Call Centres

Opening hours

Most credit card issuing companies are open well beyond the hours of 9am to 5pm, with closing times varying from around 8pm to midnight, although some card issuers operate 24-hour call centres. For call centres which are not open 24 hours, you can generally expect earlier closing hours at the weekend.

Despite the existence of 24 hour call centres, there can quite frequently be problems with out-of-office-hours help with complex problems. Decisions such as increasing your credit limit may only be possible during standard office hours.

Time taken to answer calls

This varies significantly from one bank to another, and everyone has tales about being held in a queue for what seems like hours. In our experience though, most UK credit card issuers are actually pretty good when it comes to answering the phone; Barclaycard, for example, usually answer within one minute.

Some call centres have the decency to tell you your place in the queue or give an estimate of how long it will take before your call is answered. However, if you do find yourself frustrated at regularly spending time in the queue, we would suggest you consider changing your credit card issuer - companies have a knack of improving standards when they see customers flocking to the competition.

Call Costs

This may be an important factor, especially if you frequently call from your mobile phone and do not have a vast number of free minutes. As calls from pay-as-you-go mobiles can still cost up to 50p per minute, a credit card issuer who has an 0870 national rate number instead of an 0800 freephone number could end up costing you a great deal.