Barclay you jealous *@!&

[Mannymal]

I'll just wait and see. My applications were not on a whim, I wanted certain cards because the benefits they provide make financial sense to me. And I applied to them in a short period of time because I didn't want to spread many inquiries through a year. Barclay's does not offer products that compete with the TL's I got approved for, so its not like I could have asked them for more business. I do understand that their risk management system could be sensitive to this kind of thing because it could be a sign that someone is preparing to rack up debt and then leave them in the dust. But if you have been a diligent customer of theirs, that should be the first consideration before they leave YOU out in the dust because a computer algorithm flagged you. 

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@FinStar wrote:

Bottom line, while you can disagree with their policies, it is what it is.  If you present any sort of risk to them while having a tradeline with them, it is within their right to take action - like it or not.  There's lots of individuals who don't particularly like Barclays and that's OK.  As mentioned earlier, that's just how they operate.  No one forces an individual to go rack up inquiries or add several new accounts in such a short time frame.  I've had up to 5 CC's with them (combined CLs $48K) in the span of 10 years - in fact just closed 2 not long ago and reallocated CLs to a couple others, I have yet to encounter any issues.  Of course, I don't do "app sprees" rack up needless inquiries or do anything that places me on any lender's radar for any AA.  Just common sense.

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[longtimelurker]

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@Mannymal wrote:

. But if you have been a diligent customer of theirs, that should be the first consideration before they leave YOU out in the dust because a computer algorithm flagged you. 

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It depends what being a diligent customer means.   They are not interested in loyalty, just in profitability vs risk.   So if you have had an account for a while, and always paid on time, that doesn't gain extra points, because that is what you are meant to do.    If you charge very large amounts, and pay interest etc, then I would expect that they are less likely to take AA at the same rate.

ANd as a few others have posted, people's experience varies.   I have opened lots of TLs after getting a Barclays' card, and no AA.   However, my initial CLs were MUCH lower than any of my other cards (in two of the three cases where I got Barclay cards) which may have been their way, given my profile, of mitigating their risk sufficiently so that they didn't need to worry about new accounts being opened.

[Mannymal]

Good post. I don't want to get ahead of myself full of INTERNET RAGE before anything has even happened with them. I will wait and see. As for my usage, I only use and intend to use the card for zero percent finance Apple purchases and nothing else, as the APR is through the roof and it really has no other benefits or rewards. So maybe they see someone like me as more than a nuisance than a diligent customer. 

[Fico2Go]

ANd as a few others have posted, people's experience varies.   I have opened lots of TLs after getting a Barclays' card, and no AA.   However, my initial CLs were MUCH lower than any of my other cards (in two of the three cases where I got Barclay cards) which may have been their way, given my profile, of mitigating their risk sufficiently so that they didn't need to worry about new accounts being opened.

I am in this category too.  Just opened a Barclay with small CL compared to the others. 
So far so good.  But if they give me a hard time I'm not at all reluctant to take Barclay off my list. 

[sillykitty1]

I really think Barclay's AA's are really overblown on this forum.  Not applying for anything for a year, 6 months is completely unnecessary IMO if the only reason is fear of a Barclays AA.

Look at the OP's signature ... $100K credit ... "tons of store cards".  No idea about the entire profile.  How much of it was post Barclay approval?  What's AAOA, income?  That number of TL's and total CL's is very different than the average credit consumer.

As an example of Barclay's not being overly sensitive, here's my experience:

Barclay Arrival 9/13 - $5,000 (first app/approval at the time of app only showing 1 CC - $320 CL)

Chase Marriott 9/13 - $6,000

Chase CSP 9/13 - $5,000

Amex BCP 9/13 - $2,000

Cap One CLI 9/13 - $2,500

OCCU 12/13 - $15,000

(PenFed 12/13 - $13,000) not reporting to TU yet

Barclay's SP's me every 2 weeks or so, they can see 4 new TL's and $30,000 in new credit, and I have not received an AA.  I'm sure I'm not unique.  I'm sure there are many others like me, we just don't start threads declaring "Added TL's - No AA from Barclays"

[iHackerSix]

They lowered my limit years ago after I took $100.00 cash advance from there card. I left without my wallet on foot to buy some milk and bread from the corner store by my house but they didn't take credit cards so I used there ATM. Barclays then slashed my limit from 3,000 to 1,400 !!! I'm not fond of Barclays for that reason so I closed the account shortly after.

