Good credit rating, unable to increase card limit

smurf253

Hi everyone, this is my first so please be gentle with me !
I have a Nationwide gold card and debit card which was organised two years ago for family holidays because of their benefits abroad. At the time I had 2 other cards with £16 k credit limit whith no outstanding finance.
I am married own a good chunk of our house and have no loans. A few months ago I cut up the two cards and now (rarely) use the Nationwide card as my only card. We are off to America on holiday soon so I phoned them to increase my limit which is only £550, to be told this cannot happen because I have something on my credit history stopping this and I should contact a credit reference agency, but I appealed there and then.
I contacted experian and paid for a credit report because I was worried what was going on with my credit score to find out I had a score of 999 which most people would like to obtain and am a very low credit risk. Now very miffed I contacted Nationwide again to be told that I dont use the card very much so that may be a problem.
I feel that because I use the card rarely, pay it in full every month I am being punished because they cant make money out of me and I believe that they thought by saying there something on my credit history I wouldnt do anything about It.
Am I being unreasonable to expect credit with a good credit score and is there anything else i can do ?
Thanks in advance Smurf

Fiddlestick

smurf253 wrote: »

Hi everyone, this is my first so please be gentle with me !
I have a Nationwide gold card and debit card which was organised two years ago for family holidays because of their benefits abroad. At the time I had 2 other cards with £16 k credit limit whith no outstanding finance.
I am married own a good chunk of our house and have no loans. A few months ago I cut up the two cards and now (rarely) use the Nationwide card as my only card.

When you say you cut up the cards, do you mean physically or did you actually call them to close the account too?

If the account is still open, you can call them and ask them to send out a new card.

I contacted experian and paid for a credit report because I was worried what was going on with my credit score to find out I had a score of 999 which most people would like to obtain and am a very low credit risk.

That does not mean you are a very low credit risk.

It's an arbitary score that Experian generated for you because you paid them money to do so.

It has no bearing whatsoever on lending decisions and lenders cannot even see it. Each lender has their own internal scoring systems and lending criteria and it's the internal lending criteria that you didn't meet.

Am I being unreasonable to expect credit with a good credit score and is there anything else i can do ?

A little bit - like I said, the "credit score" from Experian is meaningless and what matters is the lender's internal criteria and scoring system. They say that it was something on your credit report but you obtained it and it was clear, so why not write to them with that information and ask them to look again and tell you why you were declined?

Jenny00

With a good credit score, your credit limit can be increased. You can further improve your credit rating by paying bills and all dues in time.

[Deleted User]

Undoubtedly your low usage which is causing them to say no. Banks are reducing their exposure, meaning they like people to have limit that closely match their current usage. Otherwise, they have huge amounts of cash which could be used at any minute. You would need to use your card more, but there is no guarantee they will increase it and unlikely it would happen before you go on holiday.

Suggest you either apply for another card or use cash/travellers cheques whilst abroad.

smurf253

In answer to your question yes I closed both credit accounts.
I can see what you have said about experian but the Nationwide use them for credit scoring (according to this site) and I was told by Nationwide to obtain a credit report to sort it out as they couldnt do anything. Surely if it was an internal lending decision they should have told me that rather than waste time and money with experian for something I cant change.
Smurf

smurf253

I have applied for a PO card, hope the application is ok and here by the middle of July.
I have thought about cash/travellers cheques but you get better rates by using the Nationwide card which is why I applied for it - although I still have their debit card which has good benefits abroad.

smurf253

Thanks Jenny00, we pay everything on time my wife had a student loan until she was 30, so now she hates owing money anywhere !

lisyloo

I feel that because I use the card rarely, pay it in full every month I am being punished because they cant make money out of me

Why are you suprised at this behaviour for a business???

Fiddlestick

smurf253 wrote: »

I can see what you have said about experian but the Nationwide use them for credit scoring (according to this site) and I was told by Nationwide to obtain a credit report to sort it out as they couldnt do anything.

They use the INFORMATION supplied by Experian to score you, i.e. what credit accounts you have, your balances, your payment history etc etc.

Nationwide will take this information and generate their own internal score using their own system.

This internal score may or may not meet their lending criteria.

They do not see the "credit score" that you paid Experian for, just the information on your accounts.

Is that a bit clearer?

Surely if it was an internal lending decision they should have told me that rather than waste time and money with experian for something I cant change.

See above

d3mon4ngel

Did you only get your "credit score" from Experian, or did you get your whole credit report? If you get the full report you might find something on there that maybe shouldn't be? Could be worth checking.

smurf253

Thanks for everyones input, I guess I knew the answer before I posted - time to take my business elsewhere
Thanks Smurf