Barclaycard Credit Crunch Shenanigans?

andywilson460

I have just had a very bizarre experience with Barclaycard.

I have been a loyal BC customer for nearly 10 years now. I hold a gold card, with a credit limit of £10,000. Apart from one bought of identity theft 18 months ago (costing BC about £200) I have been a model customer.

I have always paid off my card in full at the end of the month, and never gone over my limit.

My salary is over 40k, I'm debt free and generally in a good financial position.

I have recently got an Amex, which I use for cash back, and tend to use that instead of the BC, unless the shops don't take Amex.

I got a letter about 2 months ago from BC stating that they have reviewed my account, and adjusted my credit limit to £250!!!

I wasn't sure why, but as I mainly use my Amex now I wasn't too worried - until I came to pay my council tax bill online two days ago. I couldn't use Amex, and didn't trust the ropey government systems to give them a debit card.

So I phoned up BC so see if they would up my limit. I spoke to one of their CS and they asked how much I wanted - I asked for £2500 as I thought this was realistic if I needed to book a holiday etc on the card during summer. They told me that sadly due to my payment history they couldn't extend my limit above the current limit, but I could phone back in 3 months for another review.

I couldn't believe it, so I tried to remember all my transactions and payments as the CS told me I had made a late payment, and I think I might have done once in the last 18 months, and I would have paid it all back about a day later - in fact I was actually in credit (having mistakenly overpaid) by about £100 for 2 months.

I asked to close the card account, and was put through to the retentions department - I went through the whole process again, and expecting a climbdown, was surprised when she was happy to close my account, and did it there and then!

Is this the state of things to come? - Unless we are massively in debt and giving lots of interest payments to the banks they won't be interested in our business any more? - I didn't realise that Barclays were that badly hit that my £300 Council Tax was too big a risk for them

Lavendyr

That's very odd, I presume you've checked your credit reports in case there is anything on them that shouldn't be?

roswell

Most likely braclays have been doing a clean up and noticed they are paying to hold £10 000 in reserve in case you want to go spending and you havent used this limit or any where near that and they are cost cutting, if you rarely use it they probably saw £250 as a good emergancy figure incase you needed it or if you didnt you would close your account. No loss really just apply for anotehr card with someone else.

andywilson460

I did both the experian and other credit check about 8 months ago and it was all clear.

andywilson460

roswell wrote: »

Most likely braclays have been doing a clean up and noticed they are paying to hold £10 000 in reserve in case you want to go spending and you havent used this limit or any where near that and they are cost cutting, if you rarely use it they probably saw £250 as a good emergancy figure incase you needed it or if you didnt you would close your account. No loss really just apply for anotehr card with someone else.

Totally agree, and will apply for a different card, but was a bit perplexed at BC's way of managing it. It's not like I haven't used it in the past...

Dylanwing

The sheer stupidity of Banks and their 'Computer says no' attitude never fails to amaze me. They spend all that money on TV ads to attract new business, and yet put zero effort into keeping good business, even though that costs next to nothing.

neilp

I would do another check with the credit reference agency - this raises suspicions to me about possible identity theft.

IveSeenTheLight

andywilson460 wrote: »

Apart from one bought of identity theft 18 months ago (costing BC about £200) I have been a model customer.

I have always paid off my card in full at the end of the month, and never gone over my limit.

You are like me and we are not model credit card customers.
The problem is we clear our credit every month meaning the companies make no money off us.

they much prefer people who make minimum payment, racking up the interest or those that default occasionally and get additional "administration" costs.

The card I use has been ramped up in the credit allowance time and time again without me asking for it.

I really believe they hope that someday, I will spend too much and not have enough to pay off the credit card

pan111

Ive had the same sort of thing with CitiBank and HSBC...on my request to cancel, they transferred me to another person and carried through the cancellation

webbo100

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

You are like me and we are not model credit card customers.
The problem is we clear our credit every month meaning the companies make no money off us.

This is not entirely true, every time you make a transaction the CC company will make between 1.5% and 3% depending on the merchant, now as that is money they are only loaning to you for a maximum of 56 days, so probably 30 day average. You will see this works out at a very nice annual rate, so they do make a lot of money out of customers that pay off in full every month.

But you are correct they prefer customers who maintain an outstanding balance as that is something they expect to be earning money on year after year.

battyboimatt

Well what can I say, I jsut had a really nice experiance with Barclaycard, I have only been with them 7 months but have an Initial card with a £300 limit, I have just managed to get a MBNA 14.9% Card with £2500 and A Natwest Card 13.9% so I called them up to cancel, the bloke put me to another person who was really nice, she asked why I wanted to leave so I was blunt and told her, well the apr is 28% on the initial card and I have a crap limit, so she was nice and said well if I could get you on 14.9% and get you a plat card, would you stay, curious I said how, well the system is funny she said so on your next bill date you will get a new card but it will be a classic card, as it wont let her do such a big jump all in one go, and then on my feb statement I will recived another card which will be the plat card and she will do all this confirmed by letter and she will suspend my intrest in the mean time until i get my plat card in feb, nice but what about the credit limit, lets see, the computer will let her up it to £1000 now and then when I get my plat card phone her back and she should be able to get more, and if not she will email the credit team and ask them to override it. How nice, yes ill stay, I must of been one of the lucky ones and it was new years eve, but they have always been nice when I have spoken to them