Amex credit limit and available credit different?

[JCreazy]

I am waiting on my BCE card to come in but I was looking at my account and I have a $1000 credit limit but it says that only $500 is avaiable.  Why is this?

[phonic]

Very weird. I just got my BCP and the CL and AC were both the same even before receiving it. The only time the AC would be less would be for pending or posted transactions.

Since you have not gotten your card yet, it might just be a glitch. Wait until you do and it's activated and then see if it's fixed. If not (or if you don't want to wait) you can call Amex.

[enharu]

Its normal. The available credit is just your temporary CL until you receive and activate the card. It's just for fraud prevention purposes.

I assume you got your card numbers online, right? You can use the 500cl in the meantime for online shopping, or also at any merchant which is willing to key in your card number manually (gonna be a long shot for this).