Shocking treatment and marketing

Roberto887

So how insane, manipulative and irresponsible is this. Out of the blue, Barclays cut my platinum credit card limit by 15 times... Apparently following an alert from a credit referencing agency, despite NEVER missing a payment or ever approaching my credit ceiling in 15 years, my balance has been cleared by direct debit every month.  They tell me it's nothing to do with my Barclaycard account which is without blemish and to contact one of 3 agencies they use but won't tell me which one issues the alert. It's actually quite time consuming to set up these logins only to be bombarded by them to pay for an enhanced access, which I declined. My score was indicated as V Good and my total debt recorded as £59 which was the balance about to be cleared on direct debit day. I own my own home outright plus a rental apartment. I have zero debt. 

I got bored with long call waiting times and have actually lost interest with fighting it as it was really only just used as an emergency facility travelling abroad, car hire caution etc.  I've raised a complaint of only to waste as much of Barclays time as possible

But I'm now receiving marketing emails from Experian highlighting personal loans which are aimed at my "credit rating".... And balance transfer credit cards because I'm a good risk profile. Ironically one of them is for Barclays..... Figure that it, so much for AI. 

They are all encouraging me to take on more debt, whilst cutting me off at the knees for a facility I've maintained perfectly for 15 years. This is despicable.

I just needed to vent. 

Aaaaarrrgghhh.

Grumpy_chap

Roberto887 said:

So how insane, manipulative and irresponsible is this. Out of the blue, Barclays cut my platinum credit card limit by 15 times... Apparently following an alert from a credit referencing agency, despite NEVER missing a payment or ever approaching my credit ceiling in 15 years, my balance has been cleared by direct debit every month.  They tell me it's nothing to do with my Barclaycard account which is without blemish and to contact one of 3 agencies they use but won't tell me which one issues the alert. It's actually quite time consuming to set up these logins only to be bombarded by them to pay for an enhanced access, which I declined. My score was indicated as V Good and my total debt recorded as £59 which was the balance about to be cleared on direct debit day. I own my own home outright plus a rental apartment. I have zero debt. 

I got bored with long call waiting times and have actually lost interest with fighting it as it was really only just used as an emergency facility travelling abroad, car hire caution etc.  I've raised a complaint of only to waste as much of Barclays time as possible

But I'm now receiving marketing emails from Experian highlighting personal loans which are aimed at my "credit rating".... And balance transfer credit cards because I'm a good risk profile. Ironically one of them is for Barclays..... Figure that it, so much for AI. 

They are all encouraging me to take on more debt, whilst cutting me off at the knees for a facility I've maintained perfectly for 15 years. This is despicable.

I just needed to vent. 

Aaaaarrrgghhh.

There are many posts that have cropped up on here where CC's (particularly Barclaycard) have reduced available credit limits.

One contributory factor that seems to be mentioned is having a large amount of limit over and above the amount ever used, so the limit reduced nearer to actual credit requirement.

When looking at the CRA's, the score means nothing.  You need to look at the accuracy of the data that is held.  The free CRA access is sufficient, no need to pay.

MattMattMattUK

Roberto887 said:

So how insane, manipulative and irresponsible is this. Out of the blue, Barclays cut my platinum credit card limit by 15 times... Apparently following an alert from a credit referencing agency, despite NEVER missing a payment or ever approaching my credit ceiling in 15 years, my balance has been cleared by direct debit every month.  They tell me it's nothing to do with my Barclaycard account which is without blemish and to contact one of 3 agencies they use but won't tell me which one issues the alert. It's actually quite time consuming to set up these logins only to be bombarded by them to pay for an enhanced access, which I declined. My score was indicated as V Good and my total debt recorded as £59 which was the balance about to be cleared on direct debit day. I own my own home outright plus a rental apartment. I have zero debt. 

It is not any of those three things. 

Your score is a meaningless number, it has as much relevance to anything as star signs, tea leaves for badgers teeth. You can get your full report from all three CRAs, as well as CIFAS without paying anything, I would recommend you do so and look for a missed payment or account fraudulently opened in your name. Barclaycard also seem to slash credit limits that are not regularly used, as well as for those in persistent debt.

Roberto887 said:

I got bored with long call waiting times and have actually lost interest with fighting it as it was really only just used as an emergency facility travelling abroad, car hire caution etc.  I've raised a complaint of only to waste as much of Barclays time as possible

There is no point in "fighting" anything, check your credit reports, submit a complaint to Barclays if you want, but it will be a business decision, nothing more, nothing less, nothing personal.

Roberto887 said:

But I'm now receiving marketing emails from Experian highlighting personal loans which are aimed at my "credit rating".... And balance transfer credit cards because I'm a good risk profile. Ironically one of them is for Barclays..... Figure that it, so much for AI. 

It has nothing to do with AI, Experian are chasing commission, as all the CRAs do with consumer accounts. They created a marketing gimmick "credit scores/ratings" and have successfully persuaded as significant proportion of the population that the pointless, made up number, somehow matters, it does not. If you take out a new line of credit via Experian then your score with Experian will go up, but it will go down with the other CRAs will go down, the same happens the other way around as well.

Roberto887 said:

They are all encouraging me to take on more debt, whilst cutting me off at the knees for a facility I've maintained perfectly for 15 years. This is despicable.

They really have not cut you off at the knees and they are offering you the opportunity to apply for a credit card or load facility, nothing more.

Roberto887 said:

I just needed to vent. 

Aaaaarrrgghhh.

