Are Barclaycard scrapping Barclaycard cheques?

Sentrix

Well like many a Barclaycard customer, I'm sure, I keep getting those balance transfer cheques through the post. You know the ones 0% with fee or 6.9% without until paid off. Well 6 months ago I decided to give them a go. Although £5,000 was available to me if I used the 6.9% one, I didn't entirely trust them to give me that rate, and feared they might wack me with the full cheque rate, so I decided to try them out by paying a relatively small cheque into a savings account. Anyway, all went well, and got the 6.9%, so over the last 6 months I've ended up paying in four different cheques (they generally send me the offer EVERY month, without fail) to the savings account, with the last one being for over £700 last month (largest one I've done). But the grand total probably comes in at less than £2,000, significantly less than the £5,000 they were allowing me for just one cheque.

But something interesting has happened this month, when I got the usual letter I was expecting the usual cheques. But no, instead I got a similar letter, but instead at the bottom, it's a form, which I have to send to them, stating which credit card I wish to balance transfer to. In other words they've decided to restrict me to just paying off another cc card. Just wondering if this change has happened to anyone else this month, and it's a general change in policy by Barclaycard (perhaps security driven?), or has Barclaycard just done this to me individually, because they perhaps didn't like me paying the cheques into an account? Or it's maybe because I've used four cheques in 6 months? As I seem to remember they used to state you could only use 5 cheques a year in the T&Cs (but that was a while back, and it's since disappeared from the T&Cs). It would be rather perverse if that's the reason, as I've come nowhere near the £5,000 they've allowed me.

Curiously, I've received my statement a several days later, and on the bottom sits an attached Barclaycard 6.9% cheque! Rather perversely they also increased my credit limit as well - curious, when they seem to have decided to restrict how I run up a debt at the same time! I'm just wondering if this cheque will end up being the last one I receive, as they perhaps haven't fully updated there systems yet, if there has been a change in policy, and next month I'll end up with another one of those forms attached to my Barclaycard statement instead. I wasn't planning on using the cheque, but I prefer the "pay into account" method of balance transfer, so I'm wondering whether to use it, if this is going to be the last one they send.

Anyone know why they seem to have changed policy on me, and is it happening to everyone or just me?

Thanks in advance