[enharu]

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@brianjb wrote:

I have a Barclay Card that I got for the intention of making an Apple store purchase.  I put $1100 on it, getting the 12 months with no interest.  I made my first $100 payment on Jan 1.

I got a letter in the mail this week that said they are lowering my limit to $1350.  They had a few reasons.  One of them was that I opened new tradelines or increased my available credit elsewhere.  ugh.

I'm irritated, because this decrease in my credit line makes the ratio so much more worse.  I know it was already bad when I had $1100 out of $2000.  Not I have roughly $1000 out of $1350 (after my payment).

Has this happened to others?

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like others said, barclays is extremely new account sensitive. then again, it also depends on your overall credit profile, including your utilization, inquiries, and the number of new accounts we are talking about. I've opened about 10 new accounts within the same year as getting my Barclays card. No AA, and even got a small auto CLI.

This may not be relevant to you, but If you have any derogs on file, don't go on a spree. Simple as that. And if you want to go on an app spree, do NOT utilize any 0% promos. No lender likes it when a customer opens a number of new accounts and starts dragging balances on them. It's just risky behavior. And if you want to utilize a 0% promo, then don't go on a spree. 1 constantly maxed out account is bad enough as it is.

And if they quoted a reason about you increasing your credit elsewhere, that may mean you have already reached the credit to income threshold for Barclays. For your income level (and current credit profile), they may feel that xxx total CL is appropriate for you, and that anything higher is risky. What this probably means is that as long as your income and credit profile remains the same, and if you increase your CL elsewhere, they will lower theirs to compensate for it. No real way to get around that except to increase your income, or to let time do its work.

Sorry to hear about this.

[drkaje]

I get that people would be upset but Barclay is well known for this practice.

It's kind of like my being irritated by Chase's HP for CLI policy. I should have chosen a different company that App.

[chwebb1]

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@sillykitty1 wrote:

I really think Barclay's AA's are really overblown on this forum.  Not applying for anything for a year, 6 months is completely unnecessary IMO if the only reason is fear of a Barclays AA.

Look at the OP's signature ... $100K credit ... "tons of store cards".  No idea about the entire profile.  How much of it was post Barclay approval?  What's AAOA, income?  That number of TL's and total CL's is very different than the average credit consumer.

As an example of Barclay's not being overly sensitive, here's my experience:

Barclay Arrival 9/13 - $5,000 (first app/approval at the time of app only showing 1 CC - $320 CL)

Chase Marriott 9/13 - $6,000

Chase CSP 9/13 - $5,000

Amex BCP 9/13 - $2,000

Cap One CLI 9/13 - $2,500

OCCU 12/13 - $15,000

(PenFed 12/13 - $13,000) not reporting to TU yet

Barclay's SP's me every 2 weeks or so, they can see 4 new TL's and $30,000 in new credit, and I have not received an AA.  I'm sure I'm not unique.  I'm sure there are many others like me, we just don't start threads declaring "Added TL's - No AA from Barclays"

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Same story for me too. I apped for AMEX approximately 11 June 2013, and before my AMEX reported, I apped for my Barclaycard Ring on 28 June. I was approved for Ring after recon. The AMEX reported before my first statement on my Ring cut. I've used the cash advance feature once I think.

After that, I opened:

Chase Freedom, 9 August 2013 (closed 1-2 months later)

Citi Dividend, 9 August 2013

Discover It, 27 August 2013

Bank of America Better Balance: 13 December 2013

AMEX Blue Sky, 1 January 2014 (Not reported yet)

I also applied for a CLI with Discover earlier this month, and it was a HP.

I've also closed two other accounts since I got my Ring. I've not heard anything from them. I'll probably app for Arrival late this year (I'll garden until then).

[Duncanrr]

I called them this morning before I submitted my online application for mortgage refi to let them know.  Dont want to scare the children   (Instant approval on refi btw.  Still need to go through numerous hoops to get it finalized).