You really need to not take this personally, there will be something that an algorithm does not like, possibly a missed payment on one of the CRAs, possibly something else, either way it is not personal, it is data driven. Equally the CRAs operate as businesses, they used to make their money by supplying data to lenders but they realised that there was an equally if not more lucrative revenue stream of earning commission by getting gullible customers to apply for financial products through them, they are all in competition, they are all full of the usual !!!!!!, it just happens. 

flaneurs_lobster

What does "...cut my platinum credit card limit by 15 times" mean?

It's now 15% of what it was previously? 1/15th?

Regardless, something has triggered Barclays and that something (they say) came from at least one of the credit reference agencies. 

Ignore the stuff about "scores", that's just there to sell you more credit products to "improve your score", a number that no-one other than you will ever see. Seems you've already had some of their marketing push.

Look for things that the agency(s) have flagged as having changed in the last few months.

I'd suggest that your comment about having "zero debt" may be the issue. Lenders are happiest with people who have modest debt-to-income ratios and are seen to be making repayments on time. They've decided to rationalise large credit limits that are never used by reducing yours.

Raising a formal complaint to "only to waste as much of Barclays time as possible" is just childish, as is describing a business decision by Barclays as "insane, manipulative and irresponsible". 

jim1999

In recent years, Barclays have been clamping down on people having credit but not using it.  There is a cost to them of allowing a customer to run up a big debt, so if that customer isn't using it, it's better business for them to reduce the credit limit significantly.

99% chance that's what this is.

MEM62

It is nothing more or less than a business decision.  There is no complaint for Barclays to defend here.  It is their prerogative to decide who the lend to and how much.  

If the limit is insufficient for you apply to any other card issuer.  

Roberto887

Thanks all for the remarks.

£3000 limit down to £200, that to me is cutting me off at the knees,  then another financial establishment is trying to get me to take out credit. In this world of vulnerable people that to me sounds irresponsible and quite frankly bordering on unethical.  I can imagine a scandal being exposed in future years where credit card companies and CRA's get exposed for secretly sharing some data to exploit situations, and please don't defend these institutions because there have been countless miss-selling scandals exposed over the years and all of them were "business decisions" by someone at some point. 

Whilst I understand that "it's just a business decision" and nothing personal. THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT. 

I personally think it's a rubbish, impersonal way to do business with long standing customer and is usually contrary to the schmaltzy "we care about our customers" insipid marketing drivel.

When I mentioned AI, I was referring to the idealistic concept that AI might go some way to improving the "computer / business decision says no" brick wall, whereas in the past, human beings could make a judgement call based on a relationship. But evidently not.

If no-one ever moans about the " business decisions or style" then nothing ever changes and we all get treated poorly in the relentless pursuit of profits at the expense of valued relationships, which appear to be non existent today. I think it's a very poor approach which effectively becomes a race to the bottom and ends up creating an even more dog eat dog world. 

These companies have repeatedly shoved the mechanics of doing business onto the customer to spend hours on helplines which rarely help thus offloading the process whilst increasing costs to you and me. 


So speak out  I say, hold them to account, vote with your feet. I am. 

booneruk

Roberto887 said:

vote with your feet. I am. 

This is, ultimately, what might force them to soften their decisions. If they can't tolerate a certain reduction in customer numbers then they will do something to increase them.

born_again

Roberto887 said:

Thanks all for the remarks.

£3000 limit down to £200, that to me is cutting me off at the knees,  then another financial establishment is trying to get me to take out credit. In this world of vulnerable people that to me sounds irresponsible and quite frankly bordering on unethical.  I can imagine a scandal being exposed in future years where credit card companies and CRA's get exposed for secretly sharing some data to exploit situations, and please don't defend these institutions because there have been countless miss-selling scandals exposed over the years and all of them were "business decisions" by someone at some point. 

Whilst I understand that "it's just a business decision" and nothing personal. THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT. 

I personally think it's a rubbish, impersonal way to do business with long standing customer and is usually contrary to the schmaltzy "we care about our customers" insipid marketing drivel.

When I mentioned AI, I was referring to the idealistic concept that AI might go some way to improving the "computer / business decision says no" brick wall, whereas in the past, human beings could make a judgement call based on a relationship. But evidently not.

If no-one ever moans about the " business decisions or style" then nothing ever changes and we all get treated poorly in the relentless pursuit of profits at the expense of valued relationships, which appear to be non existent today. I think it's a very poor approach which effectively becomes a race to the bottom and ends up creating an even more dog eat dog world. 

These companies have repeatedly shoved the mechanics of doing business onto the customer to spend hours on helplines which rarely help thus offloading the process whilst increasing costs to you and me. 


So speak out  I say, hold them to account, vote with your feet. I am. 

So how much of that £3K limit do you use each month?

FCA checks banks to ensure that they can withstand stress tests. Part of that is ensuring they are solvent. Debt V Credit. Carrying unused customer avaiable credit has a large effect on the balance. 

flaneurs_lobster

Roberto887 said:

If no-one ever moans about the " business decisions or style" then nothing ever changes and we all get treated poorly in the relentless pursuit of profits at the expense of valued relationships, which appear to be non existent today. I think it's a very poor approach which effectively becomes a race to the bottom and ends up creating an even more dog eat dog world. 

These companies have repeatedly shoved the mechanics of doing business onto the customer to spend hours on helplines which rarely help thus offloading the process whilst increasing costs to you and me.

I have some sympathy with your notion that personal relationships and loyalty have no real meaning in today's highly automated world of personal banking but I choose to look at it as the price that is paid for having free banking and often free credit cards (and the free credit period that comes with them).

I'd fully expect to have a personal banker available to me if I had £1M+ in my investment account and to get decent biscuits with my tea when I popped in for a chat. 

But I don't, so I'll put up with chatbots, tardy phone lines and rubbish websites as long as I get payments made and a decent rate on my savings.