topic Re: Amex lowered credit limit…. in Credit Cards

Amex lowered credit limit….

Janneman — Sat, 17 May 2025 23:43:55 GMT

My father has 3 personal credit cards and one business credit card with Amex, and each of these cards has CL of $18k for a very long time. Today Amex lowered the credit limit of all these cards to only $800 which is so sad and disappointed to all of us. Amex states in their letter that if my father wants to Amex to reconsider the credit limit then he needs to send bank statement or tax returns which my father doesn't have anymore because he is retired and doesn't have money in his bank account. These cards he got when he was working and was making good money, but now his income is slashed down and he couldn't provide those things. He didn't ask for CLI or anything like this. Amex lowered the CL on all this accounts all of sudden out of blue. Any tips or option for my father to get back previous CL??

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

redpat — Sun, 18 May 2025 00:17:08 GMT

Not much he can do, it looks like a financial review.

If all of you are AUs and using the cards that might have triggered it. They may want to know if he can cover the card's usage because AUs are not responsible for the balances.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

Varsity_Lu — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:20:51 GMT

Doesn't he have retirement income? He still files taxes, right? Can't that be used as proof of income? If he doesn't have any income, then AmEx is justified in their action.

The rumor is that AmEx will give you about half of your annual income in credit. If they slashed him to $3,200 total, that means they think he only has under $7,000 of annual income.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

GZG — Sun, 18 May 2025 01:56:31 GMT

Does he live with you? See if they will consider bank statements from anybody in the home whose income he has access to

is there no money in his accounts? No income whatsoever?

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

FicoMike0 — Sun, 18 May 2025 04:37:34 GMT

Is your father still among the living? If not, that might make it difficult. I hear amex is picky that way.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

LivingTheAmericanDream — Sun, 18 May 2025 04:41:49 GMT

Household income vs personal income perhaps?

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

ptatohed — Sun, 18 May 2025 06:39:13 GMT

As others have said, surely he must have some savings and some income, no? Take whatever he has and send in proof. He may not be restored to the full $18,000 but maybe higher than $800.

You mentioned a business card. Does he still have a business?

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

Janneman — Sun, 18 May 2025 08:10:49 GMT

Thanks everyone for your input which is very much appreciated. To answer to all of your questions then my father has no income, no saving, no retirement income, no bank account and nothing...and he doesn't file taxes anymore because he is not required to because of his no or low income. No income whatsoever...And he doesn't have the business that he had before, but Amex did not ask for anything. And yes, he lives with me....he did call Amex but they want only his tax returns or bank statements, and not household income of everyone who lives in the same household.

I am not saying that Amex is wrong when there is no income, but all I am saying is that its very strange that Amex lowered CL this much all of sudden on all accounts out of blue without triggering anything. And as I said earlier that he had $18k CL on each of his accounts for many years and there is nothing he did so to assume that might have triggerred this. Nobody is on his accounts as AUS...And I do not think that Amex think that his income is under $7k/annually because they never asked anything BEFORE slashing all the CL of $72k to $3200...that's unbelievable....I guess there is nothing he could do now...Perhaps, he would wait until the next year and try to ask for CLI....If they would increase it then good, otherwise oh well...there is nothing he seems to do about it than just closing out all these accounts because this much CL he couldnt do anyway and might not need them.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

ptatohed — Sun, 18 May 2025 08:21:46 GMT

So not even Social Security? Which 3 cards are these? Do they have annual fees? If so, maybe it's better to close them anyway.

What has the monthly spend been like on these 4 cards?

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

Varsity_Lu — Sun, 18 May 2025 09:59:19 GMT

@Janneman wrote:
Thanks everyone for your input which is very much appreciated. To answer to all of your questions then my father has no income, no saving, no retirement income, no bank account and nothing...and he doesn't file taxes anymore because he is not required to because of his no or low income. No income whatsoever...And he doesn't have the business that he had before, but Amex did not ask for anything. And yes, he lives with me....he did call Amex but they want only his tax returns or bank statements, and not household income of everyone who lives in the same household.

I am not saying that Amex is wrong when there is no income, but all I am saying is that its very strange that Amex lowered CL this much all of sudden on all accounts out of blue without triggering anything. And as I said earlier that he had $18k CL on each of his accounts for many years and there is nothing he did so to assume that might have triggerred this. Nobody is on his accounts as AUS...And I do not think that Amex think that his income is under $7k/annually because they never asked anything BEFORE slashing all the CL of $72k to $3200...that's unbelievable....I guess there is nothing he could do now...Perhaps, he would wait until the next year and try to ask for CLI....If they would increase it then good, otherwise oh well...there is nothing he seems to do about it than just closing out all these accounts because this much CL he couldnt do anyway and might not need them.

AmEx probably already knew he had no income, they are just providing him an opportunity to make sure it was not an error. They have ways of knowing who pays taxes and who is getting checks. He should try to move as much of the credit over to a no AF card and then close the rest. Maybe he can piece together one card with a $2,400 CL.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

JoeRockhead — Sun, 18 May 2025 11:07:53 GMT

No lender has a magic tool to search to see if someone has a bank account or filed their taxes.

However, if there's been spend on the cards and the payments to those cards has been consistently coming only from a person's bank account that's not associated with the Amex accounts, that would be a red flag and trigger the CLDs, as well as the request for documentation.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

Varsity_Lu — Sun, 18 May 2025 12:23:48 GMT

@JoeRockhead wrote:
No lender has a magic tool to search to see if someone has a bank account or filed their taxes.

