topic Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice! in Credit Cards

AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Scamp — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:45:50 GMT

Hi, everyone.

Another newbie, here - forums have been VERY educational. Asking for some advice here:

I'm rebuilding credit, really just started last year after a year on a secured card w/my bank. Got switched to unsecured w/my bank, then got pre-approved offers on several cards, including an AmEx green card.

Got a Chase British Airways CC, a retail card and the AmEx Green , then got an offer for the AE Gold, called and switched to Gold. After a few months of charging and PIFing $200-$300/month, they gave me the Select Items to Pay Later Option.

In Jan. 08, I had run up very high util on all my cards, and had about $600 on the revolving part of AEGold, had charged the approx. $200 I knew I'd be able to PIF for that month (plus the small payment on the revolving part), then had a medical emergency with one of my cats and ended up cornered into throwing another $250 onto my AmEx card, which I did only because I thought I'd be able to move some of it to 'pay later'.

I'd still been paying much more than minimums on all my cards, most months, no lates at all. No hints at all of any probs/changes/issues with AE. After taking care of all my other bills on Sunday 2/17 after my AE statement had cut, I went to pay what I could on that and figure out which charges I needed to move to the revolving part of it and got a "Sorry, can't approve your request" message.

I called CS, was told they didn't see any probs and I should call the Credit Dept. on Monday - it was probably just a technical glitch on AE's end. Called CD on Monday and was told they'd reviewed my account (was this the FR so many people have mentioned on here?) and credit profile (or whatever it's called) and decided to suspend my Pay Later option.

Fortunately, I still had some savings I was able to tap to cover the inordinate $450 due, but not everyone will be so lucky, so I wanted to warn people about this.

I do NOT want to keep this card!! How they handled this was reprehensible.

Any suggestions for how I might be able to cancel it after paying it off, without it hitting my score to hard?

Also, on a related note, in trying to figure out how to do so on my own, I contacted my bank to see if they'd be willing to do a CLI on my card with them (so I could then do a BT of my remaining AE balance and, I hoped, cancel AE but keep my overall total credit). Bank said no-go because of high util on all my cards (no inq on this - I was denied pre-inq because of my high util with them).

I then considered gritting my teeth and asking AE to convert me to a no-fee regular CC, so that I at least wasn't paying the beggars $110 (or maybe $150 now) a year for a card I refuse to use anymore except to keep it active and reporting. They said they couldn't just convert a charge card to a regular CC, and that I'd have to go thru the entire app/credit inq process all over. I held off and decided to consult you-all on here.

Any point in applying for a new card w/anybody with these scores, especially since my own bank denied me a CLI and AmEx yanked the Pay Later privilege? Or any other suggestions for how I might get rid of my Gold Card without hurting my score too much?

I'd appreciate your input. Thanks in advance.

as of 2/26/08, my scores were TU: 637 EQ 635 EX 622 (all my past inqs were on EX).

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Red1Blue — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:52:18 GMT

Sorry to hear about your experience with Amex. I understand how you feel.

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:15:33 GMT

Unfortunately, amex does not like monthly payments on the green or gold even though they offer it. You may want to convert to one of their credit cards instead of a charge

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:45:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Unfortunately, amex does not like monthly payments on the green or gold even though they offer it. You may want to convert to one of their credit cards instead of a charge

And people wonder why I'm scared of Amex? (famous quote from Brammy).

Meeeeee too!

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:46:53 GMT

i heard from i believe cnn finance that they are being more strigant and have done this to alot of ppl.

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:47:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Unfortunately, amex does not like monthly payments on the green or gold even though they offer it. You may want to convert to one of their credit cards instead of a charge

And if you do decide to go with one of their credit cards, (aka "revolvers": Blue, Blue Cash, Clear, Blue Sky), plan on paying off any balance in 3 or 4 payments.

Their definition of "OK to carry a balance" is very different from everyone else's.

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Scamp — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:47:55 GMT

Asked them about conversion, Brammy - was told they don't do conversion from charge card to CC. Gotta go through the entire apply/approval process.

But thanks for the response.

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Red1Blue — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:50:21 GMT

You might want to approach on of your local credit unions, who probably can help you much more in consolidating your credit cards into a low cost loan and get you started on the right track.

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Scamp — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:50:53 GMT

Thanks, Hauling.

Any suggestions for which CC to apply for, if any right now, with my scores so low and having had my bank turn me down for a CLI with their card?

I keep reading about the Delta, Starwood and HH cards, and those do turn up under their 'special offers for cardmembers' page for me on AmEx's site....

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Scamp — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:53:17 GMT

I'll keep that option in mind. Thx.

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Red1Blue — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:43:40 GMT

Scamp wrote:
Thanks, Hauling.
Any suggestions for which CC to apply for, if any right now, with my scores so low and having had my bank turn me down for a CLI with their card?
I keep reading about the Delta, Starwood and HH cards, and those do turn up under their 'special offers for cardmembers' page for me on AmEx's site....

