Paying in Full

[Deleted User]

blue.peter said:

Nebulous2 said:

Different lenders have different policies. If you start with a decent limit many of them don't increase it, in my experience. Nationwide is an exception to that, they had a programme of offering increases every few months, which required me phoning to accept them. 

There's no need to phone them to accept an increase now. There are alternatives. But what they won't do is apply the offered increase automatically. I was offered one a few months ago (letter dated 20 August). The letter said this:

I'd had that card about six months or so at the time, and paid it off in full every month.

This could be a recent change but in my experience with Sainsbury's, Halifax and Barclaycard, they would email/write and tell me I was having my limit increased and it was an opt-out not opt-in i.e. you had to actively reject the increase

blue.peter

Deleted_User said:

This could be a recent change but in my experience with Sainsbury's, Halifax and Barclaycard, they would email/write and tell me I was having my limit increased and it was an opt-out not opt-in i.e. you had to actively reject the increase

Some do that. Others don't. The letter from Nationwide that I quoted above explicitly makes the point that "Unlike other providers, we'll never increase your credit limit automatically...".

[Deleted User]

I misread your comment thinking it was about all card holders, my mistake

blue.peter

Deleted_User said:

I misread your comment thinking it was about all card holders, my mistake

It happens. No problem.

longtimelurker2020

Deleted_User said:

longtimelurker2020 said:

Deleted_User said:

If you don't pay off in full every month it looks like you can't afford the lifestyle you are leading so you are far less likely to get more credit given, if anything they might consider reducing your limit

This wasn’t my experience at all. 
Before my lightbulb moment I carried balances of several thousand pounds on my cards for years, obviously not paying off in full, and yet I kept getting offered credit limit increases, and even loans. Never had a limit reduction.

They were making money money off me with all the interest I was paying, and probably wanted to suck me into more credit. Or might be because I always paid well over the minimum, who knows. 

A single anecdote doesn't disprove the general situation. You can see with the persistent debt posts on here that lenders will reduce credit limits under the responsible lending rules - they may have been more willing to gamble in the past but this is absolutely not the case now, indeed, they have an obligation to stop people getting into debt problems now. Credit card companies make money from merchant fees even if you don't carry a balance, it's a myth that they will increase your limit to encourage reckless spending.

I never said it disproved the situation, I said it was not my experience. 
The OP asked about people’s experiences and I provided mine. Or did you not read my opening sentence before jumping in 

[Deleted User]

longtimelurker2020 said:

Deleted_User said:

longtimelurker2020 said:

Deleted_User said:

If you don't pay off in full every month it looks like you can't afford the lifestyle you are leading so you are far less likely to get more credit given, if anything they might consider reducing your limit

This wasn’t my experience at all. 
Before my lightbulb moment I carried balances of several thousand pounds on my cards for years, obviously not paying off in full, and yet I kept getting offered credit limit increases, and even loans. Never had a limit reduction.

They were making money money off me with all the interest I was paying, and probably wanted to suck me into more credit. Or might be because I always paid well over the minimum, who knows. 

A single anecdote doesn't disprove the general situation. You can see with the persistent debt posts on here that lenders will reduce credit limits under the responsible lending rules - they may have been more willing to gamble in the past but this is absolutely not the case now, indeed, they have an obligation to stop people getting into debt problems now. Credit card companies make money from merchant fees even if you don't carry a balance, it's a myth that they will increase your limit to encourage reckless spending.

I never said it disproved the situation, I said it was not my experience. 
The OP asked about people’s experiences and I provided mine. Or did you not read my opening sentence before jumping in 

Your post reads like it's a counter argument against the point I made - the fact you quoted me and directly contradicted what I said. I didn't ignore the part where you talked about it being your experience, I was trying to explain that firstly, and most importantly, these days (as you said, your situation was "years ago") lenders should not allow people to get into such problems. Secondly, the idea that lenders deliberately give you more credit to encourage you to get into more debt is incorrect (in times gone by, it might even have been seen by them as helping you out).

The fact is that since 1/3/2018 the FCA requires lenders to deal with people in persistent debt which includes allowing customers to opt-out of automatic increases and indeed, not offering credit limit increases for 12 months for any customer in PD problems.

Thus, while you are free to give your experience on the forum, it isn't particularly relevant to the OP's current situation due to the change in the rules for lenders which will mean that if they don't pay off their card every month, they will be less likely to get credit limit increases as that is what the lender is required to do.