25 September 2007
Barclaycard has tightened lending on its credit cards, cutting limits for some 500,000 existing holders over the past 18 months, it has emerged.
The firm has also rejected more than half of new applicants for credit cards, turning away around 55% of people looking for a credit card deal.
The move comes in a bid to cut down on bad debt in the UK with increasing numbers of UK consumers finding it difficult to repay their debts.
"We have been going through a review since 2006 and lowered credit limits for 500,000 cardholders where customers are over their limits or where they have become overextended," a Barclays spokesman told the Times.
Latest figures from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) reveal debt issues to be an increasing problem among UK consumers.
The CCCS received 33% more calls in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006, with a total of 86,990 calls made to its helpline in the first three months of the year.