Halifax decreasing CL

planteria

i have a Halifax card with a BT balance on it, which runs until Feb2016.
good deal on the account, but the limit was only £3500. they edged it lower, to £3450, and have now edged it lower still, chasing the minimum payments down to £3350.
this isn't a problem...all i plan to do is clear it at the end of the 0% deal & then close it. but i have never had a card company do this before. does this suggest anything about which i should be concerned?

Thrugelmir

What else can the credit company see on your report?

As I doubt that this can be viewed in isolation.

brendon

Banks have another credit limit they don't tell you about, called the "shadow limit". This is the bank's latest estimate of how much money they want to lend you. Because banks do not want to change limits too often (customer satisfaction), they normally only change limits 6-monthly or yearly. Your bank has deemed you a greater credit risk, so your shadow limit has reduced. Since they cannot set your actual limit below the level of your debt, they are reducing it down as often as they can until it reaches the new limit they are happy with.

planteria

nothing untoward that i am aware of Thrug.. i mentioned this on another forum and one of the guys thinks it is a cause for concern. looking at noddle, all looks in order. ive just never known a card provider do this, having used creditcards widely for a good few years.

i mentioned this on another forum and one of the guys thinks it is a cause for concern, and suggests repaying and closing asap.

i currently have 8 card accounts, and am scoring 3/5 on noddle.
i will be paying off & closing 2 cards middle of this month.
and a further one at the end of the month (merging two Barclaycards, hopefully :idea:)

planteria

brendon wrote: »

...Since they cannot set your actual limit below the level of your debt, they are reducing it down as often as they can until it reaches the new limit they are happy with.

with you brendon. would that concern you? would you be happy to keep the account, paying the minimum, and keeping their money, for which i paid a fee?

jo-bo

Halifax have been steadily doing this to me for the last 3yrs, never missed a payment, always over the minimum and my income has gone up!

R34GTT

Conversely, I requested a limit decrease on my Clarity Rewards card down to £1k and 6 months later they increased it to back up to £1600, now it's at £2250. I've since decided I don't really care as it seems to have little impact on my ability to get new lines of credit.

I wouldn't worry about it, just pay it down as normal.

msallen

Halifax did exactly the same to me for three months (reduced limit by £50 a time as I made min payments off a fairly new BT card). After three months they stopped and left the limit where it was. Seemed a bit ludicrous to me, but I wasn't overly concerned about my credit worthiness. It did leave me with something of a negative view of Halifax though. The same card is due to be completely paid off in August, after which I'll be closing it.

Thrugelmir

planteria wrote: »

i currently have 8 card accounts,

There's a starter for 10.

planteria

thank you all...but is it Thrug? i had 24 cards at the height of the stoozing days, and as i said above i am simplifying my file this month anyway. i know things have changed in recent years, but i have never had reductions like this, and i have rarely had problems obtaining lines of credit..on the face of it having lots of others has not had a detrimental effect.

jo-bo

I was the same had 21 cards never had a problem getting anymore credit, still don't, I've simplified my cards now but Halifax just seem to have gone off me!