AMEX revolving credit lines and carrying balances

[MCHammerFan]

I have a BCE and right now I want to take advantage of the 0% APR. However I'm hearing horror stories of CLD and flat out account terminations. I was planning to make some large purchases (around 25-35% util) that would take me more than one billing cycle but probably less than 3 cycles to pay but I'm not sure now about this. What are your experiences on this?

Also, I sometimes I pay my parts of my balance off on my other cards in the  middle of a billing period but Amex does not allow me to do this so I tend to have huge looking utilizations (27-28%) and have to wait the next cycle to pay off. I was approved for this account in May so is it because I'm new?

[L-TWT]

Speaking from experience, Amex tends to have concerns with their revolving credit lines when "consecutive minimum payments" are made on a balance >3-4 billing cycles, so my advice would be to pay "large payments" towards your statement balance, and u should have no concerns regards CLD/account termination.....believe me, for i have been on both sides of the coin!

[Repo-ed]

I was one of those CLD then account closed customers back in 08'.  I only had a 1k CL to begin w/ via their Skymiles Gold Card.  I PIF'd each month, and only used it to pay my cellphone bill.

So who knows what logic they use when they are reviewing accounts and see something they do not like.  it's anybodies guess.

[GST2008]

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@MCHammerFan wrote:

I have a BCE and right now I want to take advantage of the 0% APR. However I'm hearing horror stories of CLD and flat out account terminations. I was planning to make some large purchases (around 25-35% util) that would take me more than one billing cycle but probably less than 3 cycles to pay but I'm not sure now about this. What are your experiences on this?

Also, I sometimes I pay my parts of my balance off on my other cards in the  middle of a billing period but Amex does not allow me to do this so I tend to have huge looking utilizations (27-28%) and have to wait the next cycle to pay off. I was approved for this account in May so is it because I'm new?

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You will be able to make more than one payment after about a month.  It is usually only during the first month or so that you don't have this feature, after that you can pay as many times as you want.

I think you should be fine with carrying a balance as long as you are paying over the minimum amount each month, don't let the util. get too high, and are also running up your other cards.  My brother carries a large balance on his BCE every month as it is his primary card; hoever, he does not carry any balances (or very low balances) on his other CCs.  He continues to get CLIs and hasn't had any problems with the account since opening it in 2006.  Since his total util. is low accross all CCs, I think they are less worried about him giving heavier usage to his BCE.