topic Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid in Credit Cards

American express, be afraid, be very afraid

ibm650 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:38:39 GMT

I was moving, a large cross country move and the mover would only accept credit cards. So I called Amex and said I wanted to use my Amex and wife (both Starwood), they said no problem, you are a great customer. So the mover arrived, used one of the cards and the other declined, got an immediate email that they lowered my wife's card to 100 over the current balance( these were 20K limit cards) . Said it was a coincidence, luckily I had other cards, so I would not depend on Amex. Got the card fixed for my wife by calling and paying balance.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

creditnocash — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:44:55 GMT

Weird

did they restore her original limit?

what was the balance?

Maybe it was coincidence. Like when you play with the spend button.

Congrats on the move though!

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

StriderM99 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:50:30 GMT

American Express is notorius for doing this.

A contractor I used to do work for had an Amex Card for his business and was constantly being harrassed and cut off in attempt to get him to pay way ahead of his due dates. At one point, we were in the middle of Home Depot, and his card was declined. He's had the card for years and never has any late payments, yet, when he called to get an explanation, the customer service rep couldn't explain why he was cut off, but recommended he pay his current balance so it unlocks the account. He laughed and told her to look at the due date. It was just paid about a week before, and wasn't due for another 3 weeks. Again, with no real reason, she resorted back to suggesting he maybe pay "part" of his balance. After telling her off and explaining how dispicable they (Amex) have become over recent years, he hung up, and hasn't used the card since. That was about a year ago.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

cashnocredit — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:51:21 GMT

I recently did a SL check, was approved, and then paid a 60k tax bill. I did get a "card not present" email. It was about 3 x the most I've ever charged on Amex. When they are good they are very good.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

ztnjpv — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:24:40 GMT

These stories are always perplexing to me. I have to wonder what details are being left out that would help these stories make a little sense.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

cashnocredit — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:36:39 GMT

@ztnjpv wrote:
These stories are always perplexing to me. I have to wonder what details are being left out that would help these stories make a little sense.

Amex does have a huge database from which it can cull spending pattern stats and establish risk. Since the charge cards are really a different animal where Amex only makes money based on how much you spend, they want you to spend. A lot. The huge database lets them extend far more short term credit than regular CCs to many maybe most people but at the price of more scrutiny if you trigger their risk flags. Hat's off to them though. While I have a couple other NPSL CCs I doubt any of them would have approved my charge. At least without an underwriter chat.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

adavis425 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:43:01 GMT

@ztnjpv wrote:
These stories are always perplexing to me. I have to wonder what details are being left out that would help these stories make a little sense.

+1.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

jake619 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:56:13 GMT

@adavis425 wrote:
@ztnjpv wrote:
These stories are always perplexing to me. I have to wonder what details are being left out that would help these stories make a little sense.
+1.

+1.5

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

Epcot — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 05:08:09 GMT

Sorry to hear this happened to you.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

nada9188 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:19:51 GMT

Let us know about all the reasons in the letter they will be sending her about why the limit was cut.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:53:17 GMT

There's no reason to be afraid of American Express, they lend credit like many others. If you stir up the honey pot and bring too much attention to yourself all creditors will review you. Stay off the radar, that's how you build your credit, don't get greedy and shoot yourself in the foot. Garden six months after a spree, enough of this 61 day nonsense, be patient and you'll score big.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

youngandcreditwrthy — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:51:27 GMT

The 61 day cli isn't nonsense, silly!!!

It's a real, awesome thing :-)

Gardening is def the way to go !

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

jake619 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:19:10 GMT

Advertised policies aren't nonsense. Several of us have been told directly by a CSR to remember CLI's can be requested after 60 days. Nonsense would be asking for 6X when we all know the limit is 3X.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

Watchmann — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:22:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
There's no reason to be afraid of American Express, they lend credit like many others. If you stir up the honey pot and bring too much attention to yourself all creditors will review you. Stay off the radar, that's how you build your credit, don't get greedy and shoot yourself in the foot. Garden six months after a spree, enough of this 61 day nonsense, be patient and you'll score big.

This is correct. You cannot rush your relationship with AMEX. Sure, you can do the 61 day thing, but AMEX is smarter than you and has more information at their fingertips then you'll ever comprehend. AMEX views solid payback and a LONG TERM relationship (years, decades) and not 61 day snippets. Use your AMEX card, pay your bills and let time do it's thing, you cannot rush the time aspect yet I see people doing themselves in time and time again trying to rush things. I've never asked for a CL increase but my Platinum Optima has $37.9k line, a Starwood with $25k limit, and a Gold card that easity took a $28k charge on New Years Day in Aruba no questions asked, but that is with a 32 year old relationship with them. Take your time with AMEX and you'll do fine.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:06:25 GMT

@Watchmann wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
There's no reason to be afraid of American Express, they lend credit like many others. If you stir up the honey pot and bring too much attention to yourself all creditors will review you. Stay off the radar, that's how you build your credit, don't get greedy and shoot yourself in the foot. Garden six months after a spree, enough of this 61 day nonsense, be patient and you'll score big.
This is correct. You cannot rush your relationship with AMEX. Sure, you can do the 61 day thing, but AMEX is smarter than you and has more information at their fingertips then you'll ever comprehend. AMEX views solid payback and a LONG TERM relationship (years, decades) and not 61 day snippets. Use your AMEX card, pay your bills and let time do it's thing, you cannot rush the time aspect yet I see people doing themselves in time and time again trying to rush things. I've never asked for a CL increase but my Platinum Optima has $37.9k line, a Starwood with $25k limit, and a Gold card that easity took a $28k charge on New Years Day in Aruba no questions asked, but that is with a 32 year old relationship with them. Take your time with AMEX and you'll do fine.

