Did anyone get a sensible credit limit offer on the MBNA 0% card?

sghughes42

I've just tried applying for one of these and was offered a miserly £500 credit limit. Other cards I've had in the past have had limits in the low tens of thousands, and it's a fraction of my monthly income.

Is the offer actually serious and have others received a sensible limit? I've got an 'excellent' score on Credit Karma so no obvious issues...

DullGreyGuy

Wife was offered about £12,000... not sure what that proves to you though

Hoenir

sghughes42 said:

Is the offer actually serious and have others received a sensible limit? I've got an 'excellent' score on Credit Karma so no obvious issues...

The excellent score means little in itself. What's actually already on your credit record determines the new lenders perspective and risk appetite. 

cymruchris

sghughes42 said:

I've just tried applying for one of these and was offered a miserly £500 credit limit. Other cards I've had in the past have had limits in the low tens of thousands, and it's a fraction of my monthly income.

Is the offer actually serious and have others received a sensible limit? I've got an 'excellent' score on Credit Karma so no obvious issues...

How long ago is the past?

Usually they will base their credit limits on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, your income, your existing debt numbers and how you've serviced that debt. 

So if you had an income of £100k - but debts of £80k - you might find their offer less than generous.

There are lots of variables.

If you haven't made an application for credit for some time - make sure the data recorded on all 3 of your major credit reports is 100 percent accurate. 

sghughes42

cymruchris said:

How long ago is the past?

Usually they will base their credit limits on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, your income, your existing debt numbers and how you've serviced that debt. 

So if you had an income of £100k - but debts of £80k - you might find their offer less than generous.

There are lots of variables.

If you haven't made an application for credit for some time - make sure the data recorded on all 3 of your major credit reports is 100 percent accurate. 

All I can think is that my credit utilisation is very low, but offering a very low limit isn't going to encourage me to increase that! I closed a Tesco credit card with around a £10k limit in 2021, a Barclaycard with a similar limit last year and also an Amex Gold with a limit in excess of £20k in 2023. Aside from the Amex which I only had for a year, the others I'd had for quite some time.

I do still have a Halifax Clarity card but I only use that for overseas spending so it hasn't had anything on it for a while.

The only debt I have is a joint mortgage and the outstanding balance is less than our combined yearly income.

Only other possibility is there is another fairly recent credit application as opened a Nationwide bank account last year with the intention of getting the £200 bonus. For various reasons I won't go in to here that didn't happen in the end but the account still got opened.

sghughes42

DullGreyGuy said:

Wife was offered about £12,000... not sure what that proves to you though

Not a lot, true, but it does suggest it's more likely to be either an error or something on my credit file they don't like.

cymruchris

sghughes42 said:

cymruchris said:

How long ago is the past?

Usually they will base their credit limits on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, your income, your existing debt numbers and how you've serviced that debt. 

So if you had an income of £100k - but debts of £80k - you might find their offer less than generous.

There are lots of variables.

If you haven't made an application for credit for some time - make sure the data recorded on all 3 of your major credit reports is 100 percent accurate. 

All I can think is that my credit utilisation is very low, but offering a very low limit isn't going to encourage me to increase that! I closed a Tesco credit card with around a £10k limit in 2021, a Barclaycard with a similar limit last year and also an Amex Gold with a limit in excess of £20k in 2023. Aside from the Amex which I only had for a year, the others I'd had for quite some time.

I do still have a Halifax Clarity card but I only use that for overseas spending so it hasn't had anything on it for a while.

The only debt I have is a joint mortgage and the outstanding balance is less than our combined yearly income.

Only other possibility is there is another fairly recent credit application as opened a Nationwide bank account last year with the intention of getting the £200 bonus. For various reasons I won't go in to here that didn't happen in the end but the account still got opened.

The problem may be how you've managed your cards there - I imagine you've closed them thinking 'I won't need those anymore' - but as you have no history with MBNA it's possible that they don't like the pattern of your overall credit limit reducing substantially over time - the algorithms might flag that up as a warning. Why is this person's credit diminishing so quickly? Is there something wrong? All they see is the account has been closed - they don't see who initiated the closure or why. 

sghughes42

cymruchris said:

The problem may be how you've managed your cards there - I imagine you've closed them thinking 'I won't need those anymore' - but as you have no history with MBNA it's possible that they don't like the pattern of your overall credit limit reducing substantially over time - the algorithms might flag that up as a warning. Why is this person's credit diminishing so quickly? Is there something wrong? All they see is the account has been closed - they don't see who initiated the closure or why. 

That's a fair point. There were various reasons for closure.

The Tesco one was closed by them because there hadn't been a transaction on it in over two years. 

Amex was closed because the first year offer came to an end and the benefits of the card didn't justify the fee.

Barclays was more complicated. I'd wanted to change to a card which was better for overseas spending and was told I'd need to cancel my existing card then apply for the alternative. Turns out this was in error as you can't apply for a new card within 6 months of cancelling an old one. In the end not a major problem as I just use Chase overseas as a backup to the Clarity card.

Is there a general timeline for when things like this stop being relevant, or would I have been better completing the MBNA application and using it to rebuild my score? The limit wasn't enough for what I wanted the card for (buying a mattress) but I'm guessing it will have put a mark on my credit file even though I didn't in the end open the account?

Nasqueron

The score is a meaningless gimmick, no lenders ever see it

You need to focus on improving your credit record - spending on credit card, paying in full every month, contract mobile phone etc

Check all three credit files to see if there is something spooking them on something you missed. 

Do you need a 0% card or do you just want one? In which case maybe apply for a different card to keep building credit history

cymruchris

You might be better off reapplying for a card with a provider that you’ve got history with. In the world of credit - you’ve sort of shot yourself in the foot - as by closing everything down (almost everything) you’ve lost your streak of positive history - as there’s less recent activity to judge your record by. 

Would you trust someone with your money who over a relatively short period had tens of thousands of available credit withdrawn? (And yes I know it’s you that closed it - but as you’re someone I don’t know - I wouldn’t know that)

It might take some time in today’s climate to build the positive streak back up again. 

Various card providers offer eligibility checks with guesstimate credit limits just like the Mbna one - might be worth trying other cards from
different groups to see how they view you. 

sghughes42

Thanks all. I think the best summary is that I really don't need this card, it was just a nice to have to be able to make a big purchase at 0% and keep the money in a savings account for a while.

I think part of the problem is I'm quite anti credit in a way, which I know is very much against the grain these days. I normally prefer to pay for things up front and save up where I can't afford it. In this offer I saw the ability to get a small return in the cashback and savings interest which is why I applied, but if they don't want me as a customer I don't need it so no real issue.

What is slightly worrying is that I've just got an email saying I've been accepted. I did not complete the application, indeed I had to answer a question as to why I wasn't completing the application which I did. This seems very sneaky to accept someone did not want to continue and carry on regardless.