AMEX Cutting My Available Credit

[Pigeyex]

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@jace8602 wrote:

OP I'm sorry for your loss, that being said please do not take this the wrong way, after all we are here to help each other. The truth is that once Amex saw the rapid increase they did what they saw fit to protect its interests. They are not going to give you a warning in case you plan on burning them (not saying it was your intention) and charge the card to the max. I understand a funeral expense is not planned but weddings are. That is something that you have to save money for, I'm not being insensitive but honestly that money does not belong to you. I hope you get everything sorted out after you send the documents Amex requested. Hang in there.

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I never said it belonged to me, and I'm certainly not offended by your comments -- they are wise.  I'm only offended that AmEx would change the terms of their deal, when I was fulfilling all of MY obligations under the deal, both with them and with all of my other creditors.  And it wasn't like I maxed out my card, either -- I just raised my utilization from my usual 1-9% to about 50%.

[Pigeyex]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 If I messed up any spelling, sentences, sorry.  I've had 2 Grey Goose dirty martini's back to back.  A little tipsy........

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OK, now that just made me smile.  Thanks, Sandibeach! 

Pigeye

[Pigeyex]

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@red259 wrote:

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I don't know what OPs income is, but it just occured to me that OP can't be compared to the normal public. OP went and actively sought out 3x CLIs. Its not like Amex gave OP this line right out of the bat. It stands to reason that when you agressively seek credit and push the limit with what amex is willing to give you they put you on a much tighter leash, which means less chance to carry large balance etc. Maybe going out and trying to get that large credit line with amex isn't such a good idea and the credit line is really smoke and mirrors. They gave it to you because you asked but they have no intention of letting you use it all. 

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$200k/year.

Pigeye

[Anonymous]

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@Pigeyex wrote:

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@jawbrkr wrote:

I do understand his issue with Amex and credit card companies in general. Why give him that high a CL if they are going to have a problem with him using it. He has shown he can pay. Until he proves he cant, leave it alone. It isnt a fraudulent charge. Their very action (reducing his limit) is affecting his credit in a negative way. I would undertand if it was due to a negative on his report but in this case no.

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BINGO.  My thoughts exactly.

I apologize to everyone who has offered me advice on this thread; I must have seemed rude to not respond!  Somehow when the mods moved it and re-titled it, my notification request didn't follow, so I never got any emails letting me know anyone had replied.  So my apologies to all and THANK YOU for your thoughts and suggestions, both negative and positive.

***UPDATE:  40 days after I uploaded my financial documentation to them (which wasn't that difficult, just last year's end-of-year pay stub, most recent pay stub, and most recent bank and brokerage statements) they restored nearly all of my CL -- $22k instead of the original $24k on the BCE card.  They did NOT restore the higher limit on the pay-over-time feature of my Green charge card.  While I'm thankful to have the BCE limit nearly fully restored, my thoughts are still along the lines of jawbrkr's above -- WHY GIVE ME A LARGE CREDIT LINE IF YOU'RE ONLY GOING TO GET NERVOUS AND PENALIZE ME FOR USING IT???  Just don't approve it to begin with.

As I pay back down to get my util. < 10% again, I'll have to reconsider my relationship with AmEx.  This move they made -- while technically their right, I agree -- really put me in a bad spot right before my family vacation.

Pigeye

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Thank goodness they bumped it back up. Did your scores dive at all from the utilization increase?

Also, this entire thread makes me have second thoughts on all my Capital One bad mouthing.

[Pigeyex]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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 Did your scores dive at all from the utilization increase?

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Yes.  Pretty significantly.

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Pigeyex wrote:

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@jawbrkr wrote:

I do understand his issue with Amex and credit card companies in general. Why give him that high a CL if they are going to have a problem with him using it. He has shown he can pay. Until he proves he cant, leave it alone. It isnt a fraudulent charge. Their very action (reducing his limit) is affecting his credit in a negative way. I would undertand if it was due to a negative on his report but in this case no.

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BINGO.  My thoughts exactly.

