Barclaycard moving goal posts!

Puddycat_2

Advice on the following would be very much appreciated.

Today we received an email from Barclaycard saying that they were reducing our credit limit as of today! We telephoned and were told that it was a scam email and to ignore it.

An hour later at 15.10 we received a text message saying that they were reducing our credit limit as of today. We telephoned again!

On the second call we were told that this is correct. The operator said that the credit rating had decreased recently and this was why. This is in fact NOT TRUE. Firstly we receive our credit report quarterly and credit score monthly and they have both in fact gone up significantly over the last couple of months and Secondly other cards have just increased their limits!

It appears to me that what Barclaycard are doing is reducing the credit limit on the card to make it appear to other lenders that we are at the max. (This is the 3rd time they have reduced it). We are not at the max. But what is does do is it stops us getting another card and a 0% balance transfer as it appears we are!

I hope this makes sense and any help on this matter would be very much appreciated.

Tixy

Hi

When they say your credit rating has decreased - they don't mean the score that the credit reference agencies sell to you (barclays don't even see that number), what they mean is their assessement of your credit file.
In fact it may be the increase in other credit limits which has been part of the decision for barclaycard to reduce their limit to you, it may be how you have been using the account (or not using it) or it may just have been a commercial decision for them as a bank.

Obviously it would have been better if the person you spoke to had explained it to you a bit more clearly.

tinkerbell28

They can do this. They mean your internal score, how they've assessed your files.

To me 3 decreases is making them seem nervous. So as you pay it off, they're decreasing the credit limit in chunks. So as not to take you over the max, but to stop you spending on it and reducing their liabilities.

The fact your other cards have increased limits, funnily enough won't actually be a good thing in barclaycards eyes. Quite possibly when they've assessed your income, debt levels and available credit, they've decided they don't want any more exposure to risk than they have.

CherlokHomes

Firstly we receive our credit report quarterly and credit score monthly [/QUOTE

Only look at your credit report and take no notice of the score as it's meaningless.

Thrugelmir

Puddycat wrote: »

But what is does do is it stops us getting another card and a 0% balance transfer as it appears we are!

Barclays can "see" your stoozing. Lenders are now co-operating in the first steps to stop people accumulating debt they can never afford to repay.