Credit Limits

Anthorn

Dobbibill wrote: »

Any credit limit will be based on your personal circumstances at the time of application.

Not exactly: Compare for example my very own first limits of £660 on Barclaycard, £1000 on Amex, £1400 on Amazon and £3200 on Tesco.

What it comes down to is not purely personal circumstances but also the lenders own parameters which may or may not be related to personal circumstances. Further, their parameters may be more related to their assumption on the profits we as customers will make them.

In conclusion, not really as simple as we might think.

tgon

Does a credit score ever figure into credit limits or simply for acceptance?

Anthorn

tgon wrote: »

Does a credit score ever figure into credit limits or simply for acceptance?

Yes it does but probably not the score you see on for example Clearscore. That score you see will apply only if the lender uses the same criteria and algorithm as the CRA site. The score is useful as a rough guide but nothing more than that.

Dettol

I personally think it depends on the weather and the day of the week...oh and quite possibly which CRA the lender uses.

Id hazard a guess Amex and MBNA use the same...both gave me good limits (sub 5k but id say thats a fair lump of money with very limited credit checks,as opposed to a 5k loan which is rarely instant.)

Chrysalis

in my experience they seem to be conservative.

When I got my barclaycard, I within 2 months applied for a credit limit increase, so effectively no banking relationship with them, and it was instantly auto approved, suggesting I had a higher approved credit limit than what was put on the card.

On my virgin bank card, they just auto increased my limit by more than double, thats a pretty hefty increase in terms of % (several thousand pounds), suggesting to me also they perhaps were willing to give a higher limit than what I originally got on the card.

I am considering turning down limit increases in future tho, as I dont need the limits I get and I expect it can possibly go against me on future applications. It keeps my credit utilisation low as well tho, which is why I am not sure if its a bad thing.