topic Re: What's wrong with Amex in Credit Cards

What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:58:11 GMT

Recently AMEX decreased my creditlimit by 90%, I have Fico score of 733(experian) and the balance on the card was zero and all of a sudden they sent an email and letter that they reduced my credit limit drastically to 10%

I spoke with a rep and she said its based on my recent credit changes - great - I made a balance transfer 4 months ago from Citi and have been paying much more than minimum and I do have a job(thank god) and my wife has a job as well so, why in the world would they reduce it.

They asked me to fax bank stmts, paystubs etc to review my case which I did and still they did not increase it.

I was loyal to them since 2002 and this is what I get

I hate Amex - they can't figure out a bad apple and axe falls on a person who never missed 1 payment in past 7yrs

My score would definitely come down - a big fall

Is this just me or anybody with me in the boat?

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:11:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
They asked me to fax bank stmts, paystubs etc to review my case which I did and still they did not increase it.
I hate Amex - they can't figure out a bad apple and axe falls on a person who never missed 1 payment in past 7yrs

7 years with no missed or late payments.You don't need this stress in your life.I wouldn't close the card thou, pay it down and let it sit.My wife has had her delta card for almost 1 yr now and hasn't been touch but im sure its coming.

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:17:11 GMT

Thanks Carter; Yes, I would not close it too and just keep it without using

closing the card damages my score further

thanks to Amex for bringing me down from 700 level to 600 or 500 pretty soon

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:28:35 GMT

Welcome to the forums!

Sorry to hear it OP. But if it's any consolation, this has happened to many people across the board.

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Creditaddict — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:20:50 GMT

it happened to everyone that carried any balance with amex and even some who didn't.

Never carry balance on amex, they will hate you! even though they are the ones that offered 3.9 for life of balance.

my dad went from 68,500 down to around 12k and that's just because there are balances on 2 cards keeping those limits up.

my mom went from 40ish to around 12 and that's where her balance is on a fixed for life offer.

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:26:40 GMT

Thanks FM & CA

Yes, they would hate you even if they offerred you 3.9 for life

Bottom line: never carry bal on amex, if you are planning to get a new amex, refrain

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Creditaddict — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:30:44 GMT

but the thing is, it's not real fair for long time amex cardholders, because amex use to love you to carry a balance. and anytime you paid big portions of balances off you could get huge CLI and then carry an even bigger balance. Then the credit crises and they decided to go LOONEY TUNES.

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:40:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Recently AMEX decreased my creditlimit by 90%, I have Fico score of 733(experian) and the balance on the card was zero and all of a sudden they sent an email and letter that they reduced my credit limit drastically to 10%

I spoke with a rep and she said its based on my recent credit changes - great - I made a balance transfer 4 months ago from Citi and have been paying much more than minimum and I do have a job(thank god) and my wife has a job as well so, why in the world would they reduce it.

They asked me to fax bank stmts, paystubs etc to review my case which I did and still they did not increase it.

I was loyal to them since 2002 and this is what I get
I hate Amex - they can't figure out a bad apple and axe falls on a person who never missed 1 payment in past 7yrs

My score would definitely come down - a big fall

Is this just me or anybody with me in the boat?

Just hang in there... Everything will bounce back in time.

King

Re: What's wrong with Amex

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:53:45 GMT

rsvpraj, how did you find out your Experian FICO score?

For any new members reading this, EX stopped allowing consumers to buy their own FICO's on 2/13/2009. The only way to find it out now is to apply for a mortgage (kind of extreme) or belong to PSECU, a Pennsylvania credit union. Any EX "score" that you get from a monitoring service or other credit source is a FAKO, including the score which Experian likes to sell you from their own website.

But yeah, AmEx has been shooting off their own feet, toe by toe by toe, for a while now. I thought they were slowing down, now that they passed their test a few months ago.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 06-23-2009 11:53 AM

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:00:30 GMT

My Credit Score & Report from
American Express is a complimentary

benefit for Cardmembers.

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
rsvpraj, how did you find out your Experian FICO score?

