Twits

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

I have a credit card I use for work and travel expenses, and pay off in full every month.

Got a letter from my bank last week, raising the interest. (which is of no concern, as I never pay any)

Got another letter from my bank this week raising the limit. (which is pointless, as I never go anywhere near the current limit, let alone the new one)

What on earth are they thinking???

I'm not sure why this annoys me so much, but it does. That they waste their efforts trying to lend money to people who clearly don't need or want to borrow, and yet take our taxpayer funded bailouts and refuse to lend to people that actually would borrow and boost the wider economy.

Actually, I wonder if raising limits for people that would never use them en-masse is somehow scammed into the lending targets they're failing to meet?

:mad:

Conrad

Vast organisations will always send out irrelevant badly targeted mailshots. Even my own small company has a very hard time creating mailshots that meet the needs and expectations of every customer.

Also it's a numbers game. For every 49 people like you, the timing will be spot on for the 50th and they will take up a card extension.

As to lending to people who do need to borrow, it's a difficult one as the FSA and markets demand caution which impells lenders to target low risk prospects with plenty of credit history - you!

Again as I keep on saying, if we want more lending we need to fire volleys at the FSA. Not much will change for as long as they are insisting on such high capital reserves - which apparantly we all believe in anyway, as we want to avoid another crunch.

michaels

I can see how it feels insulting though - it sort of suggests that you would be stupid enough to borrow at their usurious rates rather than tapping a much cheaper credit line if you did need credit.

Degenerate

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

What on earth are they thinking???

No-one is thinking anything. At the end of the day, you're just a data point in a computer-simulated lending model, and the equations picked you out for higher interest and more credit. Perhaps an indication that their model needs re-calibrating, but nothing to take personally.

Cleaver

Funnily enough I had a letter from American Express this week. I use their card mainly for work and spend between £500 and £1,000 a month on it. Been using it for three years and it's always had that level of spend, very rarely above or below those amounts.

My credit limit was increased this week, for the first time ever, without me asking, from £5,000 to £6,200. I have no idea why.

michaels

They wrote offering me 3% on purchases for 12 months - I think they must have cottoned on that I only got the card for the 5% cashback offer and am about to ditch it now the 12 months is up...

Graham_Devon

If i helps the discussion. My HSBC credit card...which I never actually use, though it does have a dwindling balance on it which I really should change to a 0% card, also got increased. However, the interest rate was increased about 4 months ago too to something over 20%.

Swings and roundabouts. Could take it that you are a good customer to them, and they are willing to increase your rate (mine went from 8k to 9k). However, the increase in interest rates tells a different story!

On a personal level, I take it as the banks distributing available credit to those with a much lower risk. Maintains the amount they are lending. I've seen others on the credit card boards seeing their limits reduced...to much fury too.

DervProf

Hamish, don't worry about it.

They are probably raising your limit as they are pretty sure you'll not abuse it, and are capable of paying the debt back. I had the same thing happen to me a few years ago, I started with a £500 limit, and it reached £7.5K after a couple of years. The truth was, at the time, that if I had reached the limit, I may well have been putting myself in a financially risky position. This was annoying, as this kind of practice was widespread during "the good years". No doubt there were people who's credit limits were increased beyond reasonable levels, and some did seem to get into trouble. If they had given me a £100k limit, it would not have mattered, because I know I have the discipline to not take the bait, but others may not have such self control.

stonethrower

I wouldn't worry about it I had a halifax credit card with a £5000 limit on it, after the credit crunch they decreased it to £750 and that is after never missing a payment. Then last year Nationwide stopped free foreign withdrawals with their flex account so I decided to apply for a Halifax clarity card (no charges for withdrawals abroad), I got a card with a £7000 limit. I have stopped trying to figure the logic of banks a long time ago.

nearlynew

I find it funny that McTittish can't join the dots.


What a silly boy.

ILW

Barclaycard increased my limit on a card which averages around a £300 balance, from £11,800 to £12,000. That did seem totally pointless.