Citibank then Opus now progressive credit limited

pleasedelete

Hi. My husband used to work for citibank.

He had a creditcard with - £21,500 limit. Recently it changed to Opus - they put interest rate to 30 per cent but that made no difference as he had 2 lifetime balance transfers. One for about £7k at about 6 per cent and one for about 6k at about 5 per cent.

Last month I paid the higher one off and on Saturday he called to request the limit be dropped to £6500.

Today he has received a letter saying that the account is to be moved to progressive credit limited. The card will be ended and the account will be closed.

It says if you have a debit balance you must continue to make monthly payment. Never missed a payment.

Is this a bad thing? Is it bad to have an account with progressive credit on credit file.

I do have enough to pay it off but I had intended to pay natwest with a higher interest.

Any thoughts or advice?

2sides2everystory

Oh no ... not more totally irrelevant and progressively more dubious entries entries now expected on my CRA files I hope :mad:

Where is the Information Commissioner when you want him/her?

izools

It makes no difference whatsoever to your credit file.

Creditors, when performing credit searches do not see the names of your existing creditors, only what type of account (bank account, credit card, loan, telecommunications, etc) you have.

So if a bank credit searched you they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between an Amex card with £3,000 limit and a Vanquis card with £3,000 limit - all they'd see is "credit card".

That is of course assuming they don't do what Opus / Halifax did, and put incorrect data down.

pleasedelete

What did opus and Halifax do?

2sides2everystory

I cannot believe that is correct izools - when Opus took over they put a rash of entries on files like mine which were already closed Citibank accounts.

Their entries caused alerts to be sent to me.

Are you really trying to split hairs between harmless irrelevant data and damaging irrelevant data records?

izools

2sides2everystory wrote: »

I cannot believe that is correct izools - when Opus took over they put a rash of entries on files like mine which were already closed Citibank accounts.

Their entries caused alerts to be sent to me.

Are you really trying to split hairs between harmless irrelevant data and damaging irrelevant data records?

Sorry, what I meant was that the name of the creditor is irrelevant.

If they put incorrect entries on a credit file then you're absolutely right, irrespective of whether they're damaging they are / were wrong and should be removed.

I think OP was worried that if the name of the creditor on his credit card account changed to "Progressive Credit Ltd" people would be less likely to accept him than if the account was from "Citibank" or "Opus".

pleasedelete:> Opus (their cards are managed by Halifax) put strange and irrelevant entries on ex-Citi customer's credit files when they moved the accounts over last year showing people had accounts that they'd never actually had.

pleasedelete

izools wrote: »

pleasedelete:> Opus (their cards are managed by Halifax) put strange and irrelevant entries on ex-Citi customer's credit files when they moved the accounts over last year showing people had accounts that they'd never actually had.

Ok. Would that effect getting credit? And was it on experian and equifax?

I only ask as husband got turned down for a loan with sainsburys which was very odd. Experian showed no issues but I didn't check others.

I thought it probably because he had a massive amount of unused credit on cards as all had limits over £15k (access to over 140k I think) He has now closed some and reduced limits on others.

izools

pleasedelete wrote: »

Ok. Would that effect getting credit? And was it on experian and equifax?

I only ask as husband got turned down for a loan with sainsburys which was very odd. Experian showed no issues but I didn't check others.

I thought it probably because he had a massive amount of unused credit on cards as all had limits over £15k (access to over 140k I think) He has now closed some and reduced limits on others.

LOL Having access to over £140K would most certainly cause any sane creditor to run for the hills before providing credit to such an applicant, unless he's on £300K PA or more!

A rough guide is that creditors don't really like debtors owing more than about 40-50% of their annual income in unsecured debt. There's a lot more to their calculations that this but it is still a good idea to make sure that credit limits across all accounts add up to under 40% of your income before considering applications for further credit :beer:

fallen121

My husband had a lifetime balance transfer with Citibank which was honoured when the account was moved to Opus.

The letter states, "your rates and other terms and conditions remain unchanged" [I nearly missed it, you have turn the letter over] but mysteriously, it doesn't state what the rate is....!! My advice to everyone is KEEP YOUR OLD OPUS STATEMENTS JUST IN CASE!

I had a rather bad experience with Morgan Stanley a while ago where I had lifetime balance transfer, but when the debt was bought by Barclaycard, the debt went onto a standard rate and the interest quadrupuled. I phoned Barclaycard and pointed this out, they set the rate back to what it was but claimed that the agreement I had had with Morgan Stanley was only for 6 months. Only when I sent them 13 months worth of statements showing this supposed "six month" rate did they finally capitulate and put it onto lifetime, but it wasn't without a fight. In addition, the calculations they did as regard repayment of interest wrongly charged left me slightly out of pocket - but by that time dozens of letters had been exchanged and I was worn out fighting.

Unfortunately these debt transfer always seem to end up costing us, the customers, money one way or the other :mad:

blisteringblue

fallen121 wrote: »

My husband had a lifetime balance transfer with Citibank which was honoured when the account was moved to Opus.

The letter states, "your rates and other terms and conditions remain unchanged" [I nearly missed it, you have turn the letter over] but mysteriously, it doesn't state what the rate is....!! My advice to everyone is KEEP YOUR OLD OPUS STATEMENTS JUST IN CASE!

Same letter here and I too just have a LIFETIME BALANCE on this card. I would never use it anyway for anything else as I think my standard rate is up at something like 31% now.

I did have a long read and re-read of the letter but you are correct the last paragraph over the page states "Your rates and other T&Cs remain unchanged" but I will keep a few of the OPUS Statements with the "Until Paid in Full" next to the LOB rates.

I never even bothered to activate the card when it arrived, so no skin off my nose if they close the account. I would have done so at the end of the LOB deal anyway.

dmwg40

I just had the same letter today with the same terms

it says i have not used my card in over 6 months i will not be issued a new card and account closed on September 2011