Combining limits

steevio_uk

Couldn't find a thread on this, other than a couple of odd posts.

I saw someone on here mention that MBNA combine credit limits if you take out a new card with them and already hold a card as a current customer.
What are the ins and outs of this? Is it something they're happy to do for most/all customers?
I have an MBNA card with around £9k on a £10.3k limit.

What about other providers, most notably Barclaycard?

As it stands, I am not receiving any Balance or Money transfer offers as a current customer with Barclaycard (£0 balance / £11.2k limit) I guess, because I went over my limit a couple of times by small amounts in the last 12 months, it may be working against me.
But I have a 95% chance on the eligibility calculator to take out a new card with them. (I understand that this isn't a given.)


In a nutshell, if I were to apply for another MBNA or especially Barclaycard for their long term Money/Transfer offer cards and got a limit of around £1500, would it be common for them to allocate as much as I needed from my existing limit(s)?

Anyone have any recent experience or is it a simple case of 'every provider is different... call them and ask'?

Thanks in advance

bouncydog1

MBNA allowed combining of limits when I applied a new card with them - but there was nothing outstanding on the existing card.

Barclaycard told me that you cannot hold 2 cards with them.

steevio_uk

Thanks bd1

That seems strange when Barclaycard have this page active:
https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/customer/get-another-barclaycard

I've just had a chat session with MBNA who say, pretty much, 'the limit is the limit... they don't care which card it's on' and that any limit would transfer over to the full 0% long term T&Cs of the new card, which is great.

Just a shame that it's the Barclaycard that holds no balance... I wonder if they'll be anywhere near as flexible?!!

steevio_uk

Spoke to a lady at Barclaycard, general customer services. I asked her if they consolidate/combine limits. She said that isn't something they do.

I wasn't convinced that she wasn't being scripted and robotic, so I said that I was sure BC had done this before and that a friend said that he combined limits to a second card around 6 months ago.
She said I can speak to another department, so she put me on hold. After returning she didn't put me through, but informed me that it's something that they may be able to do, but will need to see the new card first.

Obviously it's now a catch 22; do I apply for the card and although I'd make use of the small new limit, it wouldn't be ideal to take the search hit.
MBNA were very clear; "If you have two cards your limit is your limit, we don't care which card it's on" - whereas Barclaycard are again a bit vague over the whole thing, though I respect that all financial companies are cautious with and not obliged to, give definitive answers.

I won't bump this any further after this post, but would be really grateful if someone could share direct experience with Barclaycard over this topic and clear up whether it's something they commonly do and also under what circumstances etc as it pretty much makes up my mind on my next move.

I thought this sort of topic/issue may have been of more interest to some, if they have existing high unused limits on some cards.

Anyway, thanks again

Candyapple

Hi Steve,

I can confirm Barclaycard do indeed split limits - they did for me when I applied for a second card with them around 2 years ago and I remember saying to the guy on the phone that I didn't want to apply for a 2nd card only for the limit to be too small for my balance transfer, that's when he said that regardless of what limit I would receive on the 2nd card, I just needed to call up and ask them to split the limit from my old card onto the new one.

Also my OH did similar last year, only this time he sent a secure message via their online banking asking to split the limit and they did it no problem.

Hope that helps

steevio_uk

That's brilliant, thank you.

Understand there's no guarantee but at least there's some positive indication that it may be something that can be done.