Credit limit 5 January at 10:35AM in Credit cards 4 replies 247 views

greg_0ry

Hello,

I have had an unpleasant situation yesterday where I got a sms from First Direct saying that two of my transaction have been suspicious, it turned out it was five in total.
My Credit Limit is £3000 which I actually never use so I could easily reduce it to £500 to reduce the damage if this should ever happen again (New Card it's on it's way). After a call to first direct I found out that it could happen that me or someone who has stolen my card could even go over this limit so they can't do a hard limit what I would prefer.
My question is is this a general thing for banks or more FD specific? I would like to be in full control but they can't even tell me how much morI could spend over the credit limit, sure thing you would pay interest for the money over the limit you actually don't want 

It would be great to get some inside how other banks are doing it as I am thinking to cancel my credit card with them as I can use the debit card in stores or use PayPal/Amazon Pay.

Thanks
-Greg

Ebe_Scrooge

Most cards will allow you to go over the limit to a small extent - although obviously you'll be charged for doing so.  But any genuinely fraudulent transactions should be refunded, along with any charges incurred as a direct result of them.

martinbainbridge1975

I had my HSBC card cloned - same group as first direct and to be fair they were not great as to how it was handled hence I closed the card down as it caused hassle for a good 3-4 weeks.

I have a Lloyds and Barclaycard and use amazon / paypal with no issues, Lloyds asks me to log into the app to approve transactions which I find more reassuring from a security point of view

diystarter7

Hi
Barclays has, now has and possibly for a few years a cc, ALERT when your own spend limit you have set per month ie not the cc limit but your limit, they send an email. I don't know how quickly this happens as I must have accdentally set it at a low level but you can call and ask them. I'm really happy with Barclays re their text alerts etc etc - give them a call

greg_0ry

martinbainbridge1975 said:

I had my HSBC card cloned - same group as first direct and to be fair they were not great as to how it was handled hence I closed the card down as it caused hassle for a good 3-4 weeks.

I have a Lloyds and Barclaycard and use amazon / paypal with no issues, Lloyds asks me to log into the app to approve transactions which I find more reassuring from a security point of view

To be fair they have send me an SMS but they have not looked at three other transaction which looked very unusual for my buying behaviour + FD has not yet the same notifications you get with HSBC when you pay something with your card and they can't give me an estimate. I just changed to FD after 18 years HSBC and don't think it's a good idea to change again so need to find a way for myself to limit the damage in case it would happen again. I might use more PayPal and Amazon and leave the credit card at home when not needed.