Halifax credit card swap

Hitsville

Hello

I have a Halifax credit card with a reasonably high limit (and low balance). According to the Halifax website, it's possible to apply to swap my card for one with a promotional 0% balance transfer offer, which I would like to do. However, before you hit the apply button, it says it's possible that the swap will result in a new credit limit being applied ("which could be up to £500 higher than my existing limit"). It doesn't specifically say that the limit could be reduced, but it is implied. Has anyone swapped their Halifax card in this way, and was their limit affected? And if the application results in an offer with a massively reduced limit, is it possible to turn it down and stick with what I have? Tbh, my credit file is not looking fabulous at the moment (a fair few recent searches, and quite a bit of existing debt on other credit cards (most of it on 0%, but not all, which is why I'd like to do this swap!) - no defaults or anything like that though (ever), and I've had the Halifax card for many years and managed the account fine. I've also recently switched my current account to Halifax - I've no idea if that is relevant.

My major concern is that I would be rejected for the swap, and as a result of making the application, my limit on my existing card would be reduced!

Thanks for any advice or experiences shared!

A4445

I’ve done it. Limit wasn’t increased, but I’d had a recent increase anyway.

Hitsville

Thanks - so your limit stayed the same? Can I just ask, did you have the opportunity to accept/reject the swap once your limit was confirmed? And do you know if a full credit check was performed?

Dobbibill

Why not apply for a second card with a promo offer and redistribute your credit limit from your current card if the new card has a significantly lower limit.


https://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/existing-customers/second-card/

A second card may also give you the opportunity to take advantage of different credit card benefits such as introductory offers and rewards. You may also be able to redistribute your credit limit between your existing credit cards.

Hitsville

I guess I thought I'd be more likely to be approved for the swap than a new card as it wouldn't involve requesting additional credit. Maybe that's a false assumption though?

Verityspinelli

If you don’t need another card just swap. It is very unlikely they will lower your limit, they are more like;y to increase it.

A4445

Hitsville wrote: »

Thanks - so your limit stayed the same? Can I just ask, did you have the opportunity to accept/reject the swap once your limit was confirmed? And do you know if a full credit check was performed?

Yes It came with an option to not proceed. No credit check was done on the swap. I opened a new card with Halifax and they didn’t do a credit check then either. It is my main bank tho.

Fingerbobs

Dobbibill wrote: »

Why not apply for a second card with a promo offer and redistribute your credit limit from your current card if the new card has a significantly lower limit.


https://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/existing-customers/second-card/

This is exactly what I've just done, but the new card happened to have a much higher credit limit than the old one, so I haven't needed to redistribute limits yet.

Apparently, you can only redistribute credit limits over the phone (it can't be done online) and I'm not sure what impact (if any) it would have on the 0% promotion on the new card.

Hitsville

I just went ahead and applied for the swap, and it's all been approved with no change to my credit limit. Thanks for the replies!

MABLE

I tried to do a swap with MBNA as the card was never used. They give me promotional rates every month and thought there would be no issue. I applied to swap and the application was declined and received the usual spill about checking the 3 CRA. I checked and no issue there.

The next day I applied to Halifax to swap my card for a 20 month interest free one and went through straight away. Also they increased my credit limit without asking.

Considering both brands are within the Lloyds Banking group I find it very odd.

Forgot to add the very next day after being declined for a different MBNA card they sent me an email saying "great news we have updated your promotional offers". My reply to that is forget it.