how irresponsible are the finance industry?

[cardi88]

i have just paid off a credit card in a lump sum and i just checked my account and my credit limit has been increased by �1,000 and just now when i checked my email ive had 4 emails from credit companies - which i have never heard of and my email address is complicated so not easily mail-shot have offered me credit facilities without application totalling �25,000!! it scares me how these finance companies find out from a major bank that im in a position to take out and pay back credit.

[WhiteBear]

hi cardi88 i would ignore those emails. what bank is it?? it might be a scam etc. i work for a bank and there is an email where you can forwarded it too, so they are aware of it.

i was also wondering did u apply for the credit card online? aslong u selected you do not want any of your details being passed over to a third party then you shouldnt be getting any of these. otherwise report ot or just delete it. x

[WhiteBear]

oh cardi i think i misread what you wrote. does that mean you have 25k credit limit??

you best speak to your branch manager or phone up your internet banking.

[Ethel]

They don't find out from the bank. If you get a copy of your credit report you will see all your credit cards are listed there, including the credit limit and the current balance.

That is where the information comes from.

Why would a bank give its competitors favourable information, especially in the current market?

[WhiteBear]

Ethel that is true, but some are part of the bank. but under a different company name.

[Oneeyedvic]

Ethel, they can't look at your credit file without your express permission first.

There is no lender that would offer you an unsecured loan of �25,000 without doing credit searches if they don't already have similar information. This is probably inaccurate advertising or an attempt at fraud.

As to responsibility - well would you argue that McDonalds are irresponsible for advertising as their product can cause obesity?

All finance companies need to advertise - and email marketing is pretty cheap.

[tigwig]

I think they are very irresponsible too. You can't go into a shop without being offered credit. A few months back after a really bad patch I had a meeting with my mortgage provider to reduce my monthly payments after explaining how we were struggling etc. After listening and agreeing to everything, she then said she would extend the years back on the mortgage and in the next breath said I could also get a further loan on the mortgage if we wanted to! I mean hello its getting loans on the mortgage in the first place that caused the problems! Had I not been more sensible she would have probably signed me up for another �10k!

[Whoever]

Some time ago I received letters from my two credit card providers telling me that they had increased my credit limit. I simply wrote to them both saying that I did not require a higher limit, asked them to reduce it back to my previous limit and not increase it again without my permission. Apart from anything else, if you credit limit is increased, it means that anybody stealing/cloning your card can spend more before warning bells start to ring with your credit card provider.