For any new members reading this, EX stopped allowing consumers to buy their own FICO's on 2/13/2009. The only way to find it out now is to apply for a mortgage (kind of extreme) or belong to PSECU, a Pennsylvania credit union. Any EX "score" that you get from a monitoring service or other credit source is a FAKO, including the score which Experian likes to sell you from their own website.

But yeah, AmEx has been shooting off their own feet, toe by toe by toe, for a while now. I thought they were slowing down, now that they passed their test a few months ago.
Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 06-23-2009 11:53 AM
My Credit Score & Report from
American Express is a complimentary
benefit for Cardmembers.

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:04:53 GMT

Thank you for taking advantage of My Credit Score & Report, an important first step in managing your financial future. Your complimentary credit report and PLUS score from Experian is now available for the next 30 days.

Re: What's wrong with Amex

nothingman02 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:05:05 GMT

Thats not your FICO mate. Its a FAKO. But I think thats the score AMEX employs and not your FICO. You could pull your EQ or TU if they are similar to EX to gauge the effect.

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:21:18 GMT

Thanks guys for the info, will pull out TU & EQ soon but, its just for my info only - damage has already been done by Amex whats the point, will ignore my scores for few months and check back later

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:35:52 GMT

yep similiar things have been happening to Am Ex customers. Both my brother and I have had accounts w/ AX for years. He and his wife were just informed that their 12,000 Cocso/AM EXpress card limit was just reduced to 1,000. He is disputing it, but my guess is that they won't budge. I think they recently changed status from cc company to a bank and are cleaning house

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:15:30 GMT

same thing happend with me my limit was 16k and it got down to 1k, how would you justify that?

I spoke to the supervisor and was asked to send paystubs, bank stmts etc - everything in vain

I think they would like me to send 16k to them as advance to keep up the limit like a secure card for first timers

Dear AmericanExpress - please be honest - we understand the current hardship but dont blame on yr customers instead let everyone one know that you suck :-)

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:01:44 GMT

My wife has a Skymiles Card that she has had since 2003, never really carried a balance, the limit was around 10k, sometime last year we applied for a clear card got a similar limit.

We then asked for credit limit increases so both cards had 25k limits, we then did some landscaping that was around 20k, we put half on each card ( clear card has no interest for a year ), we also wanted some sky miles.

Low and behold our limits a few months ago are taken down to our balances minus 100 dollars.

So they took around 12k off each card, then they left our balance as our limit so now our utl is 100% on them, she makes 2 payments of around 3-4k each on both cards, couple days later they lower our limit yet again down to the balance of the cards.

So now we aren't making any large payments to them.

They have taken away around 22k or so between the two cards. She has never missed a single payment, never done anything.

Really annoying!

Whats even worse for me is that I am AU users on them and they are on my credit reports and i'm trying to rebuild my credit after bankruptcy and it is murdering my score. But they are the only credit items I have, and they show they have been opened since 2003..

Message Edited by RSHILLSHOOTER on 06-25-2009 08:01 AM

Re: What's wrong with Amex

Karatz — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:53:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My wife has a Skymiles Card that she has had since 2003, never really carried a balance, the limit was around 10k, sometime last year we applied for a clear card got a similar limit.

We then asked for credit limit increases so both cards had 25k limits, we then did some landscaping that was around 20k, we put half on each card ( clear card has no interest for a year ), we also wanted some sky miles.

Low and behold our limits a few months ago are taken down to our balances minus 100 dollars.

So they took around 12k off each card, then they left our balance as our limit so now our utl is 100% on them, she makes 2 payments of around 3-4k each on both cards, couple days later they lower our limit yet again down to the balance of the cards.

So now we aren't making any large payments to them.

They have taken away around 22k or so between the two cards. She has never missed a single payment, never done anything.

Really annoying!

Whats even worse for me is that I am AU users on them and they are on my credit reports and i'm trying to rebuild my credit after bankruptcy and it is murdering my score. But they are the only credit items I have, and they show they have been opened since 2003..
Message Edited by RSHILLSHOOTER on 06-25-2009 08:01 AM

Whats funny about this is they keep raising my limit while they keep dropping the limit on my brother. My brother makes 200k a year while I make a little more than 10% of that.