Banks have started to sharply reduce credit card limits

Banks have begun to sharply reduce credit card limits, users of the Banki.ru forum write. Their complaints were studied by Izvestia. Limits can be cut several times without warning - the problem was reported by clients of three major market players.

Neither to give nor take: the average size of consumer loans fell to Br132.4 thousand

This is the lowest value in the last seven years

The number of such cases increased in November-December this year. In particular, VTB clients reported that they were reduced limits twice, and nine times, and even 20 times - for example, one of them was reduced from 200 thousand to 10 thousand rubles. Another user told Izvestia that his limit was canceled without warning, but then, at his request, it was returned.

Limits may be reduced for customers with a high debt load or late payments, explained "Izvestia" in the press service of the bank. Users of credit cards of Alfa Bank faced similar situations, follows from the data from the forum "Banki.ru".

Having clients with a high debt load is now costly for banks because of the macroprudential limits (MPL) of the Central Bank, explained Freedom Finance Global analyst Vladimir Chernov. They limit the share of high-risk borrowers - those who spend most of their income on debt servicing.

For example, now a financial organization can have among all its debtors no more than 15% of borrowers who spend more than 50% of their income on their loans. At the same time, when assessing the debt load, the entire amount of the credit card limit is taken into account - even if the actual debt does not approach its upper limit, explained economist Andrei Barkhota.

Therefore, it is easier for banks to reduce the amount of funds that clients will be able to get, so as not to face additional expenses due to the MPL. In the context of rising deposit rates due to high key rates, banks have to either raise fees or worsen conditions - for example, reduce the grace period or reduce the limits on cashback, said Andrei Barkhota.

Read more in the exclusive material of "Izvestia":

Reserve for the exit: banks began to sharply reduce limits on credit cards