There are quite a few new rules when it comes your credit card borrowing and you can see my first post about them here. The next most important rule to be made and to keep you well and truly in the driving seat of your own finances is the credit limit rule…
Before a credit card company could “reward” you for paying off your credit card balance in a timely fashion without any problems, and this reward was in the form of a bigger credit card limit. Now they can’t do that. Before you lament this just think about it for a moment. Anyone who had a credit card in the past will tell you just how tempting it is to spend more money when you have a larger limit. You might say that it’s up to the credit card user, but i and many others would argue that it is the responsibility of the credit card companies not to put this sort of temptation in your way.
Well they are no longer allowed to do this. In fact when you apply for your credit card you have the option of never having your limit increased without your consent, which makes a lot more sense these days; particularly in today’s financial climate. The new rules also allow you to reduce your own credit limit whenever you like, providing your balance falls below this of course!
These steps allow the customer to take a much greater control of their own finances and allow the sensible credit card user to borrow only what they can repay.