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Barclaycard Platinum, Unusually Low Credit Limit

shivinski
Posts: 2 Newbie
in Credit cards
Hey guys, I'm relatively new to the Credit Card scene so was wanting to ask some advice on a weird credit limit I got from BarclayCard.
I recently got my first BarclayCard and was expecting quite a decent limit on it (as I was planning to use their 12 month 0% offer to buffer the hit of buying a new car, rather than forking out the whole sum at once). I've never been in any bad debt, never missed a payment on anything, I'm 24, live in London and my annual base salary is £75,000. I used to have an Amex Gold charge card which I put about £10,000 on over the past year and paid off via Direct Debit every month and I now have an Amex British Airways Credit Card which they gave me a £7,900 limit on right from the start (unfortunately, that doesn't have any 0% offers, hence me wanting the BarclayCard)... So naturally I was expecting around an £8,000 limit for the BarclayCard... yet the limit that I got with it : £400!
Now this seems ridiculously low! Maybe something I'd expect if this was an initial card, or for someone who's had a history of defaulting and missing payments, but not for my situation?! Has anyone else had this experience/can shed light on why that's so low??
Thanks
I recently got my first BarclayCard and was expecting quite a decent limit on it (as I was planning to use their 12 month 0% offer to buffer the hit of buying a new car, rather than forking out the whole sum at once). I've never been in any bad debt, never missed a payment on anything, I'm 24, live in London and my annual base salary is £75,000. I used to have an Amex Gold charge card which I put about £10,000 on over the past year and paid off via Direct Debit every month and I now have an Amex British Airways Credit Card which they gave me a £7,900 limit on right from the start (unfortunately, that doesn't have any 0% offers, hence me wanting the BarclayCard)... So naturally I was expecting around an £8,000 limit for the BarclayCard... yet the limit that I got with it : £400!
Now this seems ridiculously low! Maybe something I'd expect if this was an initial card, or for someone who's had a history of defaulting and missing payments, but not for my situation?! Has anyone else had this experience/can shed light on why that's so low??
Thanks

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Comments
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May be the effect of your other limits/available credit.0
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B'card only use Equifax - so only have the info thats on that to-go on, im guessing most of your history is on experian!0
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Deleted_User wrote: »May be the effect of your other limits/available credit.
its impossible to say of course but i doubt it.
i have £12,700k of c/c debt. Plus another £21k ish of available credit on another 2 cards. All of this on a 27k income.
Just got a Halifax clarity card at the weekend for upcoming holiday. £3k limit despite only asking for £1500.
I'd just ring them up and ask them if they can increase the limit, explain that you opened it for a specific purpose. £400 seems very low on the circumstances that you describe, definitely sub prime territory. Check you credit file as suggested above, there may be something on their that explains this.£1000 Emergency fund No90 £1000/1000
LBM 28/1/15 total debt - [STRIKE]£23,410[/STRIKE] 24/3/16 total debt - £7,298
!0 -
Agree, very odd. Electoral roll? Renting? (understandable in London, but potentially still a negative). Existing card(s) maxxed out? Recently only paying minimums?
But the comment about Barclaycard only using Equifax sounds like a good one - either that or some sort of IT funny which all CCs seem to have from time-to-time.0 -
Thanks for the reply's guys.
I called the customer service line yesterday to talk to them about it. The guy on the phone went away to try and resolve it for 10mins but came back saying that nothing could be done about it and I would have to try to apply for a credit increase in their usual 6 months time.
So instead I went down another route, and filled an official complaint to them through their online complaints system. This morning I got a call telling me that they'd forwarded the complaint onto the relevant checking department, and that they'd done some checks and could happily increased my limit from the £400 to the £8,000 I required.
I tried to ask out of interest if they'd found out what the initial reason for the low limit was but they didn't have any insight into that. @chattychappy I am on the electoral roll for this current address. I am renting (although I have only been living in my current place since December, however gave the prior 5 years worth of previous addresses as well). My previous Amex was a Gold charge card so didn't have a limit TO max out, and I haven't maxxed out my current Amex. And with all previous cards I've always set up a direct debit to pay off the full balance every month, never the minimums.
Oh well, glad it got sorted in the end. If in doubt, complain :rotfl:1 -
Maybe something in the system had the equivalent of a misprint, and temporarily viewed your salary as a tenth of what it is.0
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Glad that is sorted out for you.£1000 Emergency fund No90 £1000/1000
LBM 28/1/15 total debt - [STRIKE]£23,410[/STRIKE] 24/3/16 total debt - £7,298
!0
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