Nationwide slashed my credit limit :-(

scragend

Just got my September statement for my Nationwide Gold credit card. Previously my limit was £3,500 - my August statement had a balance of £548.13 which I paid in full, on time (as I always do). I noticed on my September statement that my limit is now only £500 :eek:

I know they are entitled to "review" my limit at any time, but are they supposed to reduce it without telling me (other than printing the new limit on the next statement)?

I do use the card abroad, but I'm not one of these overseas-only users that Nationwide are trying to get rid of - I use my Flex Account as my main bank account.

Might be time to dust off my Santander Zero card...

Rant over.

PNPSUKNET

it maybe as you say always pay in full, cost to serve type of thing

Azrael_1701

if they gave you notice, whats to stop you going out and spending the 3.5k before they gave you the chance?

gazelle8760

Welcome to the world of Nationwide.

They did exactly the same stunt to me last December, waited for me to pay the full balance DD, then slashed the limit to £600 from £2800, they would have gone lower I'm sure, but they can't leave you over your limit, so they had to take me above what I then owed.

All they now say is, they won't want too over-commit their customers, well, why the hell do they give out these big limits, only to let you have them six months, to reduce them to what they feel you should have?

I have never had my limits reduced by Lloyds or Capital One, yet Nationwide claim they are proud to be different, yes they have that bit spot on, shame their difference isn't of benefit to their customers, instead of looking after their own needs and interests, utterly pathetic Building Society, with shabby customer service to match!

JohalaReewi

Hi. Join the club. Quite a few people on MSE who have had their NW card limit drastically reduced. Suggest you look at another card if you can't work within the new NW limits.

gazelle8760

JohalaReewi wrote: »

Hi. Join the club. Quite a few people on MSE who have had their NW card limit drastically reduced. Suggest you look at another card if you can't work within the new NW limits.

It's not a question of working within the "new limits", it's the principal, not one of my other card providers have reduced my limit, yet why do Nationwide do this to their customers, when they know it will annoy them?

These limit reductions are not small reductions either, they are quite large chunks of Credit Limits being taken away, even when customers are using them, so it could either be that customers who are full payers per month, maybe prime targets, as those with high balances, can't have their limits reduced that much, so it seems that they favor those who make them interest, then when you have your limits lowered, and pay smaller payments to make them interest, they don't increase it, as said, shoddy customer service, from a shoddy outfit.

scragend

Azrael_1701 wrote: »

if they gave you notice, whats to stop you going out and spending the 3.5k before they gave you the chance?

I wasn't saying they should give notice, but that they should tell me what they had done - a letter saying "we have reduced your credit limit" shouldn't be too much to ask. As it was I only noticed it in the top corner of the statement.

I'm going away to Europe on Thursday and had given the Nationwide CC number to the hotel as a guarantee. The total hotel bill will be more than £500 so now won't fit on the card - fortunately I have the Zero so can use that.

I've always been a fan of Nationwide, but for various reasons recently I'm starting to look elsewhere.

dtaylor84

gazelle8760 wrote: »

It's not a question of working within the "new limits", it's the principal, not one of my other card providers have reduced my limit, yet why do Nationwide do this to their customers, when they know it will annoy them?

It's their money. They're not obligated to let you use it if they don't want to.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

scragend wrote: »

I wasn't saying they should give notice, but that they should tell me what they had done - a letter saying "we have reduced your credit limit" shouldn't be too much to ask. As it was I only noticed it in the top corner of the statement.

I'm going away to Europe on Thursday and had given the Nationwide CC number to the hotel as a guarantee. The total hotel bill will be more than £500 so now won't fit on the card - fortunately I have the Zero so can use that.

I've always been a fan of Nationwide, but for various reasons recently I'm starting to look elsewhere.

Indeed. It would have been better customer service to highlight it in some way to draw your attention to it. Just a brief note with the bill mentioning it would have been better.
I don't have any business myself with NW but have had a number of limits reduced in the past couple of years. Whenever this has happened, there has been some extra letter to draw attention to the reduction. These days I do scrutinise the bills for such things anyway because it seems to be happening more often. Sainsburys drop mine every quarter as I gradually repay it (my indebtedness to them is currently reducing by about £95/£100 a month). They always leave a margin of about £300 - £400 on top of what I owe them.
I think we will be seeing more and more of this as the regulations change forcing banks to hold more in reserve. If you think you've seen a credit squeeze already, IMO you've seen nothing yet.

JA1000

MBNA cut mine from £7500 to £500 after paying it off, I am now expecting Nationwide to do the same on my £10k limit!

willstewart

I've had none of my limits reduced although two interest rate increases from MBNA (not sure when as nothing in the last 12 months and can't see more than that statement wise online to check)
My bank actually increased mine. Barclaycard and Capital One remain at £1450 and £500 respectively whilst being paid off and my MBNA card is stil at £2000 (although they decided 2 years ago I was a bad risk and blocked my account after the card expired but didn't inform me - was paying the minimum but recently a lot more to get rid of it).