Over Credit Limit Charges

claireneil

I don't know if anyone else has had this problem but I could do with advice. I have a barclaycard and a few months ago, due to a change in my credit rating, they reduced my credit limit on my card. I was very near my original limit at the time, so in turn this obviously took me over the new credit limit by £400. I have noticed on my latest statement that they are now trying to charge me £12.00 a month as a 'over credit limit' charge due to this fact. As you can imagine I am furious about this and have called them this morning - I have now got to wait over 48 hours and call them back!! - can they do this and charge me for it??

tomsco

claireneil wrote: »

I don't know if anyone else has had this problem but I could do with advice. I have a barclaycard and a few months ago, due to a change in my credit rating, they reduced my credit limit on my card. I was very near my original limit at the time, so in turn this obviously took me over the new credit limit by £400. I have noticed on my latest statement that they are now trying to charge me £12.00 a month as a 'over credit limit' charge due to this fact. As you can imagine I am furious about this and have called them this morning - I have now got to wait over 48 hours and call them back!! - can they do this and charge me for it??

Yes, they should have provided you ample notice in regards to this. You are then required to keep track of your spending to ensure you don't exceed your credit limit.

chattychappy

Willing to stand corrected, but I believe CCs don't have to give notice to reduce your limit. If they did it would defeat the object - some cardholders would just rush out and spend up to the limit.

So if your balance is £1200 and your limit is £1300 then they are free to reduce your limit to £1201.

However I can see there are issues around: 1) letters crossing with transactions, 2) interest in the pipeline.

I would expect a reduction to allow a margin for interest yet to be applied. But if you take this margin, through extra spend then that's down to you.

If they didn't allow for interest, or transactions happened before you received the notice then I think they should refund the charges.

But I don't understand - you say the limit was reduced a few months ago, but you noticed a charge on a recent statement. Did you not notice the limit reduction?

Ben8282

Surely the card company cannot reduce the credit limit below the existing balance and then charge the cardholder for exceeding the limit? Surely, in the absence of any wrongdoing on the part of the cardholder, they can only close the account to new spending - above the new limit or perhaps completely - not suddenly demand a large repayment down to the new limit which exceds the required minimum payment?

chattychappy

Ben8282 wrote: »

Surely the card company cannot reduce the credit limit below the existing balance and then charge the cardholder for exceeding the limit?

Agreed.. but frankly I think we need some clarification from the OP as to the exact sequence of events.

josephlane

They should have provided you a sample notice in regards to this, but seems that credit cards companies usually "forgot" to do this, because they are interested you to exceed credit limits and to charge you for it.

tomsco

Ben8282 wrote: »

Surely the card company cannot reduce the credit limit below the existing balance and then charge the cardholder for exceeding the limit?

They didn't. OP says they were still near the credit limit when it was reduced.

CotalogitoGof

I just asked HSBC to increase my limit from 750 dollars to 1450 dollars. They would not do it probably because of my credit report and the fact that the account is fairly new. When will my account no longer be considered "new". I know that different credit card companies most likely have different time frames. Now mind you, I have not missed a payment and paid way above my minimum. I have had the account since June. When is a good time to ask for an increase. I know they are looking at my payment patterns as well as how much revolving credit that I currently have with respect to what I owe I have a very nice cushion right now. Also, do credit companies initiate a "hard pull" on your credit reports every time you request an increase?

claireneil

No I didn't spend over my credit limit. I was under my original credit limit by about £100. They then decided to reduce my limit by £500 which obviously meant that I was over this new credit limit by £400. I was fine with this as long as they didn't charge me, which they didn't do at first. For some reason they have charged me £12.00 on this month's statement. I phoned them and to be honest didn't get much help. The guy on the phone said he would re-imburse the £12.00 on this months statement, but that I would have to call back after 48 hrs to try and sort the rest of it out! It would just be good to have some idea where I stand on this before I call them back on Monday

YorkshireBoy

claireneil wrote: »

It would just be good to have some idea where I stand on this before I call them back on Monday

I wouldn't call.

Instead, I'd spend my time putting my complaint in writing...

http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/complaints

meer53

If they've refunded the £12 overlimit charge and you havent been charged anything else (IIRC) and all this happened a few months ago, why havent you managed to get the balance below your new limit ?

I would assume that the reason they didn't charge you initially was to give you chance to get your balance within the new lower limit. If you haven't managed to do this, then thats why you've been charged this month. How many months is it since they reduced your limit ?