Had a bit of a shock today when the wife rang me from the supermarket carpark to tell me that our joint credit card had been declined. For the last I don't know, 2 years or so, it had a credit limit of just over £10k. We pay it off every month.
As you can imagine with a £10k+ limit and paying it off every month, you wouldn't expect to go into Sainsburys and have your card declined when making a weekly shop, unless you go all supermarket sweep and pile up a couple of trollies with spirits and electricals. She does waste a lot of money on useless tat or mountains of food that end up in the bin, but a £9k supermarket shop would have been excessive, even for her.
So it turns out that yesterday the credit limit was reviewed, and instantly slashed from over £10k to £1350. Apparently a 'letter has been sent out' at some point yesterday, but obviously we haven't received it yet.
Now, don't get me wrong. I know that legally they are perfectly within their rights to do this. In the T&Cs there will be something along the lines of, we can adjust your credit at any time. It just seems to me that when making such a drastic change (~90% reduction) better customer service would be informing the customer of the event happening beforehand, to avoid the embarrassment of being stood at the checkout like a muppet.
Again, I'm not naive enough to think that paying our bill every month makes us a 'good' customer. It doesn't, because we aren't earning them money in interest. But if we clearly have no history of 'pulling a fast one' or racking up huge debts, why slash the credit instantly - why not give 7 days warning to say "from xx date your credit limit will be adjusted to £xxxx"? This would avoid getting such a shock when trying to use the card.
Credit is a priviledge and not a right - but it is not so much the fact that the limit has been adjusted, more the manner of it and lack of notice that I find annoying.
edit: Update in post #40
As you can imagine with a £10k+ limit and paying it off every month, you wouldn't expect to go into Sainsburys and have your card declined when making a weekly shop, unless you go all supermarket sweep and pile up a couple of trollies with spirits and electricals. She does waste a lot of money on useless tat or mountains of food that end up in the bin, but a £9k supermarket shop would have been excessive, even for her.
So it turns out that yesterday the credit limit was reviewed, and instantly slashed from over £10k to £1350. Apparently a 'letter has been sent out' at some point yesterday, but obviously we haven't received it yet.
Now, don't get me wrong. I know that legally they are perfectly within their rights to do this. In the T&Cs there will be something along the lines of, we can adjust your credit at any time. It just seems to me that when making such a drastic change (~90% reduction) better customer service would be informing the customer of the event happening beforehand, to avoid the embarrassment of being stood at the checkout like a muppet.
Again, I'm not naive enough to think that paying our bill every month makes us a 'good' customer. It doesn't, because we aren't earning them money in interest. But if we clearly have no history of 'pulling a fast one' or racking up huge debts, why slash the credit instantly - why not give 7 days warning to say "from xx date your credit limit will be adjusted to £xxxx"? This would avoid getting such a shock when trying to use the card.
Credit is a priviledge and not a right - but it is not so much the fact that the limit has been adjusted, more the manner of it and lack of notice that I find annoying.
edit: Update in post #40
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