Credit Report - Barclaycard

smidgey

Hi all,

I'm focussed this year on halving my credit card debt with Barclaycard. I've gotten the £9,100 (in January) down to £6,200 currently. Each time I make a large payment I reduce the credit limit as I don't want the temptation there.

However when checking my credit report with call credit (got it free for a few months with LloydsTSB) it looks to have a devistating effect.

I never have gone over my limit nor missed any payments but where I have reduced my limit it shows that I have gone over my limit when I haven't. The status shows as up to date.

In February it shows the correct statement balance as £8,551 so on the 15th Feb (pay day) I paid £800 reducing the balance to £7751 and straight away I reduced the limit from £9,100 to £8,350 but on my credit report for February it shows limit as £8,350 but balance as £8,551!

Does this look as bad as I think it does? Would I need to speak to Barclaycard?

thenudeone

The problem of incorrect data on credit reports isn't confined to barclaycard. It's probably down to the timing of when the information is sent.
Some lines of history on my CRA reports show no payments, even though every card has always had a payment on time (and the line showing the number of late / missed payments correctly shows all zeros). I presume they have sent more than one update to the CRA that month, but it's not clear. Maybe I should query it.

The important thing is how the users' (i.e. other card companies) computer systems interpret the data when making (mostly automated) decisions. Sounds like the CRA needs to give you a more detailed explanation of what they say the data on each line means.

Xbigman

Surely this is the wrong thing to look at. Its the long term record, those thirty odd numbers, that represents your payment history that counts.
That said, if you were applying for new credit you might as well not reduce the credit limit that month just in case.



X

creditcardnewbie

smidgey wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm focussed this year on halving my credit card debt with Barclaycard. I've gotten the £9,100 (in January) down to £6,200 currently. Each time I make a large payment I reduce the credit limit as I don't want the temptation there.

However when checking my credit report with call credit (got it free for a few months with LloydsTSB) it looks to have a devistating effect.

I never have gone over my limit nor missed any payments but where I have reduced my limit it shows that I have gone over my limit when I haven't. The status shows as up to date.

In February it shows the correct statement balance as £8,551 so on the 15th Feb (pay day) I paid £800 reducing the balance to £7751 and straight away I reduced the limit from £9,100 to £8,350 but on my credit report for February it shows limit as £8,350 but balance as £8,551!

Does this look as bad as I think it does? Would I need to speak to Barclaycard?

Hi Smidgey,

Today I logged on here to post exactly the same thing you outlined on your post.

I, like you am tackling my credit card debt head on and thought it was a good idea to reduce my Barclaycard limit manually every couple of months. I have also "never" went over my limit but to my horror when I received my Callcredit credit report it "seems" that on at least 4 occasions I have gone over my limit when I haven't.

I do think however that Xbigman is right - it is the payment history that counts - all those zero's on our report rather than balance v limit. Hopefully someone can confirm that for us.

I have to admit though that it does still make me very uncomfortable. I have sent off for my Experian and Equifax statutory reports to see how things look there too as I am very keen to apply for another card to do a balance transfer at the moment but I am applying for nothing until I see my other reports.

If I can find anything out I will come back and post here.

creditcardnewbie :beer: