Marks & Spencer Notice of Variation Letter

Suegal54

Just received a letter from M&S this morning saying that they have reviewed my account and are increasing the credit limit to 23.9%. I have had cards with M&S for approximatley 15 years. I have never missed a payment - I have never late paid - And currently my balance is NIL! On that basis I think the letter is a cheek to say the least. It's the usual standard letter, and when I rang them this morning to get an explanation all they could tell me was that it had been reviewed and it was based on how many times I withdrew cash and my spending patterns with other credit card companies. I don't usually withdraw cash, but my spending pattern with other card companies is good and shows a very healthy payment history! The letter states that you can pay off your balance at your existing interest rate (I don't currently have a balance) but if you do you can no longer spend on the card and you will be asked to destroy the card. I did tell them to close my account and I have just destroyed the card. If this is how Marks and Spencer treat their good customers I would recommend that anyone thinking of taking out an M&S Credit card doesn't bother, well certainly not with interest rates as high as theirs anyway. Good luck to all in this credit card jungle...........

gillhammer

I got one of these this morning too. I've also got a nil balance (for 10 months if I recall) and I've had the M&S credit card since the launch. I just binned the letter as usual but I fished it out again to check the rate it had changed to and my rate is now going to be 15.9% (so I'm assuming it was lower before, but I don't recall the rate). As far as M&S are concerned I know I'm a terrible customer as I pay in full and don't do cash withdrawals so I'd have thought I'd be a prime target to ramp the rate up or just close my account as part of a sweep to purge their 'book' of unprofitable accounts.
But I like to keep my M&S card as my emergency back up and I'll keep it running with the odd transaction which I pay off with a full D/D anyway so the int rate is irrelevant.

CLAPTON

these are about the going APRs for most cards now.

just use the card, pay in full, enjoy the vouchers/cashback etc ... whats the problem?