*Reducing* My Credit Limit

I have an Egg card currently with a 10k limit. Before the end of May, I am considering uping this as much as I can, then doing a balance transfer to max the card out and stooze it away in my savings account.

The things is though, having such a large potential credit limit will affect my ability to apply for new cards.

Thus does anyone know if it is easy to reduce your credit limit with Egg, or any other cards?
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  • eagle
    eagle Posts: 586
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    Thus does anyone know if it is easy to reduce your credit limit with Egg, or any other cards?

    I know that MBNA frown on this. I asked them to reduce my limit shortly after setting the account up. They said they couldn't do it because "the computer had set it automatically for me" and that the rep would need to get his "supervisor to do it for [him]".

    I was a little annoyed at this treatment, but I eventually closed the account (for other reasons) before the limit could be lowered.

    I would very much like to hear other peoples' opinions/experiences on getting card companies to lower their limit.
  • eagle wrote:
    I know that MBNA frown on this. I asked them to reduce my limit shortly after setting the account up. They said they couldn't do it because "the computer had set it automatically for me" and that the rep would need to get his "supervisor to do it for [him]".

    I was a little annoyed at this treatment, but I eventually closed the account (for other reasons) before the limit could be lowered.

    I would very much like to hear other peoples' opinions/experiences on getting card companies to lower their limit.

    I can imagine it being hard work to do - at the end of the day, the higher the limit you have with a card, the more money they can make from you!

    But for my present situation (today), if anyone has tried this with Egg I would be very interested to hear how it went. I am just going to email Egg now (while I have a sec) to see what they say.
  • fatboyonadiet
    fatboyonadiet Posts: 5,397
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    Don't think it does make a difference, only the actual balance and number of cards will, someone correct me if I'm wrong, and as most cards will only offer an increase every 6 months the same applies if you decrease, i.e. if you lower it now but find you need it upped WITHIN the next 6 months they will probably refuse.
    2p off is still 2p off!
  • bethyblue612
    bethyblue612 Posts: 145 Forumite
    I think the amount of credit available is also a factor BUT as Egg have the anniversary offer AND do SBT's, I would say it is definitely a card worth keeping with as high a limit as possible.
  • lswwong
    lswwong Posts: 407 Forumite
    Just replying to the "lowering of credit limit" point.

    I have done this with Barclaycard in the past. Twice, in fact. Did it over the phone and no problem at all.
  • Sarah7
    Sarah7 Posts: 640
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    MBNA reduced my limit to peanuts when I requested an increase on an already substantial limit. If you've applied for many cards since getting the MBNA, perhaps this backwards technique could work for you!

    Seriously though, I'd be surprised if any issuer would refuse a formal (perhaps written) request for a limit decrease; surely they leave themselves open to irresponsible lending accusations if they force a customer to have a higher limit than wanted.
  • changed mine with BOS on phone 8 months back with no hassle. fella didnt even try to talk me out of it. i was cutting it by almost 50%

    DC
  • No problems here reducing the limit on my Lloyds card, although the girl told me that if I needed to increase the limit back up again, then I would have to wait 6 months before doing so.

    'No problem' I said and it was reduced without any issues.
    Mortgage Feb 2001 - £129,000
    Mortgage July 2007 - £0
    Original Mortgage Termination Date - Nov 2018
    Mortgage Interest saved - £63790.60
    ISA Profit since Jan 1st 2015 - 98.2% (updated 1 Dec 2020)
  • Well first of all, thanks for all your suggestions re: lowering a credit limit.

    I have just logged onto Egg to try and raise the limit (and increase my stoozing short term). I got a bit greedy, tried to up it by from the current limit of £10000 to £15000 - I got rejected.

    Marjory gutted, as last time I managed to raise it from £3k to £10k, just like that!

    And now any amount I try to increase the limit too just gets refused - looks like I have blown my chances now for the immediate future, if not the next 6 months! Doh!
  • Daft_Monkey
    Daft_Monkey Posts: 138
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    lswwong wrote:
    Just replying to the "lowering of credit limit" point.

    I have done this with Barclaycard in the past. Twice, in fact. Did it over the phone and no problem at all.

    Same here. It was very easy to do with Barclaycard. As a matter of fact, I asked them to lower my limit on the MasterCard and increase the limit of my Visa by the same amount. It was done on the spot as far as I remember.
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