To be pissed that Barclaycard decreased my credit limit?

I get cashback on my barclaycard.

Not often a problem. Yes it’s not accepted everywhere but I have other cards as back up. As it is I’ve got near £300 in Cashback this year from using it. £300 of free money? Yes please.

And find that no one accepts it.

HPpened to me with a natwest credit card once. Far forward a few years when finances were tough and I'd gone from paying it off in full every month to only doing minimum repayments & they increased my limit!

Tell me how that's responsible lending.?

You aren't using it enough to make them any money or not going close enough to the limit for them to think the limit is appropriate. It's a compliment really 🙂

I had a letter on Friday saying Lloyds were doing the same with my MasterCard. Dropped from several thousand to £500. I regularly spend over £1000 per month, never missed a payment. I have a 6 figure salary and my credit rating has been excellent for years. There are no markers on my credit files, I have signed up to two to check. It is not my only credit card, but I want a non-Amex one for flexibility. I haven't had any changes in credit limits or anything else that anyone on this thread has said might impact.

I am - to use an MN buzzword - raging! And won't be letting it go until I get a proper explanation and reinstatement, as having a credit limit slashed like this may easily impact future credit requirements.

The reason I don’t keep money is my credit current account is for security. I think they are more open to scammers. It does not pay any interest either. It not a case of paying interest or borrow. I put all my big spends on credit card and they pay it off each month when I get paid. I find it easier to budget this way. If I had a breakdown or needed to stay overnight the credit card would be used. I think a lot of people use a credit card this way.

Happened to my colleague who wasn’t using his very much.

I think you can go online and adjust your credit limit upwards again. (I was able to do that in just a few clicks)

They will look at activity on the card and say your limit is £15,000 but you only ever use the card up to £8,000 they will reduce it. - standard practice for card companies to manage their book. It costs them to hold limits which aren’t being used ( funding costs )

my other credit card actually gave me an increase over twice its limit just about three weeks ago. if another provider has upped the credit available to you, maybe they feel the total credit you have is beyond a sensible limit.

Tbh maybe you should keep some money in your current account for emergencies?

Why would you rely on borrowed money via a credit card for emergencies, when you have your own money, presumably in savings, that you could be drawing on?

If you never pay any interest then the bank are extending credit to you with no benefit at all for the bank, they don't just do it out of the goodness of their hearts 😂
They'd rather lend the money to someone who sometimes pays some interest in return.

@BusyGreyCat Phone them up. Tell them to reinstate your original credit limit.

They do this because you aren't using the credit they have given you so they need to appear to be offering responsible lending. However the total available credit you have and your utilisation of it, impacts your credit score. Tell them to fix it.

Keeping your utilisation low helps improve your score. Say you had £1600 in credit card debt across 4 cards of £2.5k limit each, you pay it off monthly but your utilisation is 16%. Great.
They all drop their limit to £1k because you never spend more than £400 on each, your utilisation is now 40% - not great.

Marbles do it to me every couple of years, they always reinstate in and then increase it a few months later. They do have a business reason for doing it but most people just accept the decrease.

They do review the credit limits from time to time. My Barclaycard went up last month to £13000. I've never owed more than £3k on it so why they think I need more is anybody's guess.

That may well be why. Barclays are now uncomfortable with the level of credit extended to you; so they’ve reduced your limit in response.

The letter is correct, it is about a change to your credit file, just not one you’d perceive as negative.

It happened to me once; my credit limit was decreased by 50%. I rang and said, I'd prefer tp keep it at the previous level because it was always only insurance against something dreadful happening on holiday. They reinstated the previous ceiling.

I've had it done to me because I never went near the credit limit and paid off every month. I think it might also be partly for your security/their liability if the card is lost or stolen. If you're not using it up to the limit, they reduce it so that a thief can't run up as big a bill.

When mine was reduced I called them as I wanted to use the card for security on a big purchase which was at the old credit limit. They just popped it back up again for a bit.

happened to me with a different bank after going part time and then again when I was on my second mat leave. no warning, just a letter.

I take it you've checked your credit score OP? If not, it may be worth doing, in case there's anything dodgy going on in the background that you're not aware of.

TSB did this to me a few years ago.

They were helping me apparently.

but they haven't taken it away totally... the OP says they don't use it and when they do they pay it off... so they are not taking away their card they are just reducing the limit.

i also have an 'emergency' credit card.. it has a zero balance.. i never use it, it just sits in my purse.. i've never had the limit decreaded in all the years i've had it! infact ethey keep putting it up?

I just wonder what you would use for instant emergencies money.

I am in the same position and the reason I would need to keep it is for emergencies. I like to have a big safety net to cope with unexpected.i don’t keep any money in my current account so if i was ever stranded i would us the ccard.

what does it matter if you are no where near the limit and always pay it off?

Just message them and ask for it to be put back to what it was, if you always pay your bill on time then they won't mind.

My credit card (Natwest) have been doing this for at least 20 years... I get near to the limit or make a very large purchase and they put it up, I don't go near the limit and pay it off monthly, and they reduce it. It's not a punishment, and given that my limit is about 5 times more than I ever put on there in a month (and I pay it off monthly) I really don't care about it. If you do care, just speak to them.