Credit limits to income ratio...

easterbunni

Don't want to sound like I'm boasting... but just to let you know it is possible to have available credit far exceeding your annual income...

In January I had £9,600 available on my £21,500 annual salary. (Considering I only get my mitts on about £15K of that after taxes).

End of January, Barclaycard doubled that with a card limit of £9,600... I nearly fell over when I saw it... what's that, about 89% of my income?

Halifax have just given me a £4,200 limit giving me a total of £23,400 available to spend, if I really fancied it! :eek:

108.84%

Anyone beat that? :rotfl:

BugsyBrowne

easterbunni wrote: »

Don't want to sound like I'm boasting... but just to let you know it is possible to have available credit far exceeding your annual income...

In January I had £9,600 available on my £21,500 annual salary. (Considering I only get my mitts on about £15K of that after taxes).

End of January, Barclaycard doubled that with a card limit of £9,600... I nearly fell over when I saw it... what's that, about 89% of my income?

Halifax have just given me a £4,200 limit giving me a total of £23,400 available to spend, if I really fancied it! :eek:

108.84%

Anyone beat that? :rotfl:

I don't think boasting comes into it by telling us how much debt you will be in if you took out all these credit card loans.

easterbunni

star-fire wrote: »

I don't think boasting comes into it by telling us how much debt you will be in if you took out all these credit card loans.

The point is, it just goes to show that with all the doom and gloom messages we get about the banks tightening their belts and not lending to anyone, especially if their available credit is a particular level, clearly it's not all true...

I could blow 23 grand this afternoon, but I won't...

Venusflytrap

I remember when I was a lean student, had a barclaycard initial with a £520 limit. Just as I was reaching my limit and struggling to clear my balance it was increased to £1050. The pranksters knew there was a very high probability that I would dip into the increment and make them loads of £££s in interest. Now that I have no debt, pay all my bills in full each month and have disposable income, guess what? I have not had an automatic credit limit increase in over 4 years.

Are the CC companies perhaps of the opinion that by dangling the right amount of carrots you might get all woozy and fall off the wagon?

Just a thought...

pottski

Is there really any need for 2 credit cards?

pearls_of_wisdom

how long has it take you to build up this credit facility ?

climbgirl

pottski wrote: »

Is there really any need for 2 credit cards?

Yes, sometimes it makes sense to have a couple.

I have two - one is used for everyday spending (cashback card, paid off in full each month) and the other I keep clear.

It's my emergency card in case I need to go abroad at the drop of a hat (my family live abroad). My cash savings are all in accounts that take a few days to reach my current account so if I needed to go in a hurry I have the clear card to be able to do just that. My everyday card often gets close to the limit as a lot of work expenses go on there too.

You never know what circumstances people have that make a couple of cards a good idea.

ccf_2

[QUOTE=
Anyone beat that? :rotfl:[/QUOTE]

Yip i can. income £21000 available credit £34500. Someone said thats over 150%.

Got to love the responsible lending of the banks. 2 new cards this year was already at 30k before that.

Venusflytrap

Nothing 'wrong' in having two, three or even four credit cards if you can keep up. It's partially about the amount of credit you have in relation to income, how much you can afford to spend and how much you can pay back in full (or in part) each month.

I use my CCs to benefit from 56 - 59 interest free days between statements before paying off in full. The general rule for me now is: If I do not have the equivalent in cash it doesn't go on my credit card.

izools

And on the other end of the scale, my Available Credit Used % = 0%, my total available credit to annual income ratio, 2%

Yea baby

Debt to Income however isn't that spectacular - the loan makes it just under 15%, still pretty good tho IMO

fozmcfc

I agree you can definately have a large credit available/used to salary ratio.

My available credit is roughly 90%, but my used credit is about 12% of my salary.

A lot will also depend on your credit record though, when I last checked 6 months ago, mine were spotless.

No miss/late payments or anything worse.

On electoral role, same address for 25 + years, same employment for 23 years.