[regas01]

I've just had a request to increase my credit card limit declined. Up to January 2016 it was £10,500 - a figure which had been steadily increased by Tesco without me requesting it. In January 2016 I realised that the figure had risen well beyond my needs, and requested that it be decreased to £3000. Subsequently, I realised that this figure was too low, but was told I couldn't request an increase back up for six months. In the meantime, as a result, I got surcharged in one month for exceeding the limit in the space between one bill closing and the direct debit being paid. This was the first time in 10 years of having a Tesco Credit Card that I have gone over my limit in this way. Every bill has been paid in full by direct debit every month. When I phoned today to request an increase of my limit back up to £5000 (half the limit I had in January) it was declined. The operator was unable to give me any reason for this. My gross income is unchanged, and my credit history (barring the one surcharge) is completely unblemished. I am completely dumfounded. I now have to wait until January 2017 to re-apply. Should I just go to another credit card company?

[ScottW]

Hi 

Thanks for getting in touch, and I'm sorry about the experience you've had trying to increase the limit on your card. I understand that this must've been confusing as nothing has changed in your income and credit history. We do take into account other cards or borrowing that may feature on your credit file, which may have influenced our decision to decline the increase. In these cases, we advise to check the credit file for any other changes which may have had an impact.

We can certainly look into this for you though, to see if there's anything else we can find out. If you could send me and @TristanS a private message with your name, DOB and postcode and format it A B 1 2 C D and we can check for you.

[regas01]

Hi Tristan. Thanks for your reply. After my angry posting I decided to go back to customer services to make a formal complaint. This got an immediate response - the complaint was logged but the adviser looked into into it immediately and promised a return phone call the next day. It transpired that the problem was nothing to do with my credit history, but that I had requested an increase in my limit before six months of the change, been declined on that rule, and disqualified myself from another application for another six months. This hadn't been explained to me initially, nor had I been offered any other route to get the limit increased by the first adviser I spoke to. By contrast, second time around I was quickly referred to staff who checked my credit details and agreed an immediate increase. As a further gesture of goodwill my surcharge was refunded. I think I can reasonably say that I've had a mixed experience of Tesco customer support on this occasion, but the final outcome was exactly what I wanted and I'm happy to pay tribute to the two advisers who dealt with me once I had escalated the issue to a complaint (now withdrawn). Thanks also for your offer of support. Cheers