For some reason had two credit card limit increases in a week 31 January 2016 at 9:15PM in Credit cards 7 replies 1.2K views

StripeyMiata

For the first time since about 2008 I've had two letters from Co-Op and Tesco saying they are going to put my credit limit up, one by £700 and the other by a whopping £3000.

What is puzzling is that my credit rating according to Noodle hasn't changed since last year, still between poor and average.

The question is, should I accept the increases? I have read that having a gap between the balance owned and the limit is a good thing. I have no desire to repeat my mistakes of the past and am confident I won't use the increased limit.

In fact I have hardly used either card in the last 3 or 4 years.

zx81

Depends on your balances, limits, income, future intentions and personal preference.

The only thing it doesn't depend on is your credit score!

StripeyMiata

zx81 wrote: »

Depends on your balances, limits, income, future intentions and personal preference.

The only thing it doesn't depend on is your credit score!

Future intentions are not to use them, both haven't been used as a physical credit card as such for years, just Netflix comes out of one (£6 a month) and the other is linked to PayPal account that is rarely used.

Have been only been able to pay off slightly more than minimum payment since 2008, so the total owned has been going down over the last few years, but slowly.

The Tesco one is baffling me, credit limit was £3800, I am down to £3100ish but the have offered me £6600 totally out of the blue.

The Co-op increase was a lot smaller.

mistakehappens

i think Tesco might be offering the increase to quite a lot of people as my partner also got limit increase offered from march by £2300 to £5300

StripeyMiata

The funny thing is, I was dabbling with the Credit Card elgibablity checker last night and it said I had 0% chance of a Tesco card

planteria

i would accept the increases unless there is a good reason not to.

but the main thing i would do is use a credit card, either one of these or another card, for your spending. just spend & repay & spend & repay.. ideally earning cashback/rewards of some kind.

StripeyMiata

planteria wrote: »

i would accept the increases unless there is a good reason not to.

but the main thing i would do is use a credit card, either one of these or another card, for your spending. just spend & repay & spend & repay.. ideally earning cashback/rewards of some kind.

10 years ago the good reason not to would be me using it to buy stuff I didn't really need and couldn't afford. Old me would have been straight down to Game to get a PS4 with the increase.

The Tesco one does do club card points I think so will use it but make sure I pay off what I use at the time and not let it build up again.

planteria

yes, wise use is essential. just spend on what you would be buying anyway..groceries, fuel etc. and let a DD take the full payment each month.
if you won't be disciplined, scrap all of the above advice and stay entirely out of debt:)