I think that this is all down to the banks getting twitchy about the rising levels of debt. I used an HSBC proff. studies loan 4 years ago to fund my training and have now almost paid it all back to them and HSBC has always been excellent when I have needed more credit or services. Just a couple of days though I called them to get a temporary extension to my overdraft (£300 only) for a new car and they told me ''NO CHANCE'', when asked why they said that the bank had carried out a review of lending and were clamping down on any unsecured lending, they would however raise my credit card limit by the said amount, go figure!! I can only guess that HSBC is having some trouble at the moment with defualts on unsecured lending which has buggered it for everyone else.