catalogues and your increases?

boogiemaster

JD Williams started me on £125 and on the fifth statement its gone up to £900.


Simply be started me on £125 and on the fifth statement its gone up to £600.



Kay's started me on £500 and its still on £500 after three payments.



I'm still ordering small items i know i can afford to pay off and i'm not being tempted by their high limits

thomasdown

Imagine my shock when about 8 months ago I wanted to go for a mortgage and checked my credit history to find I have about 9 accounts in my name. I thought WHAT!!!! but 5 of them were catalogues with over £22,000 available credit so I cancelled all of them, to improve my chances of getting a mortgage and it worked. It is quite shocking. I never used them, only used them once when they do a 40% off 1st order when you open an account etc to get a bargain. They just must have kept upping the limits on all of them without letting me know.

boogiemaster

I just logged into my account and noticed it had been raised to £900 but I'm not daft enough to spend that much all in one go.


Its just a bit of a shock to see it jumping up so fast in five months.

fozmcfc

Haven't used my Very account since I paid off the full balance in July 2010. My limit has risen from £1200 to £1300.

Last few times I have looked to see if they have had anything on a BNPL deal and been good value, it hasn't been so I haven't bothered with it.

Where possible I'll continue to use 0% purchase deals on CC's and get the item cheaper.

May come in handy next year, when hopefully I move into my first place with a mortgage.

Stuart_W

I only use my catalogue accounts to exploit deals to get something cheaper than elsewhere.

This is, as fozmcfc says however, becoming much harder. Probably because I'm not really using any of the branded or fashion elements of the catalogues.

Quidco cashback has been cut back, the commission-paying catalogues are adding tighter and tighter restrictions (ie commission is only paid on payments over £20 and exclude all promotional prices) so this is getting much harder.

I've just received another £30 off next £60 order at Very - even this "half price" offer needs to be used carefully to be a good deal versus best online prices. Deals like this, though, never make me suddenly "want" something. If I can use it to buy something I was going to, great. Otherwise, I don't use it.

My credit limits are also bonkers - I've got two very accounts (one was originally Index Extra, one was originally Additions Direct) £2,700 on one and £5,600 on the other, and £9,000 with Littlewoods. They put them up with almost every order.

They also seem to be increasingly more and more going for the "hard sell" on trying to get you to agree to extended terms for spreading the cost over 104 or 156 weeks quite often, after you've placed and received an order. They add all the interest at the beginning, these deals are always terrible. A £100 order (often interest free at £1.92 per week) can become a "£1 a week cheaper at just 92p per week" over 152 weeks (which means you're stumping up an extra £52 in interest, but I guess some people fall for it (that's at 29.9% APR)).

I have never paid any interest and never paid full catalogue price for anything on my accounts, and don't plan to.

chanz4

I have just bought this, Breville Wake Up Tea And Coffee its £59.99 in argos and very sale, but very sent a voucher spend £60 and get £30 off so very cheap and best of all intrest 3 over 3 months

jay87

I have Very, Littlewoods and Next Directory. All held for approx 2 years. Very is £1300, Littlewoods is £750 and Next is £900. Very give me regular increases, Littlewoods and Next have never increased though! i recently got two £30 off if you spend £60 offers through which my partner used to gt christmas bits. These and the BNPL offers make them worth while in my opinion.

vintagegirl

ive just got £30 off a £65 printer that was half price anyway from £129.99 and got £12.72 with rewards.

So paid about £22 for a brilliant printer, and they put my limit up from £700 to £950 the second i put the order through