Amazon New Day won't increase credit limit

DD92

I'm buying a car in a couple of weeks and want to pay off the balance due - c£8k on my credit card to get the cashback, protection and all that good stuff (also saves some hassle of moving money around my savings as can pay it off from my current account when my bonus goes in next month). Trouble is I only have a credit limit of £4k. Does anyone know why new day won't increase it even to 6k? All I get is automated checks I can't seem to speak to a person about it. 

My credit score is excellent when I've just checked. 

I have a good solid income, I didn't take anywhere near the maximum on my mortgage (although do have a help to buy loan) and overpay my mortgage each month. I have car finance which I made a sizeable overpayment on last year and haven't missed a payment and an interest free loan for  DFS sofa which I've never missed a payment on (my income has jumped significantly in the last 3 years since I bought a house but still have a few outstanding pieces of finance which I comfortably manage). My credit card is used for day to day expenditure and paid off in full each month. It's rare I exceed £1k at any given time and always pay it off in a timely manner. I have never missed a finance payment of any description. 

Does any one know why I can't increase my credit limit and if there is anything I can do about it? Its an Amazon New Day mastercard

eskbanker

I don't know if they have any sort of appeal process, but in any case you don't need to pay the whole amount on your credit card to secure the section 75 protection, and the dealer may not accept a credit card for the full value anyway....

mcpitman

If you have a strong credit history why not apply for a 0% Purchase Credit Card.

Nonetheless, as eskbanker states above, the car dealership may not like you paying for the car with CC.

Ebe_Scrooge

DD92 said:

My credit score is excellent when I've just checked.

As you've discovered, your score means nothing and plays no part in any lending decisions.

DD92 said:

Does any one know why I can't increase my credit limit and if there is anything I can do about it?

Simply put, you don't meet their criteria for an increased limit.  You (nor anyone else) will ever know what those criteria are - they're confidential and commercially sensitive.

As per the previous replies, you only need to pay a portion of the cost on card to benefit from S75 protection (even 1p will do) - assuming the total cost is less than £30,000.

The biggest obstacle is likely to be whether the dealer will accept payment by card anyway.  Most will not accept anything more than a small deposit, due to the high charges they have to pay to the card company.

[Deleted User]

You'd probably do better just spending £500 or whatever on the card so you get some cash back and have the S75 cover (you don't need to spend that much but probably the most you will be able to spend at the dealer due to their fees) and then see if you can get a money transfer card on 0% and use that to pay for some / all of the card depending on the limit you get. Do keep in mind that S75 isn't the be all and end all of protection for a second hand car e.g. you won't be able to claim costs for things that are reasonable wear and tear should the exhaust fall off in 6 months or similar (extreme example but you get the point).

The chance of credit limit being increased depends on the lender, New Day isn't really a prime card issuer either, they may have limits on how much they are willing to offer anyone, you might want to try a prime card issuer if you want a bigger limit though again, dealer won't let you pay 8k on a credit card due to their fees

As above the gimmick credit score is never seen by lenders so it doesn't matter how good it is 

2ilent8cho

If you have nothing bad on your credit report and history is all good I would apply for another credit card with somebody else who may give you a much bigger limit. (But they might not, its just a chance you would have to take). 

Anecdotally and general forum browsing Amex seem to give the higher limits , but not everywhere accepts it, after that I've found MBNA and Virgin good for decent limits. Barclaycard use to be, but since they had phase of slashing lots of peoples large limits last year I don't know how good they are now as a new customer. 

mjm3346

Maybe paying in full each month doesn't make you enough of a money maker for them

Sandtree

DD92 said:

I'm buying a car in a couple of weeks and want to pay off the balance due - c£8k on my credit card to get the cashback, protection and all that good stuff (also saves some hassle of moving money around my savings as can pay it off from my current account when my bonus goes in next month).

Almost certainly the seller wont accept £8k on a credit card and if you are talking about paying the lender then not only will the lender probably not accept credit cards but if they do it may well count as a cash transaction and so come with fees that wipe out any cash back etc but a country mile

To get "protection" you only need to spend £0.01 on the credit card as long as the product is worth £100 to £32k 

The_Fat_Controller

I have paid over £10000 on a credit card for the balance of a car purchase, so it is possible.

I even increased my credit limit a couple of weeks earlier precisely for that reason.

As for why you cannot get an increase with New Day, you'll never know for sure but you can be certain it has nothing to do with your fictional credit score numbers.

cymruchris

They won't increase my limit either - even by paying in full since card inception (over 2 years) - and spending quite a lot on Amazon (I use the card primarily for Amazon purchases for additional points). I've earnt nearly £300 in Amazon vouchers - but the limit is still comparatively low to my other cards... That's life... If you can't get what you want from them - take a card from elsewhere. 

Ebe_Scrooge

mjm3346 said:

Maybe paying in full each month doesn't make you enough of a money maker for them

This is almost certainly not the case.  Credit card companies make the vast majority of their income from the fees they charge the retailer every time you make a purchase (which is why most car dealers won't accept cards, they get charged a pretty hefty fee from the card company).

Yes, of course if you don't clear in full and have to pay interest, that's a little bit of extra profit for the card company - but it's peanuts compared to the income they get from merchant fees.