credit card limit offered a joke

martinbainbridge1975

flaneurs_lobster said:

cypher007 said:

ok i never asked Amex to hike my credit limit to £14k i dont use more than maybe £1k per month which i then pay off in full like my Nationwide card, and like ive done for about 24 years. i use the Amex to gain cashback but used to use a Capital one card for the same reason. then the EU decided to jump on Visa and Mastercard fees saying if they charged the retailer less the retailer would pass it on, yeah right. so after that Capital one dropped there cashback and i had to find another similar card.

I'm missing the point here, if you only need a couple of thousand pounds a month CC facility and it's all being settled at month-end then why is the offered £5k such a big deal?

Is it some kind of financial ego trip to have a big, swinging credit limit?

different people have different takes on credit, some use borrowed money to make more money.

I remember reading a post on hear ages ago where somebody had 100k plus on cards and was stoozing the cash and making interest.  mbna  and lloyds cards used to do fee free money transfers which if you could then find a fee free balance transfer card was a double winner.

Nebulous2

martinbainbridge1975 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

cypher007 said:

ok i never asked Amex to hike my credit limit to £14k i dont use more than maybe £1k per month which i then pay off in full like my Nationwide card, and like ive done for about 24 years. i use the Amex to gain cashback but used to use a Capital one card for the same reason. then the EU decided to jump on Visa and Mastercard fees saying if they charged the retailer less the retailer would pass it on, yeah right. so after that Capital one dropped there cashback and i had to find another similar card.

I'm missing the point here, if you only need a couple of thousand pounds a month CC facility and it's all being settled at month-end then why is the offered £5k such a big deal?

Is it some kind of financial ego trip to have a big, swinging credit limit?

different people have different takes on credit, some use borrowed money to make more money.

I remember reading a post on hear ages ago where somebody had 100k plus on cards and was stoozing the cash and making interest.  mbna  and lloyds cards used to do fee free money transfers which if you could then find a fee free balance transfer card was a double winner.

MBNA still do that - a money transfer offer with a low APR and no fee. Currently offering me 5.9% for 24 months. If you need to borrow money 5.9% is a decent rate, but still above easy access rates. Switch it away quickly for no fee however and you can make money on easy access accounts. 

QrizB

martinbainbridge1975 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

cypher007 said:

ok i never asked Amex to hike my credit limit to £14k i dont use more than maybe £1k per month which i then pay off in full like my Nationwide card, and like ive done for about 24 years. i use the Amex to gain cashback but used to use a Capital one card for the same reason. then the EU decided to jump on Visa and Mastercard fees saying if they charged the retailer less the retailer would pass it on, yeah right. so after that Capital one dropped there cashback and i had to find another similar card.

I'm missing the point here, if you only need a couple of thousand pounds a month CC facility and it's all being settled at month-end then why is the offered £5k such a big deal?

Is it some kind of financial ego trip to have a big, swinging credit limit?

different people have different takes on credit, some use borrowed money to make more money.

But that's not what the OP is doing, hence f_l's question.

Grumpy_chap

cypher007 said:

have an AMEX that has 14k limit and a Nationwide with £3.5k.

the amex doesnt work at an awful lot of places so wanted to get an MBNA visa card, computer has offered £5k. like !!!!!! i earn £25k aprox and have £40k savings no mortgage old fart etc. what gives?

I'd say it is a joke - a dangerous one at that - for an individual with £25k salary and £17.5k flexible credit already to be given another £5k flexible credit.

cypher007

Caz3121 said:

is the amex a charge card or credit card, if latter that would give you a total of £22.5k available credit against a £25k income..how much were you expecting?

also the Nationwide is a joint account with total of aprox £50k. so that doesnt make sense.

cypher007

flaneurs_lobster said:

cypher007 said:

ok i never asked Amex to hike my credit limit to £14k i dont use more than maybe £1k per month which i then pay off in full like my Nationwide card, and like ive done for about 24 years. i use the Amex to gain cashback but used to use a Capital one card for the same reason. then the EU decided to jump on Visa and Mastercard fees saying if they charged the retailer less the retailer would pass it on, yeah right. so after that Capital one dropped there cashback and i had to find another similar card.

I'm missing the point here, if you only need a couple of thousand pounds a month CC facility and it's all being settled at month-end then why is the offered £5k such a big deal?

Is it some kind of financial ego trip to have a big, swinging credit limit?

we want to buy a £9.5k kitchen and the company doesnt take AMEX. so was looking at putting it on a long term 0% to gain interest on the £9.5k over the 20+ months then pay in full.

SiliconChip

"I think "a horse goes into a bar, bartender says, 'Why the long face?'", that's a joke. It's a good one, too, because a horse has a long face."

Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory episode The Love Spell Potential.

cymruchris

cypher007 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

cypher007 said:

ok i never asked Amex to hike my credit limit to £14k i dont use more than maybe £1k per month which i then pay off in full like my Nationwide card, and like ive done for about 24 years. i use the Amex to gain cashback but used to use a Capital one card for the same reason. then the EU decided to jump on Visa and Mastercard fees saying if they charged the retailer less the retailer would pass it on, yeah right. so after that Capital one dropped there cashback and i had to find another similar card.

I'm missing the point here, if you only need a couple of thousand pounds a month CC facility and it's all being settled at month-end then why is the offered £5k such a big deal?

Is it some kind of financial ego trip to have a big, swinging credit limit?

we want to buy a £9.5k kitchen and the company doesnt take AMEX. so was looking at putting it on a long term 0% to gain interest on the £9.5k over the 20+ months then pay in full.

Your income to available credit ratio will likely mean you won't get a card with £10k on it.

£5k is better than nothing though - you could part pay the kitchen on the interest free offer, and save some money as a result - even if it's not what you wanted.

In the longer term - if you closed the Amex and used the MBNA responsibly, there's a fair chance further down the line the MBNA would increase it's limit. Not much use if you want the limit NOW!

Also bear in mind that MBNA, Lloyds and Halifax are all the same group. After opening a card with one of the brands - and running it for a month or two, you may find you're eligible for a card from one of the sister groups.

Nebulous2

I've never been convinced by the argument that available credit is a major factor in decisions to advance further credit, though that may be changing. Utilised credit certainly is. As you get close to your income in used short-term credit then offers dry up dramatically. 

For more than 20 years I've had in excess of my income in available credit. At times I've had well over twice my income available. There were several reasons for that, tardiness in closing down unused credit cards, juggling 0% offers to stooze, and willingness of lenders to extend credit to me. For four or five applications in a row every lender gave me £10k. I jokingly said that they saw others had offered me that, so they decided they would as well. 

My life has changed since my stoozing days, my current income is a pension and working one day a week. I'm carrying no credit card debt, I have some fairly chunky expenditure on credit cards, but pay them off every month. I still have some big credit limits - £17,000 on MBNA.

In response to this thread I've just done a soft check on credit karma. I asked for a £10k limit and was offered several guaranteed offers at just over £5k, with the biggest being £5,600. So it looks like £5k is a decent offer in the current market. 

born_again

cypher007 said:

Caz3121 said:

is the amex a charge card or credit card, if latter that would give you a total of £22.5k available credit against a £25k income..how much were you expecting?

also the Nationwide is a joint account with total of aprox £50k. so that doesnt make sense.

There is no such thing as a joint Credit Card account.