Credit card for widow

[HalfasleepChrisintheMorning]

My Dad died recently and the credit cards were in his name, with my mum as a second cardholder.
I have applied for a new credit card in my Mum’s name but the limit is £2k. She is extremely financially comfortable but obviously doesn’t have her own credit file. She now owns 2 houses and a business as well as having an investment portfolio.
She only wants the large credit limit (maybe £10k? to be able to pay for holidays and it would be paid off immediately. She likes to use credit card for big purchases due to the extra protections.
She has tens of thousands in her current account! How do I get her a credit card with a better limit?
I could use my credit card for holidays and she could transfer me the money- just a bit worried that HMRC may question why she’s transferring me large sums! Or would this be fine if we just keep a log that it’s to pay for a holiday?
I have power of attorney for her if that’s relevant but she still has mental capacity. The POA can be used now though with her permission.

She can pay the deposit in the credit card and the rest on her debit card. She will have protection for the full amount on the credit card.

She will need to build up a credit file for herself to prove that she can make repayments. Start with the smaller limit, use and then pay back, and you’ll probably find that within a couple of months the card company will reach out themselves to offer a higher limit.

A friend of mine got a catalogue ordered £60 of stuff and paid it off - this went on for a few months.
Then ordered a credit card and puts her shopping on it and again pays off in full.

Now has £8,000 credit limit.

She needs a credit file.

Agree with others, start small and build up. Your mum has £2k limit. Use it for everyday items like grocery shopping and fuel and pay it off in full each month. The credit card company will soon increase her credit limit and other companies will also offer higher limits.

I'd normally caveat this with warnings about using credit etc but sounds like your mum is savvy and careful but always be sensible as things can quickly get out of hand.

Agreed, it won’t take long for them to agree to a higher limit.

Have you applied for a credit card from her own bank? If she has plenty of money in her current account and investments, they might offer a higher limit because they can take those things into account instead of just her credit history.

I had a John Lewis Partnership Mastercard for a long time, and when they changed providers my limit was slashed (for no reason). It didn't bother me for a while, but then I too wanted to buy something expensive with the protection a credit card can give. I applied for an increase in my limit, which was denied with no reason given (again), so I applied for a card from my own bank. Within seconds they offered me a £10,000 limit. But they could see my salary was paid into the account regularly, I had some savings with them, I'd never been overdrawn etc. I always pay the balance off in full every month so the interest rate didn't matter to me.

Your mother could also consider sitting down with a wealth manager from her bank if she's going to have significant assets with them. She might qualify for a "premier" type of current account which will give her a named person she can call.

if she needs to make a big purchase, then pre-load the card - eg. if she wants to pay for a 4k holiday, then she puts 2k on the card in advance, so she now has a credit card balance of -2k, now she can spend the 4k she needs to.

Then she just needs to call them after a few months and ask for a larger limit.

AMEX were great for me on this - they monitored my spending and automatically increased it quite frequently.