Amazon to refuse VISA credit cards. What credit cards, esp. Mastercard available to IOM residents?

[The Voice of Reason]

MBNA MasterCard credit card.

No benefits ( points etc, like say M &S credit card which I believe is no longer available to IOM residents)
Can’t  find any with extra benefits available to IOM residents.
Given that I pay it off in full monthly the only advantage to me is that I have a large credit limit which would be useful if I find myself in an expensive emergency hole.

[forestboy]

1 minute ago, The Voice of Reason said:

MBNA MasterCard credit card.

No benefits ( points etc, like say M &S credit card which I believe is no longer available to IOM residents)
Can’t  find any with extra benefits available to IOM residents.
Given that I pay it off in full monthly the only advantage to me is that I have a large credit limit which would be useful if I find myself in an expensive emergency hole.

+ 1

[wrighty]

I’ve had an M&S MasterCard for years, but they recently turned me down for a credit limit increase, for no apparent reason - it’s not as though my risk is bad as they know from my history. Perhaps they’re trying to wind down their customer base for some reason. 

[AcousticallyChallenged]

AMEX offer to the Isle of Man, and they’re accepted in a lot more places than they ever were  

Plenty of free cards as well as things like the Gold card (the £140/year one) with better rewards rates. They’re often quite generous in their lending criteria too. 

[The Voice of Reason]

4 minutes ago, AcousticallyChallenged said:

AMEX offer to the Isle of Man, and they’re accepted in a lot more places than they ever were  

Plenty of free cards as well as things like the Gold card (the £140/year one) with better rewards rates. They’re often quite generous in their lending criteria too. 

Well in my last job they would take all major debit/ credit cards except AMEX due to the massive commission fees they took.

And I know they weren’t alone.

That was not so long ago. but maybe it’s changed.

[hissingsid]

My friend who lives in Spain says they are having the same issues with credit cards.

[AcousticallyChallenged]

6 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

Well in my last job they would take all major debit/ credit cards except AMEX due to the massive commission fees they took.

And I know they weren’t alone.

That was not so long ago. but maybe it’s changed.

They’ve been really pushing hard to be accepted by more small businesses.
They’ve also found a lot more adoption by being accepted by SumUp etc  

Though, their settlement times can still be a pain for merchants. 

[dreamon]

Try John Lewis if you need a Mastercard:

https://www.johnlewisfinance.com/partnership-card.html

No problem in being accepted if you're an Isle of Man resident. Any purchases you make (not necessarily from John Lewis) earn points, which are converted to vouchers.

 

 

[pongo]

42 minutes ago, wrighty said:

I’ve had an M&S MasterCard for years, but they recently turned me down for a credit limit increase, for no apparent reason - it’s not as though my risk is bad as they know from my history. Perhaps they’re trying to wind down their customer base for some reason. 

I sort of referenced this back up the log.

The theory I have been reading is that CC companies have to effectively set aside money to offset potential risk (which costs them).

So customers with a higher credit limit cost more. And if they pay off their balance every month then they represent a loss to the CC companies.

What I am reading is that people's credit limit will increase proportionate to the average balance they maintain.

Edited November 22, 2021 by pongo

[AcousticallyChallenged]

5 minutes ago, pongo said:

I sort of referenced this back up the log.

The theory I have been reading is that CC companies have to effectively set aside money to offset potential risk (which costs them).

So customers with a higher credit limit cost more. And if they pay off their balance every month then they represent a loss to the CC companies.

What I am reading is that people's credit limit will increase proportionate to the average balance they maintains.

I’ve a few times had significant increases within a month or two of significant purchases through my cards. 

Always paid off in full each month. And never near the limit. I think there could be something to the theory. 

[HeliX]

2 hours ago, offshoremanxman said:

That’s true I’d say. I have the worst credit rating going in the eyes of the card companies as I’ve not had any loans or any form of debt for years. 15 years ago I had a £15k limit on my Platinum VISA card as I was rolling it as I had no cash. Every month they’d add to the credit limit to get me to borrow more. I can’t get even £5k as a limit now on a standard card as I’ve not had an unpaid balance at the end of the month in at least 5 years. They only make money off irresponsible lending. 

I've got a pretty high limit, but I fairly frequently use the 0% APR offers in place of things like automotive loans, or home improvement loans...

[The Voice of Reason]

11 hours ago, dreamon said:

Try John Lewis if you need a Mastercard:

https://www.johnlewisfinance.com/partnership-card.html

No problem in being accepted if you're an Isle of Man resident. Any purchases you make (not necessarily from John Lewis) earn points, which are converted to vouchers.

 

 

Thanks I’ll give them a try

[Declan]

1 hour ago, The Voice of Reason said:

Thanks I’ll give them a try

I did, it does seem open to IOM Residents. But I got declined because I don't have a credit history. 

[James Blonde]

On a similar subject a lot of online retailers now seem to have cottoned on to Isle of Man postcodes being different from UK mainland ones (it's apparently something to do with Brexit and Northern Ireland). 

Because of it there now seems to be even fewer retailers who ship to the Isle of Man. 

[The Phantom]

14 hours ago, offshoremanxman said:

That’s true I’d say. I have the worst credit rating going in the eyes of the card companies as I’ve not had any loans or any form of debt for years. 15 years ago I had a £15k limit on my Platinum VISA card as I was rolling it as I had no cash. Every month they’d add to the credit limit to get me to borrow more. I can’t get even £5k as a limit now on a standard card as I’ve not had an unpaid balance at the end of the month in at least 5 years. They only make money off irresponsible lending. 

I had exactly the same situation with my card.  I had about 7k of debt on a card with 15k limit.   Paid it all off and they reduced my limit to about 5k.  It's pretty sickening when you think about it.

I now have a loan when I could actually afford not to.  But put it in place really just to give me a decent credit rating.  Realistically I'll probably pay it off when I get to about half term; done this a few times.