If anyone on here has a Barclaycard there is a good chance your credit limit will be dramatically reduced in the near future. Some limits have been cut by up to 95%.
I had a letter a couple of days ago telling me. Not sure what's going on with them or if all credit card companies are reviewing their customers credit limit.
I thought it may be that I've not used to for a few years?
I had a letter a couple of days ago telling me. Not sure what's going on with them or if all credit card companies are reviewing their customers credit limit.
I thought it may be that I've not used to for a few years?
Seems to be limited to Barclaycard - there seem to be a lot of people getting letters. I use my card regularly and always pay on time but they've reduced my credit limit without any real explanation.
It’s not just Barclaycard. My Natwest MasterCard and Tesco Visa Credit card limits have been reduced recently. I haven’t queried it but it might be because I pay everything off every month?
Check your credit score. I heard on the grapevine a number of card companies are running soft checks and reducing right down those with a score sub 750.
But a card with a £250 limit isn't worth having, but by doing so gets the desired effect of you no longer being a customer.
I got a letter last week from Barclaycard. Cut mine down from £21k to £15k.......said it was because I've never maxed it out (my words) and that £15k is still in line with my needs (which it is).
I think I would have gone apoplectic if they had reduced it to £250 !!!
Sounds like they're anticipating an economic collapse.
I think where credit cards differ compared to say a mortgage or personal loan, is if you get into financial difficulty you just have a line of credit to draw on, so yes, I think they are already seeing extra spending and defaults and anticipate more to come.
Sounds like they're anticipating an economic collapse.
Which there wont be
More like just bringing borrowing limits down in line with posters normal spending habits. If you have a credit limit of £15k & you use it a lot I expect that they will modify it a bit (like they did mine). If you have one below £5k & hardly use it I expect, as a pp said, that they dont really need you as a customer.
I assumed their favourite borrowers are those with a high enough credit standing that they eventually get paid back (albeit after accruing copious amounts of interest), but not so high that they are paid off in full each month (thus effectively providing short-term lending interest free with plenty of additional fancy add-ons like air miles etc).
Barclaycard wrote to me a few months ago saying they were going to close my account unless I let them know otherwise. Not surprised as I'd not used it for 2 or 3 years but decided to keep it going just in case. Limit hasn't been reduced.
Maybe having all these unused but available credit lines costs them a load of capital in their capital stress test model. It should do, an easily foreseeable 1 in 100 year event would be a significant proportion of their customers sir whom they have no real transaction history suddenly beginning to use their credit card and then failing to pay it back.
whether it’s a realistic scenario is a different matter but if they ha e a large amount of cards out there that don’t make them any money but cost them money in the form of the cost of increased capital then makes sense to have a look at that.
I've got £300 to pay off on my Barclaycard, which I was going to do today. I haven't received a letter, but I'm now concerned that if do pay it off they might reduce my limit.
I have a limit of £8000, although I've never had over £1500 on there. But it's always good to have in case of an emergency. My credit score is 999 on Experian though.
I've just had Sainsbury's up my credit limit and at the same time up their interest rates as well.
Find it amusing that they bother as I've never got near my existing credit limit, I pay it off each month and my monthly income is now about a third of what it was two years ago.
£250 is a ludicrous limit. I only use a credit card for paying for holidays which I pay off as the bill becomes due purely for the safeguards it offers. If my bank reduce my current limit which I think now is £7,500 to something that doesn’t cover paying for a family holiday then I’ll just ditch it.
To an extent, I think banks are caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they have been told by the FCA that they must help customers in debt and not just cancel their credit cards. Yet on the other, they have been told by the FCA that they have a year to improve their operational resilience. (The latter, of course set against business failures during the Covid pandemic and the consequent and probably large up-coming business loan write-offs.)
Something has to give but I suspect this is a badly judged attempt by Barclays to keep the business operating on an even keel. It is likely to back-fire. Like elephants, customers never forget and if they have any sense, they will take not just their credit card business but also their account relationship elsewhere. (Don't forget that banks make a nice little turn on merchants' fees on credit cards and they'll no longer be getting those as the economy recovers.)
Barclays have made a number of poor decisions in recent years. Just think of the nifty little £26mn fine that the FCA imposed upon them last December for treating customers badly. At the end of the day, you just have to assume that Barclays actually aren't employing very many competent high-level staff. I suspect this is another bad decision that they will come to rue.
Here in the U.S., it seems that as long as you've been paying, whenever you approach your limit they raise it, so there's actually no such thing as a limit. Seems harsh cutting limits when cardholder's standing is good even if they don't use the card much. Supposing this weekend you were about to make an important purchase, or pay for college tuition or something, and you got one of these letters, you could be seriously screwed.
Having received the letter earlier this week, today I received a follow up text message. “ We've sent you a letter about your Barclaycard. Please read it carefully, it includes important information about your credit limit. Your Barclaycard team”. No Dear Sir or Kind regards etc.
I read the letter again and the reason my limit will be slashed from £4K to £250, is because they’ve reviewed the information they have on me. My salary and credit rating haven’t changed since I took the card out. It’s purely based on the fact that they don’t get any interest out of me. I won’t be sending payslips or bank statements, as they requested, so I’ll just take my custom elsewhere.
Out of interest do any of you having your credit limit reduced have Barcleys current accounts?
Yes. But as previously stated, although they have reduced my credit limit by around 25%, it was from a very high level (£21k) & so I personally am not that bothered by it.
Comments
I thought it may be that I've not used to for a few years?
But a card with a £250 limit isn't worth having, but by doing so gets the desired effect of you no longer being a customer.
I think I would have gone apoplectic if they had reduced it to £250 !!!
More like just bringing borrowing limits down in line with posters normal spending habits. If you have a credit limit of £15k & you use it a lot I expect that they will modify it a bit (like they did mine). If you have one below £5k & hardly use it I expect, as a pp said, that they dont really need you as a customer.
Limit hasn't been reduced.
whether it’s a realistic scenario is a different matter but if they ha e a large amount of cards out there that don’t make them any money but cost them money in the form of the cost of increased capital then makes sense to have a look at that.
I have a limit of £8000, although I've never had over £1500 on there. But it's always good to have in case of an emergency. My credit score is 999 on Experian though.
Find it amusing that they bother as I've never got near my existing credit limit, I pay it off each month and my monthly income is now about a third of what it was two years ago.
Letter received today
To an extent, I think banks are caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they have been told by the FCA that they must help customers in debt and not just cancel their credit cards. Yet on the other, they have been told by the FCA that they have a year to improve their operational resilience. (The latter, of course set against business failures during the Covid pandemic and the consequent and probably large up-coming business loan write-offs.)
Something has to give but I suspect this is a badly judged attempt by Barclays to keep the business operating on an even keel. It is likely to back-fire. Like elephants, customers never forget and if they have any sense, they will take not just their credit card business but also their account relationship elsewhere. (Don't forget that banks make a nice little turn on merchants' fees on credit cards and they'll no longer be getting those as the economy recovers.)
Barclays have made a number of poor decisions in recent years. Just think of the nifty little £26mn fine that the FCA imposed upon them last December for treating customers badly. At the end of the day, you just have to assume that Barclays actually aren't employing very many competent high-level staff. I suspect this is another bad decision that they will come to rue.
“ We've sent you a letter about your Barclaycard. Please read it carefully, it includes important information about your credit limit. Your Barclaycard team”.
No Dear Sir or Kind regards etc.
My salary and credit rating haven’t changed since I took the card out. It’s purely based on the fact that they don’t get any interest out of me.
I won’t be sending payslips or bank statements, as they requested, so I’ll just take my custom elsewhere.