Decreasing Credit Card Limit

jdl93

Hi there,

i am in the process of culling my credit cards...slowly....

Currently standing

Vanquis £950 Limit of £1500
Aqua £450 Limit of £750
Capital One £150 Limit of £200
Barclaycard £1150 limit of £1200


Currently Paying off vanquis £300 a month
Aqua £100
Capital one & Barclaycard Min


Shoud i reduce the credit limit on both aqua and vanquis?


Thanks for your help

InsideInsurance

Why would you want to? What are you trying to achieve?

jdl93

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Why would you want to? What are you trying to achieve?

Would decreasing, not open up more credit available for the likes of capital one or barclaycard?

fozmcfc

Going by the info you posted, if I was you, I would seriously be thinking of closing down all cards or keeping one card for emergency use only.

I say that, because it looks like, you have been/are not using credit cards responsibly, for whatever reason.

To have such balances over several cards, looks like, you looked at the limits and thought, what the hell, lets spend.

It's now got the stage, where you can't pay them off, in what I would consider a reasonable amount of time for cards charging interest.

Hopefully, as you are paying down £400 a month on the cards, you are now of a different mindset, because unless you address your spending, you look like a prime candidate, for ending up with a £10k Barclaycard limit and having a £9900 balance on it and a £2000 + maxed out card with an APR of 49.9% or more on it :eek:

As I say I can only go by what you've posted, so I hope you are on your way, to being more responsible with cards.

jdl93

You are quite right. and i am open to admit. i have been sunk under with debt under my eyeballs. when i clearly didn't need a credit card in the first place.

This is not the worst though. I had 1500 in payday loans until a few months ago.


aqua is in cancellation mode.
Vanquis card is cut up, so i cant use it. (currently in dispute over charges, so im not putting it in cancellation mode). Im planning to be debt free on that in 3 months.
Barclaycard is not being used or heavily paid off till vanquis is done.
Capital one is only £5 interest a month, so also not being used.


at some stage not too long ago. all these cards where maxed out.

fozmcfc

Well good for you, for addressing the issue. :T

Credit cards can be dangerous, been there, done that, but they can be great if used properly.

I found out the hard way myself, but one thing it taught me, was never get over my head again.

Hopefully, like me, once you become debt free, over time you will be eligible to cards, that offer cashback etc and when paid off in full each month, you get the cashback but no interest.

I used to be a slave to the card, now I milk them for what I can get.

INT1

Well done too.

I would decrease and close down at the earliest opportunity.

Do keep your favourite one open though, use it for small amounts and pay off in full.

onerickylambert

Request a credit limit increase on your Barclaycard (can do this online) and move what you can from Vanquis, Aqua and Capital One. This will reduce the interest you pay.

If you can't do this (based on if you are on their standard rates):
Pay MINIMUM on Aqua, Capital One and Barclaycard until VANQUIS paid off (if this has the highest rate of 39.9%)

Repeat for Aqua (35..9%), then for Capital One (34.9%) then pay off the Barclaycard.

Use any savings or authorised overdraft you have to get these down (especially Vanquis and Aqua) as much cheaper than paying interest on these.

Once Aqua and Vanquis paid never use again. Capital One and Barclaycard can be useful provided you only spend what you can afford to repay in full each month.

Resolve, to NEVER take a payday loan again... overdraft or even one of these shocking cards still infinately better. Good luck.

Decreasing your limit will NOT give you more credit with another lender, in fact it will make you LESS likely to get more credit elsewhere.

jdl93

Just had a call from barclays, they have agreed to up my limit from 1200 to 1800. ill get £600 shifted across

Twiggy_34

It certainly seems to me that you have an excessive number of cards so they need to be whittled down to a smaller numbers (I note your last comment stating you're going to transfer one over to your barclaycard).

Having cleared my credit card debt last year I personally keep 2 cards. I have my main bank c/card which I use for regular spending and clear every month, being with my main bank it makes management nice and easy. I also kept my barclarycard which I originally took out only for the interest free balance transfer when clearing my debts. I hang on to it because they regularly offer 0% interest balance transfers meaning if I get an unexpected big spend come up and can't clear the main c/card, I can transfer the balance easily and pay off gradually without worrying about the interest...

Mr_Goodkat

Don't worry about reducing limits just pay off both Vanquis and Aqua ASAP and then close both down. Work on reducing your credit card debt to 0 then only use the Barclaycard and Cap one for regular purchases and pay off in full each month.


You seem to be learning from your mistakes so keep going in time the use of pay day loans and debt on several cards will drop off your credit file