Increased Credit Limit

Newyorkdreams

Hey folks - I've just had a letter from Nationwide asking me if I want to raise my credit limit on one of my cards by £2000. My first reaction was no because I'm trying to reduce the debt. There is no temptation to use the credit and run up more debt as we are trying very hard to get out of it, not get ourselves further in the brown stuff! But I was wondering:

i) does this mean creditors don't see me as much of a risk or just that one bank thinks they can make more money out of me?
ii) would it be a good idea to take the extra and then it looks like I am managing and have a better debt to available credit ratio?

Thanks in advance

NYD

matttye

Newyorkdreams wrote: »

ii) would it be a good idea to take the extra and then it looks like I am managing and have a better debt to available credit ratio?

Sounds like a good idea in theory, but you may wish to reduce it before you apply for further credit in the future depending on income. As I'm sure you know, if a lender thinks you have a lot of credit available already based on what you earn, they may decide not to lend further.

datlex

Why not look at going somewhere in middle of where you are and what they are offering? £2000 is not a big limit these days. When I last looked at my report (I do so annually) it said a plus point was low use of available credit. Yet a negative was payments to credit not reducing (well duh Experian - a fixed payment loan will do that). You do wonder sometimes!

Newyorkdreams

Just managed to get another 0% free card with a credit limit of £9300 so that is great news for our debt busting plan! I'm still a bit perplexed why the banks are still giving me cards when I already have 5, a personal loan and a mortgage but I'm not complaining! The plan is to pay off 2 cards (Nationwide and Creation) and transfer £3K to the halifax card. This will mean I have 4 cards (2 on 0% deals, 1 on 9.9% and 1 on 6.8%) rather than 6 cards. I tried to get the DH one too and even though it said he would be accepted, they declined him :(One of his cards is the most costly at 24.9% and we are only paying literally pennies off the actual balance each month because I am focusing on paying my family and the overdraft back at the moment. Anyway, thought I would share my good news with you! I was supposed to be out shopping today with a friend but we postponed it due to the weather - a little bit more I have managed to save!!! LOL NYD