I think this just reflects that people are at different points in credit. So some of those advocating the 61-day 3xCLI (followed by the same at 6 months) are those that would benefit from the increased credit to reduce utilization.

Of course, there are probably many as well who have no such need, but view the size of their CL as reflecting their intrinsic worth as a human (and, as applicable, **bleep** size and sexual prowess etc), so the 61 day thing is important for them as well.

And just to make sure I've abused everyone, having a "relationship" with a giant multinational (convicted of several criminal violations over the years) isn't automatically a great goal either. With good credit and that many years of history, you can get similar credit limits from a variety of lenders. You don't need Amex, and they don't need you.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

Revelate — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:24:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Watchmann wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
There's no reason to be afraid of American Express, they lend credit like many others. If you stir up the honey pot and bring too much attention to yourself all creditors will review you. Stay off the radar, that's how you build your credit, don't get greedy and shoot yourself in the foot. Garden six months after a spree, enough of this 61 day nonsense, be patient and you'll score big.
This is correct. You cannot rush your relationship with AMEX. Sure, you can do the 61 day thing, but AMEX is smarter than you and has more information at their fingertips then you'll ever comprehend. AMEX views solid payback and a LONG TERM relationship (years, decades) and not 61 day snippets. Use your AMEX card, pay your bills and let time do it's thing, you cannot rush the time aspect yet I see people doing themselves in time and time again trying to rush things. I've never asked for a CL increase but my Platinum Optima has $37.9k line, a Starwood with $25k limit, and a Gold card that easity took a $28k charge on New Years Day in Aruba no questions asked, but that is with a 32 year old relationship with them.  Take your time with AMEX and you'll do fine.
I think this just reflects that people are at different points in credit.   So some of those advocating the 61-day 3xCLI (followed by the same at 6 months) are those that would benefit from the increased credit to reduce utilization.

Of course, there are probably many as well who have no such need, but view the size of their CL as reflecting their intrinsic worth as a human (and, as applicable, **bleep** size and sexual prowess etc), so the 61 day thing is important for them as well.

And just to make sure I've abused everyone, having a "relationship" with a giant multinational (convicted of several criminal violations over the years) isn't automatically a great goal either.   With good credit and that many years of history, you can get similar credit limits from a variety of lenders. You don't need Amex, and they don't need you.

While I agree in general with virtually all of your points, name a any other generally available lender (NFCU is excluded) that can help individual establish higher limits with anywhere close to Amex's facility?

The majority of people here found this forum when they were struggling with credit, or wanted to learn more about it, or a mix of both. Like anything in life, people tend to get wrapped up in what they're interested in and credit is no exception. Combine that with society's current instant-gratification slant and nobody wants to wait a decade or longer. I absolutely agree with Watchman's point that a large dose of personal fiscal conservatism and patience can help just about anyone; however, if there's shorter ways to accomplish our goals, why not take them?

Amex has it's issues, and assuredly they're smarter than me; however, if they want to take some form of AA in the future for my eventual CLI requests, OK, I can live with that. Until then I'll use their policies to my advantage wherever possible... and presumably given they're my go-to cards, Amex probably is fine with that. If that changes, such is life.

End of the day, having a bigger limit by itself isn't going to change my spending pattern at all, and I assure you there's plenty of other things hampering me socially that there won't be any ego with regards to my credit, ever. Walk into the club like "What up? I got a big limit!" Yeah, right.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

shakalaka — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:22:54 GMT

Well, we like the 61 day mark for one thing also ... it will result in lower Util. I do intent to go for the 3x CLI at 61 days mark. No to use the CLI, but to have better Util with same usage over all my cards. I will still PIF, but not before statement. I intend to use the grace period, if Util allows. Better Chash Flow is always nice.

But I agree, esp. with Amexco nothing is better then patience. And good usage and paying them.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:31:11 GMT

I put a $12,495 purchase on my Starwood AmEx a month ago for school when I barely spent over 1200 - 1500 a month and there were no issues from AmEx. Great company and they will continue to be my go to card.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:39:35 GMT

Revelate wrote:

Capital One gave me great limits with no prior relationship. (OK, maybe that's just me because I am Richard Fairbank's unacknowledged love child).

But, yes, I agree, but the claim was for 30+ years of history, and I think over that time many lenders probably come close. (And other lenders, like PenFed, do seem to give high initial CLs to many)

And I just want to combine your thoughts:

however, if there's shorter ways to accomplish our goals, why not take them?

and

I assure you there's plenty of other things hampering me socially that there won't be any ego with regards to my credit, ever. Walk into the club like "What up? I got a big limit!" Yeah, right.

So, give it a try! Could be a lot of fun, "Ha, you call that a credit card? What it is, paper? I've got credit cards that would eat your credit card for breakfast and still have room to charge 200 first class flights to Asia" etc.

Re: American express, be afraid, be very afraid

Revelate — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:48:10 GMT

@BS: I strongly suspect by the time you applied for Cap One, you'd already well-established your limits and creditworthiness.

If I'd started this a decade ago, I could apply with Chase and get a CSP with a 25K line; however, that's not where I and probably the majority of this forum are at currently. In my case my limits are scattered in the 1-2.5K range, and it would be non-trivial for future approvals if I could move those upward. Also I've been pretty vocal as to why increased limits help my financial defensibility, so far I haven't seen anything to dispute that, and historically I tend to go in 4 year cycles where the money is running, and then when it's not.

With that sort of time frame (probably 2 years before another downturn, and someday within the next decade my current career focus is likely going to have to change from industry shifts) it'd behoove me to be in the best place possible by that point.