How can I increase my credit limit?

[Rebecca611]

Hi, For three years we have opened and closed 3 different credit cards to move our debt from credit card to credit card by taking the 0% balance transfer, 0% puchase deals they have on offer. We pay the minimum repayment on time every month. It has proved helpful to move our debt around like this as we do not have to pay interest on our debt, however we have realised the following:
1. We cannot return to the credit cards we have used already to take up their new offers. They say that our accounts cannot be 'closed' even though we have closed them.
2. Our credit limit has not improved.
Does anyone know what we can do to improve our credit limit? And also does anyone know how long the credit card companies keep our accounts open for even though we have 'closed' them?
Thanks.

[bednobs]

in effect if you have asked to close the account, then it is closed. however, most companies will have a clause that if you close an account you cant open another one within a certain time frame (eg a year, or two years),so in that sense the account will still count when applying for another one, although it is closed

[vehelpfulguy]

Surely you are asking the wrong question.

You should be asking how can we stop living on credit.

If you pay the minimum each month then you must have paid hundreds (if not thousands) of pounds in interest charges.

And when they add the interest on each month, and you do not pay it off, then next month you pay interest on the interest.

And the month after that interest on the interest on the interest and so on.

But if you are happy to keep the banks rich and you in debt then just continue as you are.

[dzug]

By paying off some of the debt - ie pay more than the minimum.

All you've shown so far is that you can make minimum payments on a debt of �n. You have to show you can afford more than this.

[Rebecca611]

vehelpful guy ! ...NOT! Why don't you read my question and answer appropriately or don't even bother answering at all!!

[Ethel]

veryhelpfulguy

Rebecca is not paying any interest or charges. She is costing the banks money, not making them rich.

Rebecca - have you asked for the credit limits to be increased?

[Rebecca611]

Hi Ethel,
We've just changed to a new credit card and noticed that our credit limit had not increased. It says in the info booklet that there will be a credit limit revision in 6 months time.

Regards

[Ethel]

The credit card company is probably basing your limit on income.

Refusing to increase within the first 6 months is common practice.

I find MBNA give huge credit limits, but I don't know what special offers they have at the moment.

Be careful you don't run out of companies! RBS own an awful lot - tesco for example.

[sue11]

Hi Rebecca, it definately seems a clever way to get an interest free loan for a time, but I think that unfortunately the banks are cleverer than we are! As you probably know the only reason they offer interest free periods is to win our business and then they want to keep it, not to have us move our accounts around to avoid interest, which is why they stop people reopening them in such a short space of time (unless someone else knows better!). I pay my card off in full each month and recently while shopping around for a better deal I moved from Goldfish to Morgan Stanley which had a better cash back deal. I found out that they would not give me anything more than a �500 limit for the first 6 months. I had �10,000 on my old card and even though I offered to provide my Goldfish statements to prove my limit, they refused to revise it. In annoyance I told them I was going to close the account and I moved back to Goldfish, luckily I had not closed the account at that point!
You may be able to get one to revise the limit for you, if you offer to send previous statements that show you are easily able to pay off a higher limit, but I would not hold your breath as they probably have realised that you are continually moving around in order to try to avoid the interest payments. Best of luck though, oh yes one final word, I have heard that you can get a bad credit rating simply because of opening a lot of new accounts in a short time period.
Cheers Sue

[jennyp]

Just watch out for balance transfer fees - most of the credit card companies have got wise to the 'stoozers', and have slapped these fees on. The balance transter fee is often classed as 'new purchase', and so you pay interest on that before you pay off your old balance. (hope that makes sense)

[Mrs_Pegasus]

From my experience dzug is spot on. The more you pay each month the more your credit will increase. If you want a real laugh pay off the whole amount in one go and then they chuck credit at you!

[jennyp]

Good idea Mrs Pegasus, but I think the trend now with CC companies is that they reduce the Credit Limit on the cards!!!!!!!

[branchinghen]

get a land line if you dont already have one.