topic Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction in Credit Cards

AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 22:21:26 GMT

A month ago on 7/28 I contacted AMEX via online chat for APR reductions and received the following:

AMEX BCP - 21.99% to 17.24%
AMEX ED - 21.99% to 15.99%

I just contacted them again and received two more reductions!

AMEX BCP - 17.24% to 14.24%
AMEX ED - 15.99% to 12.99%

This puts me at the lowest APR for the EveryDay card. I'm curious if they'll ever let me go lower than 12.99%.

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 22:35:35 GMT

Wow great APR reductions! I'll keep this in mind. Chat work best for this? Congrats!

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 22:39:48 GMT

Nice reductions! How much spend were you putting on each card the last two months?

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 22:45:11 GMT

AMEX has gotten very little love from me lately. I spent $600 on plane tickets on one of the cards and paid in full 2 months ago. I never carry a balance, one of the cards even has $40 credit and haven't used them since.

My BCP is older and has gotten much more use overall, but AMEX has been more giving on the EveryDay APR both times.

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 22:48:19 GMT

Strange...but hey even if it's not particularly useful since you PIF it's still better than nothing

Actually if you use them so little, why bother requesting APR reduction in the first place?

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

red259 — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 23:25:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Strange...but hey even if it's not particularly useful since you PIF it's still better than nothing

Actually if you use them so little, why bother requesting APR reduction in the first place?

+1 I'm also curious why you do this? The last thing I want is lenders looking more closely at my account, unless I have something really valuable to gain (new card, CLI, etc). My feeling is if I have a situation where I need to carry a balance I will just app for a 0% apr card.

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

UncleB — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 23:26:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Strange...but hey even if it's not particularly useful since you PIF it's still better than nothing

Actually if you use them so little, why bother requesting APR reduction in the first place?

Probably the same reason I'll be doing the same once my promo is over... you never know when you'll need to unexpectedly carry a balance, and it's always good to be prepared!

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

red259 — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 23:32:28 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Strange...but hey even if it's not particularly useful since you PIF it's still better than nothing

Actually if you use them so little, why bother requesting APR reduction in the first place?
Probably the same reason I'll be doing the same once my promo is over... you never know when you'll need to unexpectedly carry a balance, and it's always good to be prepared!

Maybe, but Amex isn't really the lender you want to be carrying a balance with.

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 23:33:57 GMT

Good point...but from what I've read about Amex and their policy of reducing CL's when you significantly increase your UTL on them, they probably wouldn't be my first choice to ask for APR reductions!

EDIT: ninja'd, oops

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

UncleB — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 00:54:16 GMT

@red259 wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Strange...but hey even if it's not particularly useful since you PIF it's still better than nothing

Actually if you use them so little, why bother requesting APR reduction in the first place?
Probably the same reason I'll be doing the same once my promo is over... you never know when you'll need to unexpectedly carry a balance, and it's always good to be prepared!
Maybe, but Amex isn't really the lender you want to be carrying a balance with.

Maybe, maybe not... there are differing opinions on this.

The question was why would somebody be interested in getting an APR reduction... I simply provided one possible (and to me, very legit) reason!

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 02:42:51 GMT

I feel that a balanced profile of cards needs to have a few low APR cards. Other than my 8% Barclays Ring, my EveryDay at 12.99% now makes my second lowest APR card. Granted, my other cards are always offering some type of promotional APR.

At this time, I do not, nor do I ever expect to carry a balance with AMEX. If in a dire situation I ever need to, I will not be eaten alive at my original 21.99% APR, and can instead sit more comfortably at 12.99%, or in the future perhaps even less.

I'll keep rocking AMEX's boat for APR reductions. Worst case scenario, I know how to swim should I go overboard. :-)

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

NRB525 — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 03:22:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I feel that a balanced profile of cards needs to have a few low APR cards. Other than my 8% Barclays Ring, my EveryDay at 12.99% now makes my second lowest APR card. Granted, my other cards are always offering some type of promotional APR.

At this time, I do not, nor do I ever expect to carry a balance with AMEX. If in a dire situation I ever need to, I will not be eaten alive at my original 21.99% APR, and can instead sit more comfortably at 12.99%, or in the future perhaps even less.

I'll keep rocking AMEX's boat for APR reductions. Worst case scenario, I know how to swim should I go overboard. :-)

Congrats on the APR reductions!

I have a 12-month Holiday Promotional APR on my Delta Gold card, 6.9% into November 2015, so I let it run up to almost $2k on the $9k CL in December, then have been chipping away at it about $300 per month. Then had to charge some dental work last month, so it got up to $3200, asked for a bump in the CL to $12,000 just prior to that charge. At the start of this Holiday Promotion, they sent me so many reminders that I could carry a balance, I had to take them up on it.

During this time of carrying balances on the Delta card, instapproval for the HHonors card at $10k in April, then instapproval for the SPG at $10k on August 12, and a CLI from $9k to $12k on the Delta in mid-July.

Those who try to tell you AMEX doesn't like you to carry a balance don't know the new AMEX.

Asked for a reduction on the Hilton card, two asks a month apart, and it's gone from 19.24 to 17.24 to 15.24 now. I'm thinking I'll leave this one at 15.24 on the off chance there's another Holiday Rate promotion in November, because you have to have one of the standard rates, 19.24=6.9, 17.24=4.9, 15.24=2.9 in Holiday Rate promotional APR. If you don't have one of the standard rates, no Holiday Rate promotion for you.

The SPG, asked for a reduction just a few days after getting it, went from 19.24 to 16.24. I've only had the SPG two weeks. Since this one is off-track from standard rates, I'll keep asking on it as I make my PIF payments on my $3k bonus spend.

I'll keep asking for reductions, start asking for reduction on the Delta card as soon as this promotion expires in mid-November. iCoop got down to 6.74% on a Delta Gold card in recent posts. The idea of paying for a vacation and then leaving it on an AMEX card to pay over a few months as half a percent per month is a very nice thought.

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 03:37:58 GMT

I didn't realize that the standard APR had such a direct influence on the holiday rate promotions. Thanks for the information!

I have an AMEX Delta Gold at 19.24% APR, but I haven't had it open long enough to warrant asking for a reduction quite yet. It's my newest AMEX. The fact that someone was able to get down to 6.74% on their card gives me hope that next month, or further in the future, I'll be able to drop below 12.99% on my EveryDay card.

I've never had grief from AMEX, but I'm not concerned as I'm not doing anything wrong. I sit comfortably with many other lenders, so should American Express try to rain fury down upon me, I won't be too bothered.

Re: AMEX BCP and ED APR Reduction

NRB525 — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 03:54:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I didn't realize that the standard APR had such a direct influence on the holiday rate promotions. Thanks for the information!

I have an AMEX Delta Gold at 19.24% APR, but I haven't had it open long enough to warrant asking for a reduction quite yet. It's my newest AMEX. The fact that someone was able to get down to 6.74% on their card gives me hope that next month, or further in the future, I'll be able to drop below 12.99% on my EveryDay card.

I've never had grief from AMEX, but I'm not concerned as I'm not doing anything wrong. I sit comfortably with many other lenders, so should American Express try to rain fury down upon me, I won't be too bothered.

Yes, the Holiday Rate in November was widely distributed, and I was able to get confirming datapoints from several folks at different rates. Then they did another one last spring, same patterns of rates were used.

If you aren't on some other promotional APR, no reason not to ask for an APR reduction now on your Delta, unless you want to keep it at 19.24. I only got the SPG mid-August and already asked, got the APR reduction. The worst they can say is no.