My wife got a letter from Co-Op Bank CC yesterday advising that they were reducing her credit limit from £5k to £500 effective immediately. Usual stuff cited and advised to check with credit ref agencies, etc.

My wife is religious about payment – she perhaps spends max £400 per month with balance always paid in full and hence no interest paid.

She has absolutely no other debt apart from our joint mortgage. We have no car loans and reasonably healthy bank balances, etc. I do have some credit card balances, but there is invariably a big delta between my balances and my credit limits. In fact credit limits have recently been increased without me requesting.

I then wondered if due to financial link to me through joint mortgage, 1 joint bank account, etc. I have on occasion paid a day or 2 late.

Any thoughts – I’m thinking that they make no money from her so her account is not worth having.

Issue could have been if we were on hols or trying to get back from somewhere at short notice, etc.

My wife is religious about payment – she perhaps spends max £400 per month with balance always paid in full and hence no interest paid.

She is of no value to them so they’re loathe to have credit capacity tied up with clients who dont pay interest on their credit.

Paying the credit card off in full and not having any debts usually means you have a low credit rating as you have no history of borrowing money then paying back.

I got done like this… after uni and avenge run up stupid debt I paid £2000 off my £4000 credit card bill. Tried to pay for something maybe a month later (Tickets to see Rancid!) and it was declined, my limit had been reduced to £2000. Fair enough they could argue that they were helping me dig my way out of debt, but they could have told me. At least the decent people at the shop held onto the last 2 Rancid tickets for me to go in and pay cash after payday.

Whats the point of this story? I like stories!

OTOH I just got made redundant and my credit card supplier- my old employer- responded by increasing my limit to £15000 (on one of the 3 cards I have with them). Credit card companies are awesome like that.

I am with Stoner on this.

The bank will have to hold capital for the credit limit that your wife had. She did not use this credit and they probably feel that they could use the capital elsewhere more profitably.

When they site credit reference companies thats a bit of a red herring, they do use these companies but they then use their own credit risk scores to decide whether or not to give you credit.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score#checker

I had a letter like this except closing my account. After I eventually got the £2.00 credit they owed me and the account was closed fully, I then got a letter saying “sorry you are leaving, please can you spare 5 minutes to tell us why?”!

I got a credit card when I opened bank account with new, better bank. Activated it, never used it. (not that I’ve ever had problems, I just didn’t use it)

Letter after a few months dated, say, 1st July. ‘Your credit card has not been used and as a responsible lender, we will close your account on the 20th July. However, your card will not work between now and then’

Yeah – thanks for the warning! (I guess it was in the reams of T&Cs)

She is of no value to them so they’re loathe to have credit capacity tied up with clients who dont pay interest on their credit.

Definitely, shes not spending any money and she doesn’t pay any interest.

If shes you’re wife and you trust her why not get a joint card?

Their card, their rules and wot stoner sed.

As an antidote to Horatio and A N Others feedback, when I tried to close one of my accounts they were keen to keep me on as a customer with a dormant account and has been for a year. Their reasoning being that I would in future be eligible for balance transfer offers. I may bear this in mind as it means I won’t need to go through a credit check again, however what I really want is 0% on new purchases but they’re only offering 3 months.

I had this 2 years ago with Barclaycard. A customer for 15 yrs they steadily increased my limit up to £6k without me asking. Then suddenly after missing a payment of £10 on a balance of £400 they reduced it down to £400 with the old credit reference scoring given as an excuse. Customer services refused to let me speak to someone who could actually make a decision and refused to give me any meaningful information. So i just paid off the £400 and left them. Their rules, but one less customer for life.

The bank will have to hold capital for the credit limit that your wife had.

Nah, none of them do that, they just bet it against other stuff they have. But thats the reasoning overall, yeah.

I’ve never had anything more than a £300 limit, wouldn’t have it any other way. IF I don’t have the cash for it I don’t buy it, but I do use it for cash back on fuel 🙂