Halifax CC - provisional credit limit

thatscaptaintou

I applied quite recently online for a Halifax credit card that gave 0% interest on balance transfers for 13 months and 0% on new purchases for 3 - I can't remember what the exact card was called but anyway.

I applied online to be told my credit limit on said card would be £2400 - fine. I received the form to sign and send back which further advised a limit of £2400. I then received the card last week, which showed a credit limit of £500!

I rang them today and queried this (to put it mildly) and was advised that the online figure and even the amount on the form which I had to sign and send back was only a "provisional credit limit" and the actual amount isn't notified until the card is sent out.

I've had credit cards in the past - I only ever have 1 at a time, never more and I have never heard of a provisional limit. LIke I said to the guy, I wouldn't have applied for the card if I had known the limit was £500.

Has anyone ever experienced this and is it right? Surely the form which you sign and send back is a contract - therefore if it says £2400 is the limit then once I've signed it, that is set in stone?

Help!

stephane_2

Nothing is set in stone....they can change the credit limit up or down as they see fit, but now that you've got the card and that it will show on your credit report you might as well keep it and try someone else....

brightgirl

This is the first time i`ve really heard of this. I`ve applied and use a fair amount of credit cards from various inc two cards from HBOS of which both are their One Card. Amazingly one has a limit of £4500 and the other has only £500 so I use the lower one only for fuel only at the moment.

In your case, thatscaptaintou, there are four ways this could go;
1. You contact Halifax and they are in agreement with you then increase your limit.
2. You contact Halifax and they are in agreement with you then increase your limit BUT another search becomes registered in your credit history for this increase.
2. You decide to cancel the card and apply for a different provider. The search will be shown from Halifax.
4. You decide to keep it as it is and get it increased at a later date.
I just tried this for myself after 2am... got the error message in my online acc "Unfortunately this service is unavailable between 10pm - 4am, Monday - Friday. We apologise for any inconvenience" :-)

chattychappy

CCs can vary credit limits, sure. But there is something smelly about leading someone to believe they will get a certain limit and then immediately reducing this on receipt of the form. Fair enough if "new information" comes to light (perhaps on the form) or it was made very clear that the original limit is just an estimate.

Banks are meant to treat customers fairly and simply reserving sweeping rights in the T+Cs or other small print doesn't necessarily let them off the hook.

Anyway I doubt whether there is much you can do to get the limit increased for at least 6 months and this probably isn't a battle worth fighting.

rb10

Do Halifax put a provisional credit limit on their forms??

They certainly didn't say anything about the credit limit to me when I applied for my Clarity Reward card until I'd signed for it.

opinions4u

It's a couple of years since I applied online for a Halifax card, so I may be out of date.

The only notification of credit limit that I got was when the card arrived - not earlier.

YorkshireBoy

opinions4u wrote: »

The only notification of credit limit that I got was when the card arrived - not earlier.

I'm not sure if you sign the online application agreement electronically these days, but when they used to send out a 7-8 page agreement to sign and return the credit limit was 'encoded' into the long number in the "for office use only" footnote on page 3 or 4.

Noticed it several times on both their own and their branded (ie N&P) cards.

System

Bank of Scotland (the issuers of Halifax cards) did this to me about 3/4 years ago.

I applied online for card and was given a credit limit on screen (which I luckily took a screen shot of). Got the forms, sent them back and when the card arrived it had a credit limit about 50% of the agreed limit.

Firstly, they denied that they have stated the higher limit (I told them about the screen print) they then said that the limit was stated as provisional - again I said that neither the application nor the limit screen said this (referring to the screen print)

I got BOS to remove both the credit agreement and search from my credit file.

Joe_Bloggs

To me it would make sense to put the credit limit on the forms/documentation. A 0% purchase card with a £500 limit means do not splurge. There may be a lot of splurging going on with Christmas and a VAT increase in the pipeline. I would be very disappointed to get a £500 limit having signed forms for £2400. It would have been a waste of my time and theirs.

There is nothing to stop people making simultaneous multiple credit applications and messing with what is a considered a sensible amount of credit given their application. Credit limits are granted as easily as they are taken away.

I buy my travel season ticket (largest single purchase) late December. Sometimes I purchase it with a 0% card, sometimes with a 1% purchase rebate card. I have been known to get an interest free loan from my employer to subsequently pay off the credit card.


@rb10. I was told that the Clarity card agreement forms did include the credit limit in a simple code. I had delayed posting these forms back as I had lost them in a incessantly growing myriad of Halifax 'bumf'!I was later able to confirm the code, through MSE forum posts, prior to sending to documents.

The Clarity limit is wasted on me. Once I have spent £300 or so I stop using the card, pay it off and switch to Egg Money.

J_B.

brightgirl

I managed to increase mine online right now...

xxxx xxxx xxxx 7659 ONE CARD November 10, 2010 12:21:42 PM

Thank you, your credit limit has been changed.


Credit limit updated:


Your new credit limit:
£4500.00

X
Your available credit:
£3651.36


Please note: your new credit limit is available to use immediately.

Se1Lad

I've been accepted with a provisional limit of 9.5k - will let you know what the actual limit is when it arrives. Surprised they gave me such a high limit seeing as I have 97k credit limit over my other credit cards (though anything i spend is paid in full each month!). Im just after the card for the annual tier points with Mariott.