What's your CC balances and limits?

shortcrust

InsideInsurance wrote: »

£4,900 is a very curious number to decide to reduce a limit to. Why not a round number?

I was thinking the same. Doesn't quite add up....

EKAndrew

i'll join in because i feel as though i am being ripped off........and i want to know what advice the OP has for me!
Limit : Bal :
MBNA
£6100 5405
BOS
£5850 5700
Barcalycard
7000 7250

With the interest rates on those cards, I worked out that from the £380 that I pay per month - 75% of that only covers the interest.

For that reason alone - thats why I think a consolidation loan is for me, however, I am well aware others disagree

broad-sword_2

It does not really matter how much you can borrow, only what you can pay back. Presumably a huge allowed balance will not be cleared in full before the interest charge hits and that's how they make their money. In many cases the customer will never be out of debt. Reminds me of those poor suckers on Blade Trinity all wired up and being ever drained of their blood....

kloana

InsideInsurance wrote: »

£4,900 is a very curious number to decide to reduce a limit to. Why not a round number?

I've done this in the past, but only when I had an eye-watering credit card balance, and wanted to manually reduce my limit every single month, so that the limit was just a little more than I owed. Pay more off the next month, and repeat the process. It's a good tactic if you've been in previous debt, and don't quite trust yourself not to run it back up!

That was a long time ago, though. I'm older and wiser now, but still shudder from time to time at the credit card debt I had in my youth. Thankfully I repaid it all with no late or missed payments.

Credit card portfolio is as follows:

BMI (MBNA) - limit £2300, balance £48.47
This is an Amex that I only use for my Amazon Kindle account. I spend quite a bit on e-books, oops, but it always gets paid off in full. Comes with a backup Visa card for when Amex isn't accepted. No longer 0%.

HSBC - limit £2500, balance £150
Paid for a holiday on another card (I did have the cash!), then transferred the balance to HSBC. I repay it monthly with said holiday savings. Original balance was large, but I just pay a tenner a month now. 0% until January 2014. Could easily repay it with savings, but am not bothered due to 0% and low outstanding balance.

Marks & Spencer - limit £2000, balance £70
Paid vets fees upfront on this one, then bloody insurer wouldn't pay out. Original balance was only about £260. Pay a tenner a month, on 0% for a few more months. Again, could clear it tomorrow, but don't really see the point.

BHS (Barclaycard) - limit £3500, balance £0
Quite a new one. Made a large purchase at BHS at got 15% off when I applied for their card at the till. Application got referred, tres embarrassing, but got accepted later. Needs closing, as I have no use for it, just wanted the discount. Don't think it has any special promo or interest rate. Was initially shocked at the relatively high opening limit, until I realised it was undewritten by Barclaycard, who were my best friend in my darker days!

Tesco clubcard credit card - limit £3000, balance - about £400.
Use this one for grocery shopping, petrol, etc., as it collects loads of Clubcard points. Always pay it off in full, and balance is at its highest now, as payday is approaching. Don't know the current APR, because I don't pay interest.

My credit card limits are almost the value of my gross annual salary. Should I go on a spending spree tomorrow, bankruptcy would soon follow. Thankfully I'd never dream of doing that, but CCs can be scary weapons, when left in the wrong hands.

sfax

Th1984

Virgin Money M/C : £6000 limit (reduced by me from £16000 as was never realistically going to use that much!) £3620.02 currently owed at 0%, paying back 60 a month for the next few months while a couple of family loans mature then 290 per month to clear by end of 0% next jan.

Nationwide CC Visa : £3000 limit (reduced by me from £7950 as underused) use this to spread the cost of running two cars and paying dentist/vet bills etc upfront until insurer pays out. 0 balance at the moment and starting to build up a car fund so won't need this soon enough!

Santander 123 M/C : £6000 limit, paid in full every month for cashback.

Limits running about 20% salary ( however if you include my stupidity loan it's about 45% so I won't be getting any good deals soon!!)

GooliesOfFire

I'm not telling.. I'm surprised that other people do though

I'm quite happy with one credit card to be honest. I don't understand why people need 5 or more credit cards :think:

sfax

GooliesOfFire wrote: »

I'm not telling.. I'm surprised that other people do though

Might be surprised if people put their real names and addresses alongside their stats. Otherwise it's just anonymous unverifiable information

GooliesOfFire wrote: »

I'm quite happy with one credit card to be honest. I don't understand why people need 5 or more credit cards :think:

Here's one reason: Replace a 7% APR loan for £20,000 over 44 months with multiple 22 month interest free BT cards and you'll pay £896 in handling fees at 3% and £0 in interest. Total interest payable on a 7% APR loan is £2,734. Monthly payment drops from £517 to £461

You're unlikely to get successive cards with a high enough limit so you need multiple cards running concurrently which you shuffle halfway through. Works very well for me but can be risky if you don't manage it properly or get turned down for new cards at the halfway point

InsideInsurance

kloana wrote: »

I've done this in the past, but only when I had an eye-watering credit card balance, and wanted to manually reduce my limit every single month, so that the limit was just a little more than I owed. Pay more off the next month, and repeat the process. It's a good tactic if you've been in previous debt, and don't quite trust yourself not to run it back up!.

Thats fine other than the fact they have a nil balance on the card and so doesnt sound that they are doing your tactic so the allegedly elected £4,900 limit still seems odd

To answer the original question:

Card ¦ Limit ¦ Balance ¦ APR
American Express Platinum ¦ Unlimited ¦ ~£6,000 ¦ n/a
Capital One Aspire World ¦ £7,000 ¦ £0 ¦ 20%
Natwest Gold ¦ £9,000 ¦ ~£4,000 ¦ 0%
Barclaycard Premier ¦ £6,500 ¦ £0 ¦ 13%
Nationwide ¦ £3,500 ¦ ~£3,400 ¦ 0%


The Amex is a chargecard so hence allegedly no limit and no interest but has to be paid off in full. Use it for all my business expenses which havent been too bad this month hence the relatively low balance. The outstanding balances are all on interest free offers at this point so just repaying minimum amounts.

Have never understood why Barclaycard give me such a low limit (it predates all but my Natwest card) but as I get nothing back from them for spend it is just useful for helping claim some of the Barclays Life benefits as merchants (like the RA) dont know the difference between the two other than one is black and the other charcoal coloured

Mags_cat

Only have one card - got it for emergency use when I went to Russia in 2011. It was my first ever credit card at the age of 40.

I have since kept it on to use online for the Section 75 protection. It has a limit of one month's take home salary and I think the interest rate is around 17.9%. Not concerned about that though because I pay it off every month. Lloyds haven't earned a penny in interest from me since I took it out.

Current balance is £40 something - my Amazon habit . It has been as high as £1200 - bought a new fridge freezer and an iPad in the same (expensive) month!