However, if there's been spend on the cards and the payments to those cards has been consistently coming only from a person's bank account that's not associated with the Amex accounts, that would be a red flag and trigger the CLDs, as well as the request for documentation.

Not directly, no, but there are other indicators that they have access to that may have caused them to infer certain life changes. They have a hunch and are giving him an opportunity to prove them wrong. If he recently went on Medicaid, for example. That would explain his zero income. And there is a five year look back period that may have caused alarm. If he sold or transfered his home for instance. Or, like Joe said, his payment or spending habits have changed.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

PayAndProsper — Sun, 18 May 2025 12:55:13 GMT

@Varsity_Lu escribió:
AmEx probably already knew he had no income, they are just providing him an opportunity to make sure it was not an error. They have ways of knowing who pays taxes and who is getting checks. He should try to move as much of the credit over to a no AF card and then close the rest. Maybe he can piece together one card with a $2,400 CL.

I mean, why close the cards? If he has no income whatsoever, I am assuming that $800 credit limits should be more than enough. Do you think that is not the case?

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

pauldc73 — Sun, 18 May 2025 14:38:51 GMT

and to follow on from the last post - if more than $800 is spent, how would he pay it back with little (no) income?

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

MorPtsPls — Sun, 18 May 2025 15:33:27 GMT

If your father has no savings, no income, and not even a bank account how could he use a credit card? Is it possible to pay a credit card bill with cash? Or does he spend and then you pay the card off with your bank account? If that is the case maybe he could become an authorized user on one of your cards, as you are paying the bill anyway.

ETA: If your bank account is linked to his credit cards to pay the bills maybe you could but his name on your checking account and then submit that to Amex for the review. I'm not sure, just spit balling here.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

LivingTheAmericanDream — Mon, 19 May 2025 01:23:17 GMT

I would NOT consolidate the amounts into 1 card but rather keep all the cards open even though the CL is low. As an AU, having 3 good TLs w/a long history is important.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

ptatohed — Mon, 19 May 2025 05:57:27 GMT

@PayAndProsper wrote:
@Varsity_Lu escribió:
AmEx probably already knew he had no income, they are just providing him an opportunity to make sure it was not an error. They have ways of knowing who pays taxes and who is getting checks. He should try to move as much of the credit over to a no AF card and then close the rest. Maybe he can piece together one card with a $2,400 CL.
I mean, why close the cards? If he has no income whatsoever, I am assuming that $800 credit limits should be more than enough. Do you think that is not the case?

I don't think OP stated which AmEx cards they are but, if there are 4, I doubt these are all no-AF cards. If these are AmEx cards with high AFs, and Dad has little/no money and only an $800 CL, I would doubt he's getting enough value from the card(s) to offset the AF(s).

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

Varsity_Lu — Mon, 19 May 2025 09:32:26 GMT

@LivingTheAmericanDream wrote:
I would NOT consolidate the amounts into 1 card but rather keep all the cards open even though the CL is low. As an AU, having 3 good TLs w/a long history is important.

Important for what? This guy has no income, no savings, no bank account, no property, and doesn't even file taxes. What reason would there be to keep them open? Besides, even closed accounts stay on his record for the next 10 years.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

Janneman — Mon, 19 May 2025 09:40:39 GMT

Please know that I have not asked as to whether or not my father should close all his accounts, consolidate them nor asked his ability or inability to pay anything, rather I simply asked if there is a way for him to get his previous CL back if possible...given his financial situation that he has nothing to prove them about his income. He is a guy who keeps all his money in the house than in the bank, but its not the matter of conversation.

Anyway, it seems that there is no way for him to get his previous CL back given the fact that Amex wants only his bank statements or tax returns in order to reconsider his request to re-instate his previous credit line which he couldn't provide because he doesn't have neither of them. As of now he has decided to keep the cards open and would request for the credit line by the January of next year. There is nothing he could do anyway. Thanks everyone.

Re: Amex lowered credit limit….

smcj — Mon, 19 May 2025 15:45:06 GMT

@Janneman wrote:
Please know that I have not asked as to whether or not my father should close all his accounts, consolidate them nor asked his ability or inability to pay anything, rather I simply asked if there is a way for him to get his previous CL back if possible...given his financial situation that he has nothing to prove them about his income. He is a guy who keeps all his money in the house than in the bank, but its not the matter of conversation.

Anyway, it seems that there is no way for him to get his previous CL back given the fact that Amex wants only his bank statements or tax returns in order to reconsider his request to re-instate his previous credit line which he couldn't provide because he doesn't have neither of them. As of now he has decided to keep the cards open and would request for the credit line by the January of next year. There is nothing he could do anyway. Thanks everyone.

Once under Financial Review or other "global risk management" lockdown (that quoted phrase is from a conversation with AMEX), it's going to fall to automation as to whether the CLs will ever move again, the sole exception [I'm told] being if the lockdown is negotiated within 30 days after it occurs. And negotiation requires giving them the proof they want in the exact form they want it -- AMEX is well known for that particular "our way or the highway" handling of risk evaluation after flagging someone.

For some more discussion about AMEX behavior in a global risk management scenario, see this thread. Hope it is useful.

As far as the why of it all, the net would be that something set AMEX off. Like any creditor they soft-pull CRs for review on a regular basis (monthly so far as I'm aware), and then you have usage history, payment history, and all the other they-will-haves that net out to "they are watching." And if what they watch somehow annoys the risk management algorithm(s), away the cardholder goes to... well, exactly what you've described.

Sorry for being late to the convo but hope this helps in at least an informational context.