I apologize to everyone who has offered me advice on this thread; I must have seemed rude to not respond!  Somehow when the mods moved it and re-titled it, my notification request didn't follow, so I never got any emails letting me know anyone had replied.  So my apologies to all and THANK YOU for your thoughts and suggestions, both negative and positive.

***UPDATE:  40 days after I uploaded my financial documentation to them (which wasn't that difficult, just last year's end-of-year pay stub, most recent pay stub, and most recent bank and brokerage statements) they restored nearly all of my CL -- $22k instead of the original $24k on the BCE card.  They did NOT restore the higher limit on the pay-over-time feature of my Green charge card.  While I'm thankful to have the BCE limit nearly fully restored, my thoughts are still along the lines of jawbrkr's above -- WHY GIVE ME A LARGE CREDIT LINE IF YOU'RE ONLY GOING TO GET NERVOUS AND PENALIZE ME FOR USING IT???  Just don't approve it to begin with.

As I pay back down to get my util. < 10% again, I'll have to reconsider my relationship with AmEx.  This move they made -- while technically their right, I agree -- really put me in a bad spot right before my family vacation.

Pigeye

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Thank goodness they bumped it back up. Did your scores dive at all from the utilization increase?

Also, this entire thread makes me have second thoughts on all my Capital One bad mouthing.

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Well, although Capital One isn't known to be sensitive, they could have done the same thing. It's certainly more common with Amex. However, I'd expect some of those huge Ventures that were handed out like candy might be changed at any given point when someone at Capital One says "enough!".

Glad OP got their BCE restored.

[Anonymous]

It could boil down to profitability. Someone carrying a balance at 19% is immensely more profitable than someone carrying the same at 0%.

[red259]

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@Pigeyex wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Good faith is allowing the poster to keep their account open and make payments. Good faith is allowing them to verify their income in exchange for restoring their credit line. Good faith is the fact they notified them that their credit line had been reduced, Potentially saving some of this so-called humiliation. What is good faith?

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I can tell you what it's not.  It's not sending me a terse email, cutting my CL by more than half, leaving me with not enough available credit to so much as book a hotel room for me and my family, and then -- when I provided their requested financial documentation IMMEDIATELY (within 12 hours) -- they take 40 days to restore my CL.

That's B.S.  Might be their right, but it's still b.s.

All they had to do, as Jamaica suggested above, was call me or email me and say "we are concerned that you are only making minimum payments on your account, and are going to need additional financial documentation in order for us to retain your current credit limit.  Please send us _____, ______ and _______, or begin making monthly payments greater than the minimum required, or we will unfortunately have to consider reducing your credit limit.

Give me 30 days, for cripes' sakes.

Pigeye

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Yea, unfortunatly they are not going to do that. I can tell you if they did this to me and then took 40 days to restore my credit lines I'd probably end all relationships with them. I understand why they did what they did, but them taking their sweet time while you were jammed up is just not cool. 

[Pigeyex]

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@red259 wrote:

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 I can tell you if they did this to me and then took 40 days to restore my credit lines I'd probably end all relationships with them. I understand why they did what they did, but them taking their sweet time while you were jammed up is just not cool. 

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I'm wondering if they do this on purpose, so that they can gather another 40 days worth of your behavior before making their underwriting decision (to restore the CL or not).  To see if you continue to make minimum payments on their cards, to get one add'l month of soft inquiries on your other TLs, etc.

[red259]

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@Pigeyex wrote:

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@red259 wrote:

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 I can tell you if they did this to me and then took 40 days to restore my credit lines I'd probably end all relationships with them. I understand why they did what they did, but them taking their sweet time while you were jammed up is just not cool. 

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I'm wondering if they do this on purpose, so that they can gather another 40 days worth of your behavior before making their underwriting decision (to restore the CL or not).  To see if you continue to make minimum payments on their cards, to get one add'l month of soft inquiries on your other TLs, etc.

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Not sure why they would need to do that if your providing them paperwork already assuming the paperwork matches up with what was in the initial app.