Barclaycard Credit Limit Reduction

washtenaw

Unfortunately, I was one those Barclaycard customers that had their credit limit slashed after Covid began. I had my credit limit reduced from £7,000 to £2,800 on my 6.5% apr card in October 2020. It probably would have been a lot more, but luckily I had a balance of £2,500 at the time. I had already heard stories of Barclaycard limits being severely reduced a few months back so I very wisely made sure that I had a significant balance on that card.

I have since kept that balance of £2,500 in order to stop them from reducing it any further, but I currently have a good balance transfer offer on another card and have been considering transferring it all over 

However, I am a little bit sceptical that if I do this, Barclayclard could potentially lower my credit limit even more !!!

I havn't heard any stories about this happening recently but was wondering if anyone else had and just in general what everyone thinks the chances are of having another major credit limit decrease on that card.

I can easily just keep the £2,500 balance on it, but obviously I'm not going to do this forever when there are much cheaper balance transfer offers available on my other cards.

kaMelo

If you're in a position to either pay the balance or transfer it to a lower/zero interest card then maintaining the balance on the Barclaycard is nuts, you're just burning money you don't need to.
Whether they do or don't reduce your credit limit is a separate issue and no one on here can say what Barclays may do but in many cases Barclays were happy to re-increase credit limits for those who had them reduced after supplying proof of their financial status and passing affordability tests.

Whilst I'm sure Covid played a part, Barclays were fined millions by the FCA for unaffordable lending via credit cards. I would suggest this was the real reason for the slashing of credit limits and stricter affordability tests.

Thrugelmir

washtenaw said:

I have since kept that balance of £2,500 in order to stop them from reducing it any further, 

Why? Do you also owe balances on other credit cards? Any other unsecured debt? 

penners324

Why are you wasting money like this? It's not rational 

Marcio45

Just before Christmas, Barclaycard reduced my limit. I had a stupid limit of just over 10k and then wanted to reduce it to 2k. Problem was i had around 6k debt on it. I contacted them, they asked me to send some payslips, and then they decided to change the limit to just over 6k. So, yep, there are still recent reductions in limits. 
In your case, if you have the opportunity to pay less interest with a different card i would go for it. Not sure if Barclaycard is reliable anymore.

alfred64

Also if you maintain a £2500 debt on the card eventually you will hit the persistent debt issue and that won't be viewed favourably, either.

Fighter1986

You're better off transferring the balance and closing your Barclaycard than maintaining a card near its limit long term.