Credit card limits

[Cliphead]

I've been reading somewhere that card companies have been cutting card limits for customers with an excellent credit history. I also seem to remember that curbs were being introduced to stop card companies increasing limits without first asking the customer.

I have two credit cards I use occasionally for travel, car hire etc. Just checked the online accounts and both have had their limits increased sometime in the past few days but I haven't had any notification of this.

Anybody else seeing an increase / decrease recently?

[CheeseSlice]

I've been reading somewhere that card companies have been cutting card limits for customers with an excellent credit history. I also seem to remember that curbs were being introduced to stop card companies increasing limits without first asking the customer.

I have two credit cards I use occasionally for travel, car hire etc. Just checked the online accounts and both have had their limits increased sometime in the past few days but I haven't had any notification of this.

Anybody else seeing an increase / decrease recently?

My HSBC credit card limit dropped from about 6K to 2K over the past year or so.
I hardly ever use it, so maybe they took note of this and reduced it.

[northernladuk]

My HSBC credit card limit dropped from about 6K to 2K over the past year or so.
I hardly ever use it, so maybe they took note of this and reduced it.

WHS. I had one reduced by exactly the same but sure it wasn't HSBC but I never used it. The ones I actually use however keep getting raised regularly by decent amounts without any prompting ever couple of months. Some of them are getting ridiculous now but I don't intend to use that much but can't be bothered to ring them up and stop them.

[minestrone]

My limit has went up 500 quid each year for the last 10 years, last time I used it was 2003.

[Platypus]

WHS. I had one reduced by exactly the same but sure it wasn't HSBC but I never used it. The ones I actually use however keep getting raised regularly by decent amounts without any prompting ever couple of months. Some of them are getting ridiculous now but I don't intend to use that much but can't be bothered to ring them up and stop them.

I thought they had to write to you these days, advising you of the increase and with an option to reduce back down to the previous credit limit.

[d000hg]

I thought they had to write to you these days, advising you of the increase and with an option to reduce back down to the previous credit limit.

But refusing means some awful trip through customer service.

[centurian]

Excellent credit history = tulip customer - you can't make any money out of them.

[Zippy]

I thought they had to write to you these days, advising you of the increase and with an option to reduce back down to the previous credit limit.

The usually slip it into your statement

[Sausage Surprise]

AMEX £14k to £1.8k
Halifax £10k to £5k

in the last 6 months

[Clippy]

I used to have an MBNA credit card with a ridiculous limit which seemed to get bumped up by them willy nilly.

I hardly ever used it so, with that in mind, early on during the recession they cancelled the card without warning and sent me a letter afterwards.

I have a Nat West credit card which, again, I rarely use and they wrote to me in the summer advising me they would cancel it if I didn't make a transaction on it by November.

I used it before then as you never know when you may need it.

My main cards, AMEX & Barclaycard are running as per pre-recession limits but I imagine, if I called up and asked, I would be given a spending increase.

I must admit, I did get the impression a few months ago that perhaps credit card companies are being a bit more flexible as I noticed a return of some balance transfer offers.

BTW, customers with good credit histories (me) are still beneficial to credit card companies as, although they probably settle their bills in full each month, they generate income from the transactions they make.