Post Office Credit Card Not Recommended

Grumpasaurus

I took out a Post Office Credit Card a few years ago to use for foreign travel and always paid it off in full. Apart from their website (which was hopeless but has now improved some) the card worked fine with no issues. About six months ago, I got a letter from the Post Office asking if I would be OK if they reduced my credit limit by 50% as I was not using the card so much. I phoned and told them, yes, that would be OK but I assumed that I would be able to put the credit limit back up again if I needed to.

Recently I was on holiday in Portugal and was tracking my spending so realised that I was getting close to my credit limit. I went on line on a Friday morning and noticed that some of the recent bigger spend items had not shown up (some for a few days) .

I transferred some cash in from my bank but was not able to "over pay" to allow for the items that were still pending and I had a big hotel bill coming on the Sunday!.

I phoned the PO card and asked if I could transfer money in to cover the upcoming costs and was told that as it was Friday the account would not be credited until Monday so I would be over my limit when the bills came in. I asked if I could raise my credit limit to the previous amount and was told that I would have to wait another six months to get my limit reinstated (Computer says "no" was my interpretation). There was nothing I could do to prevent going over my limit so I used another card for the rest of the holiday and paid the fees. I will be cancelling this card as soon as I get the final bill and will be looking for an alternate travel card.

I hope this helps anyone thinking about applying for a PO credit card.

photome

What didn't you say no, when they asked about reducing your limit.

cubegame

Not true. Your remaining credit would be adjusted as soon as a transaction was made. The only way this could happen was if it was an old fashioned paper based transaction.

agrinnall

Grumpasaurus wrote: »

I phoned and told them, yes, that would be OK but I assumed that I would be able to put the credit limit back up again if I needed to.

I'm not sure why you think the Post Office have done anything wrong when the error was entirely in your mistaken assumption.

maman

I have a PO credit card that I keep with my passport and only use for travelling so was interested in your thread.


On closer reading it seems that you didn't calculate how much you are likely to spend on a trip (like the hotel bill which you'd have been aware of) before agreeing to the reduced credit limit.


I wouldn't be affected as I know my spending on any given trip would be within my limit. The only exception might be in a dire emergency when I'd be willing to take the hit and use another card or withdraw cash.


It may not be the message you intended but it serves as a warning to make sure your credit limit meets your needs.