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I thought taking out a free Avios Barclaycard would be a no brainer to supplement my British Airways Premium Plus Amex card where i can’t use Amex. Applied for the card uploaded some financial information and received my credit limit of £200! Not much scope there for collecting the 5000 bonus Avios for the initial 3month spend of £1000.
Fundamentally a £200 limit is pointless for any card and even more so for an Avios one. The application doesn’t address individuals who work under a privately owned limited company (different from self employed). However providing the requested suitable bank statements and a SA302 tax calculation should be sufficient information. I got nowhere with the online chat despite pointing out a 999 Experian credit score and an my existing five figure Amex credit limit. I just decided to cancel the card as it is pointless with a £200 limit. All seems to be just to much hard work to pursue further in an effort for 5000 bonus points and maybe another 5000 per annum maximum for non Amex spending. Perhaps Barclaycard are targeting customers who don’t pay their balanced monthly. Or maybe hoping to cash in on credit limit exceedance fines. A very poor experience all round for me.
£200 is not the limit.
£200 is what they give you as a ‘holding’ limit to allow them to print your card and get it out to you whilst you submit the extra address or income verification they want. Your limit is then uplifted.
You have failed to supply enought information to pass their KYC verification process so your application is effectively cancelled, except that instead of closing it they let you keep the £200 credit limit.
Unfortunately, we have seen multiple times that the people in the Philippines or whatever offshore centre deals with these cases has zero idea what HMRC documents should look like or what figures they should focus on.
Cheers Rob. I uploaded sufficient information as requested three times. Initially during the application process and twice following emails for me to do so again. After a bit of looking on the internet on how they determine credit limits it would appear credit rating is the key and Barclay card specifically mention Experian. So how someone with a perfect 999 Experian credit rating ends up with a £200 limit suggests their system is fundamentally flawed. There doesn’t appear to be anyway to escalate the problem either. Ultimately it is me who loses out though with an alternative route to additional Avios points lost.
The irony of the welcome to Barclay card email I received last night, having already cancelled the account via chat, was something to behold. A nice long list of perks which are useless with a £200 monthly credit limit. Which is less than £6.50 a day – pointless. The only thing that was useful in the welcome to Barclaycard email was the advice that the plastic used for the card was recyclable. Handy to know what bid to put it in!
Hate to break it to you but a 999 Experian credit score doesnt mean anything, also by cancelling you have screwed up any chances to get the 5k SUB
Why didnt you let the open banking feature do a self-check and get the application process to give you an increased credit limit approval within 60 seconds. Worked like a charm.Yep a shame about the lost 5000 points. Probably a bit hasty but I lost patience gong around in circles with various Barclaycard support options telling me nothing can be done but maybe in 6 months…. I agree on credit scores being near meaningless, although reading Barclaycard’s own online information you would think it is the overriding criteria for determining credit limits.
I didn’t even see an open banking feature when I did the application. I think a more disciplined approach to using the BA shopping portal will cover the potential loss of 5000 points. I am still amazed that Barclaycard can actually think anyone has any use for a card with a £200 credit limit. Being declined would make much more sense. At least I’m not one of the many existing customer who have had there credit limits cut to negligible levels for no apparent reason.
I’ll happily stick with the BA Premium Plus Amex card. I suspect in reality the Barclaycard would have only had limited use with a minimal impact om Avios point accumulation. I just need to start convincing a few more friends and family to get an Amex card via the referral points scheme.
I had exactly the same problem – despite already being a Barclays Premier Customer. I have sent proof of income (higher than their requirement, and proof of my 999 credit score). 6 months later I am still battling with them to increase my credit limit from £200. Barclaycard customer support is abysmal.
I had exactly the same problem – despite already being a Barclays Premier Customer. I have sent proof of income (higher than their requirement, and proof of my 999 credit score). 6 months later I am still battling with them to increase my credit limit from £200. Barclaycard customer support is abysmal.
It’s inappropriate to criticise Barclaycard for failing to offer you the quantum of unsecured credit to which you think you are entitled.
The supposed 999 credit ‘score’ is a complete irrelevance. Barclaycard has around 30% market share of credit cards in the UK as well as a significant presence in the banking and mortgage market.
It understands and has the most extensive database of the UK credit market (and on a totally different basis to those selling you a credit ‘score’) and the failure to offer you more credit will have a basis, even if they won’t share that with you. It is quite possible/probable that it has nothing to do with your personal circumstances but reflects experience with other people who share similar characteristics which can be quite ranging.
If you are unhappy with the decision by Barclays (and it is understandable why you might be) it would be better to try and understand why you are being rejected and correct that rather than haranguing the bank.
When the Avios cards were launched around two years ago, many very high earners were incredibly indignant about being rejected entirely for cards but the few facts they shared made it rather evident why they were rejected.
As a generality, Barclays is very wary of those with large unsecured credit lines (even with low utilisation), too many credit cards and discounts self employed income.
I had exactly the same problem – despite already being a Barclays Premier Customer. I have sent proof of income (higher than their requirement, and proof of my 999 credit score). 6 months later I am still battling with them to increase my credit limit from £200. Barclaycard customer support is abysmal.
It’s inappropriate to criticise Barclaycard for failing to offer you the quantum of unsecured credit to which you think you are entitled.
The supposed 999 credit ‘score’ is a complete irrelevance. Barclaycard has around 30% market share of credit cards in the UK as well as a significant presence in the banking and mortgage market.
It understands and has the most extensive database of the UK credit market (and on a totally different basis to those selling you a credit ‘score’) and the failure to offer you more credit will have a basis, even if they won’t share that with you. It is quite possible/probable that it has nothing to do with your personal circumstances but reflects experience with other people who share similar characteristics which can be quite ranging.
If you are unhappy with the decision by Barclays (and it is understandable why you might be) it would be better to try and understand why you are being rejected and correct that rather than haranguing the bank.
When the Avios cards were launched around two years ago, many very high earners were incredibly indignant about being rejected entirely for cards but the few facts they shared made it rather evident why they were rejected.
As a generality, Barclays is very wary of those with large unsecured credit lines (even with low utilisation), too many credit cards and discounts self employed income.
At the risk of sounding simplistic, sometimes it can be just the case of data matching issues within their own systems. I have a mortgage with Barclays + Premier Bank and initially got declined to the card due to insufficient data to validate my income (???). After a couple of months I arranged an appointment at the branch and when I provided all the docs everything went through ok.
@RV your comment re having a mortgage plus a Premier account is possibly a reason (as in has been admitted by the bank previously) why they are being funny about a credit card account. New, non Barclays customers appear to be treated more favourably.
Yep, even Rob hinted that for a customer who is already premier and using Barclays products, there’s very little they can cross sell more, so the online system was more favourable to new customers.
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