@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks!
I'm hoping to find a card from a financial institution a little more emotionally and mentally stable than AmEx, but if push comes to shove there may be no other option. I'll talk to Nationwide, Chase and a few others first.
Pardon me, but I think you have the whole thing reversed. I am a business owner and personal user of both AmEx and Chase. In my experience, I would not eschew AmEx like you're planning on doing in favor of the other two institutions. I believe you are basing your experiences with AmEx on online horror stories and consumer reports, some which are justified but you don't know the whole story......in fact many of my colleagues that are scared of AmEx brought it down on themselves with poor credit management and history.
AmEx is probably one of the more emotionally and mentally stable companies out there, despite the fact that they've been pulling back on risky accounts and having their computers auto-slash credit lines (like virtually all other card companies). If you treat them well, they will treat you very well back. This means never even thinking about paying an AmEx card late, PIF all the time, and not abusing/recycling rewards programs. AmEx has tripled my revolving business credit card and helped me obtain a Business Green card - all in one day with no declines - just a brief conversation with an underwriter about my business and a review of my spending habits. None of my AmEx cards have had FR or were stuck with "surprise declines" ever.
I own three Amex cards, a Mastercard, and four Visas. Out of them all, I use the AmEx cards primarily and the rest for backup in case the merchant doesn't accept AmEx. As a business and personal AmEx card user, I have never had a major problem with them, and all minor issues were cleared up quickly with a phone call or email. If you're a serious business owner, I wouldn't write-off AmEx just yet. If you read the horror stories about Chase credit services, you'll see why AmEx shouldn't get the award for least "emotionally stable."
You must be confused.
There are a multitude of well-document cases of unfounded AmEx FR brought on by nothing more than the AmEx pea-brained idea that it is somehow a crime to pay an attorney with an AmEx card or shop at, for example, Wal-Mart. Who in their right mind is going to say that one paying an attorney $2,000 with their AmEx card has "brought it down on themselves" when hit with a FR on an account that has not only a perfect history, but also enough credit limit left to buy a house? Or spending $137 at Wal-Mart?
Chase and the likes have yet to start hitting people with FRs on the scale that AmEx is infamous for. With Chase et al. will CLD and close account in a blink, but nobody has yet found they will do that based on where you shop or which city you happen to be visiting; it is virtually always because of how an account holder has chosen to manage their account. That doesn't worry me.
I have had AmEx for decades and overall they are not bad. However, in my particular occupation I am not willing to suffer being made to look like a deadbeat moron in front of colleagues and associates when my AmEx card comes back declined at dinner because an AU happened to use their card to pay a speeding ticket. And, yes, we all know when the waiter brings your friend's card back and asks for another, no matter how many times the waiter proffers the excuse that "It must be the magnetic stripe, sir," it's a code that really means either stop using cards you have stolen or learn to pay your debts on time.
I forget who to credit with this concept contained in their sig, but I do not need to add AUs to a card that suffers from PMS. If I am going to put my image on the line by making several critical associates an AU on a business card, it will be one issued by a company that doesn't use an ouija board or call 1 (800) PSY-CHIC to determine when to FR.
