Amex Rant

[thom02099]

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@sccredit wrote:

Everyone has their good or bad with AMEX.  Like you I have never had good from them.  Some people have had great experiences.  I just chalked it up to me and AMEX not being a good match credit wise.

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@sccredit wrote:

Everyone has their good or bad with AMEX.  Like you I have never had good from them.  Some people have had great experiences.  I just chalked it up to me and AMEX not being a good match credit wise.

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Ahhh....now there's the rub.  Not everyone should have an AMEX card. And there's nothing wrong with that at all.  As sccredit said, just not a good match. 

The so-called AMEX "mystique", or lack thereof, is something that is perpetuated on forums such as this.  The actual problems with AMEX reported on said forums, in relationship to the actual number of AMEX accounts out there worldwide, is infinitessimally small. 

[LionLaw]

As long as you're a cardmember, Amex will SP you regularly.  I think the contents of your CR are a lot more likely to trigger a FR than any spending habits.  As long as you're not maxing out every other card on your CR, missing payments, etc., I think you can pretty much charge whatever you want without having to worry.

In my previous history with Amex, I was only ever declined once.  I consistently spent $1500-$2500 a month on the card.  Once, I had a balance of over $2000 for the month already, and I tried to put a ~$4000 preauthorization charge on there for renting an RV.  I was declined.  I was pissed at the time, but I put it on another card with a sufficient available balance and moved on.  In retrospect, the decline made perfect sense.

Seriously, some people get too worked up over this stuff.  Yes, there are a lot of things to like about Amex, but at the end of the day, it's just a credit card--one of many in your wallet.  Use it as much or as little as you like.  If for some reason they decline you, just use another card.

[Johnny_Favorite]

I hear what you're saying Lionlaw and you're right, if it's not a fit, I shouldn't use it.

The way I see Amex is like borrowing money from your miserly, old grandpa who saves tinfoil to re-use because he's too cheap to buy a new roll of foil. So your grandpa miser loans you $500 bucks and you think, "great he trusts me." So then you start spending it, buying coffee and what not and every time you buy something you look over your shoulder to see your grandpa standing there giving you the evil stink eye.

Then one day you decide that instead of your normal McDonalds, you're going to buy yourself a new television. Your miserly grandpa yanks the cash out of your hand and yells DECLINED! You ain't getting it back until I see 3 years of tax returns and you pledge your firstborn son to me.

That works for some people I guess. I personally am going to borrow money from my nice grandma instead. Her name is GE and she loves to loan me more money with the more I spend. Yeah she's not as rich as grandpa so I can never depend on Grandma GE to loan me the big money, but that's what Uncle USAA is for. Uncle USAA doesn't care what you do with his borrowed money, so long as you pay him back. He doesn't have any perks or bells or whistles and charges a pretty decent interest rate, but he doesn't look over your shoulder.

[scenery_guy]

Haters gonna hate. Lovers gonna love. 

[adavis425]

I will continue to say that it is NOT PERSONAL! Business is business and if ANY lender sees a trend, a quirck, an anything in a customers spending/repayment pattern/habits  that makes them uncomfortable, said customer is open to AA. Period.

[DrJim]

All I can say is that I have had an AMEX for three years - no FR, no declines.  I did the whole 3x CLI until I got to the max you can do on the automated card and I stopped there.  They only called me once, and that was to check and make sure a charge was not fradulent.  They are the only card I have had do that.

AMEX has been better to me than any other card.  I think what happens is that people post when bad things happen, but few of us post "used my AMEX today and it didn't get declined" or "didn't get a FR today".  So I think we hear more negative stuff about all banks than what is representative of those banks.  

Just my .02

[cashnocredit]

It's simple really. All CC issuers have various limits but most have similar patterns. Amex is different from the rest and allows much different spending patterns before they yank. It's diversity in action. We each can get cards that we like.  I'd hate it if there was only one giant issuer with procrustian credit standards.

[Cdnewmanpac]

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@Happychap wrote:

I agree with your rant.  I recently just survived a FR'd. I got FR a day or so after applying and sent them my entire life, including my children's and my wife's entire life records (literally).   Came out with a hardlimit on my platinum, as I expected from reading other posts. The process took about two weeks and was frustrating. Yes, the Customer service is good when your making claims for purchases or charge backs etc.  I'm not an Amex 'fan' like others on this forum, in fact  like many companies Amex employ a nice squad of bloggers and forum contributors to protect their name; so for people who seem to want to 'make love' with them I have to be a little suspicious

So yes, Amex is a an okay card but its not as reliable as the other cards in your wallet since you can't always count on the transaction always going through (as you mentioned). I still dread logging into my account each day incase I see the dreaded "your account is suspended please call...." message again... 

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I would love to see you substantiate this claim. You have actual confirmation that Amex employs people to post on forums? Really? If not, how about you delete that part instead of insulting the members of this forum who have had good experiences with Amex by accusing them of being shills. 

I'm not sure I get this thread. It was started by someone who hasn't had a single negative experience with Amex, but is going to use the card only for donuts based on things he has heard or read? Do I have that right? I'm all for people posting their actual experiences, positive or negative. But this seems like a troll at best. 

I know I'm biased, because I've never had anything but positive experiences with Amex. They authorized an 11k charge 3 months after I got my zync, having never put more than 120 on it at a time prior. Each card I get has a better limit and they went so far in giving out credits for zync packs that I ended up with enough credits to pay the AF for another two years. Does that mean other people haven't had equally bad experiences? No. But posting your reaction to 2nd hand information doesn't really enhance the value of the forum and it causes needless conflict (and in this case, someone accusing Amex of paying for posts). Just my thoughts. Please continue...

[tmbr10]

As this thread is showing... some love AMEX, others, maybe not so much.

Put me in the category that absolutely loves AMEX! They take great care of me and I try to do the same with them. 

Whenever, I get ready to leave town, I give them a call to tell them to expect charges from random locations and they always tell me to be safe and to call if I need emergency spending power or emergency checks. That's on top of a 30k limit!

[Twister24]

Hi guys i dont know about mc Donalds and amex but in my opinion .they like just charge whatever and whenever u need it . I have the prg card for 4 months now and no problems i,m using the card heavy around 15-20k per month i didn,t Skip mcdonalds also hah and no problemo . That,s true that my approval process was 3 months haha but after the fr upon approval .i charged the card on the 1st month around 10k never had a decline transaction .and about traveling and calling them nooooo i travel Non stop they are Losing my trail , i am everywhere any time , just this once they wanted to speak to me in the gas station for security reasons and that,s it . So my advice is spend&spend Haha