Barclays Soft Inquiries??

[halos24]

Hey every one,

I opened the Barclays Itunes Visa in Sept and love it due to the Itunes rewards (have an Ipad and  Iphone) so it works great!  I PIF every month so far, except for the 2 balance transfers I made on it since they offered me 0% for 6 months.  Any way, I noticed in looking at a refreshed copy of my EX report they are doing soft inquiries this month (they pulled TU for the card).  Are they looking for other offers or just keeping tabs on what I am doing what other accounts? 

[My2cents]

Good question.  I was wondering the same thing about HSBC, they have softed me the past 8 months, and have the nerve not to give me a cli, and I know that my

fico numbers look pretty good.  Anyway.

Ole My2cents

[haulingthescoreup]

You're not going to be able to get a for-sure answer, unless we have a member here who is a higher-up at Barclays and is willing to chat.

As a rule, CCC's soft cardholders periodically to see if they're doing something bizarre, or just getting behind on their other accounts, so that they can get a heads-up on possible defaults. The lenders who are good about giving CLI's and making new offers check to see if you're a good candidate for some love. All the rest is pretty much guesswork on our parts.

[Anonymous]

I am sure allot more CCC will be sifting and watching customers, more so new ones... With the economy the way it is and more people are filling for Bankruptcy. They probably are mad at the banks and get as much credit as possible then max everything out before they file Bankruptcy... Seen it done, they always look at it as free junk...

[smallfry]

When I had a Barclays card I noticed that they softed me every month on TU. They were the first who reduced my credit limit for not enough monthly usage although I did use the card nearly every month. Dumped 'em as soon as they cut my limit.

[Anonymous]

+1. They softed me continuously for the last 2 years... 2 months ago, cut CL from 1.5k to 1k without sending me notice for 3 weeks.  PIF, called them and spoke to credit analyst.. he said I had much higher debt than I did when I applied and they wanted to limit exposure (true, understandable). I explained to him I bought a house, furnished, etc, and also had pay increases.. asked HHI and purpose of increased debt, told him, and explained I had $15k Navy, 10k penfed, etc etc that I would gladly use instead.  He put me back to $1.5k and lowered my APR.

Sometimes it just takes a call.  We're all human, and some of the things we do may look easy to explain to us, but from a creditor standpoint at 10,000 feet may need a bit of explanation.  

Good luck everyone!

[smc733]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

+1. They softed me continuously for the last 2 years... 2 months ago, cut CL from 1.5k to 1k without sending me notice for 3 weeks.  PIF, called them and spoke to credit analyst.. he said I had much higher debt than I did when I applied and they wanted to limit exposure (true, understandable). I explained to him I bought a house, furnished, etc, and also had pay increases.. asked HHI and purpose of increased debt, told him, and explained I had $15k Navy, 10k penfed, etc etc that I would gladly use instead.  He put me back to $1.5k and lowered my APR.

Sometimes it just takes a call.  We're all human, and some of the things we do may look easy to explain to us, but from a creditor standpoint at 10,000 feet may need a bit of explanation.  

Good luck everyone!

---

Good point, and lets also not forget that so much of this is algorithmically determined by a computer...

[halos24]

Since Barclays at least for me pulled TU only can I ask would the same apply or assume they are checking what I am doing if they are soft pulling on EX?  That is why I thought it was strange because the soft pulling was not being done on TU.  

[Anonymous]

they can soft you on any 3 of the bureaus that they like...and its mainly because they need to protect their interest and just like every other bank they will cld you in a heartbeat. they cld me from 8k to 5.25k because of my high bal with them. and some high balances with other cards as well a few months ago. only good thing i can say about barclay is if in the event you are cld's once you pay off your balances you can call the credit dept and they will reinstate or even raise your limit higher . so dont fret too much. they dont suck like bofa.  BofA will str8 close your account and tell you to have a good life without them at the drop of a dime

[halos24]

Ok, that makes sense.  I did do a balance transfer on the card for $750 and the cl is $1k.  I just made a $400 payment so my uti can go down and I should be able to PIF by next month.  I will make sure and stay on top of the uti.