6

not dev.

HSBC rejected my request to have my credit card limit increased. I call to ask why and after 38 minutes of holding she comes back and says the system automatically rejected your request because of "poor account conduct" and "unusual activity.".....

w h a t t h e F U C K does that mean???

She was unhelpful in explaining what that meant, and I'm honestly baffled. I've always paid my cc balance in full every month, never went over my limit (in fact, utilisation was almost always below 30%), always had enough balance in my account to cover any Direct Debits, Standing Orders and other purchases (I don't even have overdraft), and my credit score is practically excellent.

Then she proceeds to say that I can try applying again in 3-6 months but she can't guarantee approval. HAH as if. They can suck it.

I moved away from Lloyd's bank because they were shit, and now this. Are all banks this shit?

I sent them a complaint and they said they'd get back to me in 5 working days... let's see.

Comments
  • 7
    It's probably there standard line for "I got no idea, the system just doesn't like you today, and I'm not in the mood to help you. Call back in 6 months and make it someone else's problem"

    But... you know, they can't exactly say that now can they.
  • 8
    @C0D4 personally I would have more respect for such an honest answer :)

    Problem with these nonsense answers is that its all algorithms and no human decisions and while computers are good at finding patterns they are not always good at spotting false positives.

    It could be almost anything.

    Bit as you said, you rarely use up your credit, so increasing it could be suspicious, if you never come close to the limit, why increase, are you planing to go way over and disappear?

    Any inconsistency or change in behavior can be the trigger.
  • 5
    You probably bought something online with a VPN and detected you somewhere else. Banks are that stupid
  • 2
    Soon they are going to factor in search history, social platform usage, and other activities in your credit score. China is offering to provide this system to the world. So any political views you ever shared will be held against you. I wish I was making this up. My guess is they might already be factoring this in in some form. Credit systems are private, just like social media platforms, so they feel like they can do anything they want. Welcome to woke credit. They are already doing this with job searches. Those who subscribe to this philosophy (and perhaps even when they don't) are using services that factor in these things.
  • 0
    Why won't you use debit instead?
  • 1
    If your utilisation is always below 30% why do you need a credit increase? This might be a red flag to the bank, they might think you're going on a spending spree.

    Switching is so easy you can try another bank. Metro Bank and Nationwide always seems to do well in customer satisfaction surveys.
  • 1
    Well, on the other end of the spectrum we have banks that convince customers to take loans even when they know the customers' finances are not great so they yet trapped in debt for the rest of their lives and their children's lives. If they really can't pay back, the banks simply go crying to government daddy for a bailout with taxpayer money.
  • 1
    @Voxera So they won't increase it for those with high utilisation due to risk of default, and they wont increase it for those with low utilisation because they don't need it, then no one gets credit.

    @iiii made that mistake once, never again! CCs offer much greater protection for consumers. If anything goes wrong with a CC transaction, it's the bank's problem as much as it is the seller's.

    @nibor My utilisation is _almost_ always below 30%, but on the rare occasion that it does exceed it, I don't want my credit score to be affected so I want to increase it. Also it's nice to have a safety buffer.
  • 1
    @bananaerror have you checked your credit record with someone like credit karma? That might highlight something that is causing HSBC to turn you down. Personally I don't get credit cards with my main bank, I get better deals with cashback or rewards and use these + pay everything each month.
  • 2
    @nibor I have checked it on Experian. The score is over 900 (and has been for almost two years actually) and there doesn't seem to be any negative records.

    But yeah, next time I'll just get another credit card from elsewhere. It's just nice to have one card with a higher limit than two with lower limits on both, but alas.
  • 1
    @bananaerror its just a guess but a customer that is constantly using a large part of their credit while still are never late to settle is a customer that will likely keep being good in settling and have a reasonable need to increase.

    But I could be all wrong, it could be any one of a hundred things that caused this.
  • 1
    I was doing some sentiment analysis on social comments on banks back in the day. I found out that while most banks had a positive feedback rate of around 70% - 80%, HSBC only scored a mere 31% and most comments are about their shitty card issuance service
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