Is there a way to get a higher limit?

MrFrugalFever

I_am_a_robot said:

Current address 5 years, previous 20 years.  Mortgage paid off about 10 years ago (bought current house cash, did it up moved in then sold the previous one).

No late payments or county court judgements.  Cheap sim only phone, with bank about 15 years, credit card similar (paid off every month).  Low debt to income ratio (only debt is credit card balance before being paid each month). "using quite a low proportion of the credit available to you".  Very few or less credit applications (cannot remember last one).

Not only did we clear our debts we kept up the good habits.  We save for anything we want, so cars, holidays, home improvements etc are paid for rather then paid by debt. 

I agree Amex is not for me, I like to travel and some countries it was almost useless when I had one in the bad old days of debt.

Would like about £5,000 limit, at the end of my debt period the limits added up to over £30,000, and I had never been refused a new card or a request to increase my limit! 

Current credit card has had issues, latest being spent about £800 with a major retailer, got given a code to confirm purchase then payment failed.  When I contacted them they said they put my card on hold because it was a large amount!  Why give me the code then?  What is the point of the limit if I cannot used it.  Anyhow paid with debit card.  The reason I had the card was it gave points to a loyalty scheme, but it stopped that.

I have only encountered 2 places (1 online and 1 in person) which haven't accepted Amex so far here in the UK out of £3,000 worth of spending so far. I would never use my Amex card abroad because it will charge a foreign transaction fee, I have other credit/debit cards with FX fee free features for that. 

Amex provides me with membership rewards points and that in turn provides me with discounted flights/holidays/flight cabin upgrades/lounge passes and ability to convert to nectar points for spending in Sainsburys or Argos (to purchase a new mobile phone outright for example).

I have found that Zopa is fairly generous with whom it will lend to and the limit in which it offers. I had negative data on my credit file (a few previous defaults from 2017) and last year Zopa gave me 14.9%APR with £5,000 limit. Its also FX fee free. 

safe_hands2

I've tracked my AMEX spending as a proportion of the total this year. It only made 53% and would have only been 45% if I hadn't paid for a trip to London for some friends. Without that I wouldn't have reached the £3000 minimum spend required to receive the cashback, so unfortunately decided not to use it next year. Lots of people on here have no problems using AMEX for virtually all spend though.

Hoenir

I_am_a_robot said:

Would like about £5,000 limit, at the end of my debt period the limits added up to over £30,000, and I had never been refused a new card or a request to increase my limit! 

Are you trying to prove something to yourself ?  

blue.peter

safe_hands2 said:

Lots of people on here have no problems using AMEX for virtually all spend though.

Quite so. When I had one, I was able to put about 95% of my spending on it. The only significant trader with whom I dealt that wouldn't accept it was the local VW dealer. Experience varies.

adindas

I_am_a_robot said:

About 15 years ago our finances were a mess, yet credit card companies increased my limits all the time.

Worked hard to get 100% debt free, even managed to retire early (now we are both sensible with money).

So wanted a credit card, got offered a limit of £1,800 (some were £1,200).  Looked at some posts here, they recomended the credit club to see how I could improve my credit rating, problem is apparently I have a 999 on Expirian so that is not an option.

Relatvely low income, but savings and property.  Strange thing is my disposable income is far more than when I was paying all those interest charges!

Any thoughts?

If there is an option to request online, ask and let them assess it. If not call them.

Another method, sometimes is easier. Apply for a new secondary creditcard within the same provider. After you get it use it for a month (say) and ask then to merge the limit and close the secondary one.

Sometimes I also  astonish the way the algorithm works, sometimes you can not draw a logical conclusion. 

You asked the credit increase they refused it but a few months later they offer you without you asking it.

jbrassy

In my experience, Amex give the highest credit limits. Mine started at around £7500 when I got the card in 2016, but it's gradually increased over the years to £25k. I manage to do 90% of my spending on Amex, although I live in London where it's more widely accepted.

I also have the Barclaycard Rewards for travel and the credit limit on this started around £3k when I first got the card but has gone up to £11k. 

My Capital One card has a much lower limit (£4k).

I think what influences the limit is mainly your income and how much you use the card. If you spend a lot on the card and pay it in full every month, card companies will be more inclined to increase your limit.

Grumpy_chap

adindas said:

Sometimes I also  astonish the way the algorithm works, sometimes you can not draw a logical conclusion. 

jbrassy said:

I think what influences the limit is mainly your income and how much you use the card. If you spend a lot on the card and pay it in full every month, card companies will be more inclined to increase your limit.

I think the credit card companies keep the algorithm for granting credit increases a tightly guarded secret so that no-one can "game" the system.
My wife and I both have Barclaycard CCs.  Mine has a limit of £3.5k and I have just been offered an increase.  My wife has a limit of £150 and cannot get an increase.  We share the same finances in all regards, so completely obscure why we are both so differently viewed.

adamp87

I generally encounter no issues with Amex but there have been occasions (our dentist has dropped Amex unexpectedly for one) this year it’s been useless. The limit is great but we never go anywhere close to it, and the rewards feel less as we haven’t spent as much so will probably close it this year. We have made some decent t money of it though, if you can put all your spending on it and clear each month it can be good.

Just be wary as the APR is massive on some of the cards more than a lot of general credit cards. So if the worst was to ever happen and you couldn’t pay it off that month the interest charges will be high.

adindas

Grumpy_chap said:

adindas said:

Sometimes I also  astonish the way the algorithm works, sometimes you can not draw a logical conclusion. 

jbrassy said:

I think what influences the limit is mainly your income and how much you use the card. If you spend a lot on the card and pay it in full every month, card companies will be more inclined to increase your limit.

I think the credit card companies keep the algorithm for granting credit increases a tightly guarded secret so that no-one can "game" the system.
My wife and I both have Barclaycard CCs.  Mine has a limit of £3.5k and I have just been offered an increase.  My wife has a limit of £150 and cannot get an increase.  We share the same finances in all regards, so completely obscure why we are both so differently viewed.

If my memory serves well. £150 was the limit I got with my ASDA Credit Card. But it is enough as I am not a frequent shopper at ASDA. I am just using it to get £1% cashback at that time. But since the creation credit card took it over, no more cashback. So I cancelled it.

At that time I already have a few credit-cards with limit of £10k+,

Nasqueron

Brie said:

I'd say don't bother with Barclaycard as they are tighter than the tightest of tight things. 

Are you saying that you have no line of credit anywhere?  No cards, no overdraft, no loan/mortgage/phone contract/car insurance paid monthly?  If you don't have any of those that might scare them.  If you do have some or all of those they may still be scared given your more distance credit history.  Age may also be a factor now or your source of income as it's all pension/savings rather than employment.

Barclays certainly cut down balances for risky customers based on financial lending responsibility rules but they still do have generous limits for customers they deem less risky, I opened one years ago with a limit maybe 5k or so, it's been used solely as a BT card and they upped the limit to about 11.5k now maybe 2 years ago and not been touched since.