Credit cards can be a useful way to borrow money quickly and flexibly. However, people can sometimes find themselves hampered by their credit limits.
These credit card holders will often find they have old credit limits, which may have been set some time ago and have not been raised despite the card holder’s rising income and improved credit rating built up through the years. This situation is becoming more common since the credit crunch, as banks have become wary of automatically increasing credit limits, partly because they do not want to increase their exposure to new lending but mainly because of the bad reputation these automatic rises in credit limits attracted.
However, credit limits can be raised on an existing account with little effort, usually by a telephone call to the main credit card help line. The operator may have some authority to raise the credit limit, but it will more often be the case that the card holder will need to speak with the supervisor or customer retention officer. The credit card limit may be raised temporarily to make room for a new purchase, and if that’s not sufficient, then a temporary overdraft in the credit limit may be granted.
Sometimes the card holder’s current credit card account won’t allow the requested credit limit, but a new credit card account with the same bank will. If this is the case, it’s a good idea to check whether the new card will charge a higher annual fee, as many gold and platinum cards do and these tend to be the next steps when someone wants to raise their credit limit.
If the current bank’s credit limit will not or cannot be raised sufficiently, this can be a problem but not an insurmountable one and the answer, of course, is a new credit card with a different bank. There are a number of credit cards that specifically allow for a higher credit limit. These are often prestige cards, such as gold, silver, or platinum cards, which offer a greater level of service for a higher fee. They also tend to be restricted to people who earn a high wage.
