Credit limit reduction

cathym71

I wonder if anyone else has had this happen. 
I did a balance transfer to MBNA a year or so ago. Since then I have never missed or made a late payment and I always pay more than the minimum payment.
I was really shocked a couple of weeks ago to receive a text from MBNA saying you have used more than 90% of your credit limit , to make sure you stay within your limit you may want to make a payment.
As I knew I was nowhere near my credit limit I panicked as I thought someone had used my card. This text came through at 13.19.
I was out at the time so rushed home to contact MBNA.
However I then received another text at 13.47 to say they had reduced my credit limit to £2900, hence putting me within 90% of my limit !
I rang them very upset and angry but still have not found a reason why they did this. They gave me £20 compensation for my inconvenience but I'm still furious.
I think this is a very poor way to treat a customer who has never defaulted and seems to be sharp practice. I was very stressed and worried thinking I'd been hacked 
Has anyone else had this experience ?

martinbainbridge1975

barclaycard have done the same to customers, have you been given an explanation?

TrooperJB

Not exactly the same but I had a card with Aqua with over £4000 limit, had an email from them to say they were reducing my limit as i was not using the card enough. It went down to £1100. Not sure if it is coincidence or not but my credit score then dropped by around 10 to 15 points, although still in a good position. The credit score app recommended action is to increase credit limit !!

MattMattMattUK

cathym71 said:

I wonder if anyone else has had this happen. 
I did a balance transfer to MBNA a year or so ago. Since then I have never missed or made a late payment and I always pay more than the minimum payment.
I was really shocked a couple of weeks ago to receive a text from MBNA saying you have used more than 90% of your credit limit , to make sure you stay within your limit you may want to make a payment.
As I knew I was nowhere near my credit limit I panicked as I thought someone had used my card. This text came through at 13.19.
I was out at the time so rushed home to contact MBNA.
However I then received another text at 13.47 to say they had reduced my credit limit to £2900, hence putting me within 90% of my limit !
I rang them very upset and angry but still have not found a reason why they did this. They gave me £20 compensation for my inconvenience but I'm still furious.

I think being furious might be somewhat of an overreaction. They will have sent a letter as well, usually with four weeks warning, although it could have gone missing in the post.

cathym71 said:

I think this is a very poor way to treat a customer who has never defaulted and seems to be sharp practice. I was very stressed and worried thinking I'd been hacked 

Lots of customers get their credit limit reduced, it happens due to changes in lending practices, having a large credit limit open represents a potential liability for banks. When they are looking to reduce their risk they will reduce credit limits, especially in customers whose risk profiles place them at potentially a higher risk. It is no slight on you, you just fall into a fairly large bracket and they are reducing their risk accordingly. 

cathym71 said:

Has anyone else had this experience ?

Lots of people will have, it is part of life. 

cathym71

It was the manner in which it was done. To receive a text out of the blue to tell you you've used 90% of your credit limit when you know you haven't is quite unsettling. It wasn't so much the reduction but the way it was done. I still maintain it's a poor way to treat a customer and my credit rating was affected although it is still good 

elasto

Last month Marbles reduced my credit limit from 3k to 1k without giving a reason - but it's almost certainly because I hardly use it.

I didn't mind because it's one of the first cards I opened and I now have newer cards with better perks.

Conversely, other cards recently gave me credit limit increases - including Aqua (a sister product to Marbles) just one month earlier.

Every company has only a relatively fixed pool of credit that if they give to one person can't give to another.

Don't take it personally. It doesn't mean they think you're a bad risk. They just think they'll make more money overall if they give that bit of credit to someone else. 

Assuming you have sound control of your finances then do like the banks do and diversify. That way if one card does something unexpected like this, you have others to fall back upon.