage etc because 'we did the right thing'.

All of this angst wouldn't be necessary if we hadn't got ourselves into debt in the first place but we have, and while I want to do what's best I'm finding it very difficult because it seems that the CC providers are likely to take any action at any time, even if you have tried to be prudent.

I'm thinking along similar lines to yourself. Although normally it would be silly to have savings AND to have unpaid debts, the uncertainty as to whether a credit line might be reduced or withdrawn is forcing that issue for some. My reasons are different to yours. Your concern is about unpaid utility bills. Mine is about the possibility of a major vehicle repair being needed (without my van I earn zilch).
In the last couple of days Sainburys CC have once again reduced my limit to about £500 above what I owe them.
The daft thing is that these companies coiuld end up shooting themselves in the foot because if someone goes under due to a credit line being withdrawn without notice, the resultant bankruptcy, IVA, or DMP will mean that they get their money back far more slowly, or get a reduced amount, or may even get nothing at all.