Until you get your finances together, you might want to stay away from high interest rate credit cards.

You might want to approach on of your local credit unions, who probably can help you much more in consolidating your credit cards into a low cost loan and get you started on the right track. Couple of my CU's came through for me and helped me a lot.

Message Edited by Scamp on 12-13-2008 09:43 AM

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Scamp — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:46:08 GMT

concorduser wrote:

Scamp wrote:
Thanks, Hauling.
Any suggestions for which CC to apply for, if any right now, with my scores so low and having had my bank turn me down for a CLI with their card?
I keep reading about the Delta, Starwood and HH cards, and those do turn up under their 'special offers for cardmembers' page for me on AmEx's site....

Until you get your finances together, you might want to stay away from high interest rate credit cards.
You might want to approach on of your local credit unions, who probably can help you much more in consolidating your credit cards into a low cost loan and get you started on the right track. Couple of my CU's came through for me and helped me a lot.

(I only just figured out how to quote the post I'm responding to)

Thanks for the CU suggestion, concorduser, but aside from having high utilization s(just have been lazy about paying them off and now know I shouldn't have let the util percentages ALL get so high and then just sit - still learning!) on my cards at the mo and the temporary low scores due to my short credit history and that high util, my finances are in good shape; I can pay the balances down without a problem over a few to several months and then will make sure I keep them low.

If I decide instead to do the consolidation loan at some point, it'll be more just to get a different type of item onto my report (unless something unforseen causes me to go for one for more dire reasons).

Message Edited by Scamp on 12-13-2008 09:46 AM

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:46:33 GMT

@Scamp wrote:
Thanks, Hauling.
Any suggestions for which CC to apply for, if any right now, with my scores so low and having had my bank turn me down for a CLI with their card?
I keep reading about the Delta, Starwood and HH cards, and those do turn up under their 'special offers for cardmembers' page for me on AmEx's site....

I had forgotten about not being able to simply switch from AmEx charge to AmEx credit, and vice versa.

I think that concorduser has a better idea. Check out your local credit unions, most of whom now have a category for nearly everyone to join. They're much less high-maintenance and dramatic than American Express, and you can also get car loans, HELOCs and personal loans as well from many of them. Generally speaking, their customer service is great, and their APR's are very fair.

Do be sure, though, to pay your AmEx card down to $0, so that when you do want to get back in with them, you shouldn't have a problem. The tough thing about the credit cards that are easier to get (Delta, Starwood, HH) is that AmEx doesn't quite know what to do with them, since they represent a broadening of their market, and they're much quicker to whump those card holders. I don't know that you'd want to go through that twice.

edit: Well, we're hopelessly entangled now, aren't we? If you're going to go ahead and clean up your util etc in the next several months, you might want to just do what I did: keep reading posts on how people feel about various cards, their odd little quirks (the cards' quirks, that is), what kind of history you need, and so forth. You know better what your overall credit picture looks like, and what exactly you want from a CC.

BTW, hope your kitty pulled through OK.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 02-28-2008 04:11 PM

Message Edited by Scamp on 12-13-2008 09:46 AM

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Scamp — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:37:08 GMT

haulingthescoreup wrote:
I had forgotten about not being able to simply switch from AmEx charge to AmEx credit, and vice versa.

I think that concorduser has a better idea. Check out your local credit unions, most of whom now have a category for nearly everyone to join. They're much less high-maintenance and dramatic than American Express, and you can also get car loans, HELOCs and personal loans as well from many of them. Generally speaking, their customer service is great, and their APR's are very fair.

Do be sure, though, to pay your AmEx card down to $0, so that when you do want to get back in with them, you shouldn't have a problem. The tough thing about the credit cards that are easier to get (Delta, Starwood, HH) is that AmEx doesn't quite know what to do with them, since they represent a broadening of their market, and they're much quicker to whump those card holders. I don't know that you'd want to go through that twice.

edit: Well, we're hopelessly entangled now, aren't we? If you're going to go ahead and clean up your util etc in the next several months, you might want to just do what I did: keep reading posts on how people feel about various cards, their odd little quirks (the cards' quirks, that is), what kind of history you need, and so forth. You know better what your overall credit picture looks like, and what exactly you want from a CC.

BTW, hope your kitty pulled through OK.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 02-28-2008 04:11 PM

Thanks again, Hauling. The only reason I was considering trying to get another regular CC was just to have a way to BT my remaining Gold Card balance and (maybe) close the Gold Card acct without denting my scores too much or lose overall credit availability.

Bad enough to have to keep any card with them to protect my score, but I was hoping I at least wouldn't have to pay the bloody fee for the Gold Card!

Much as it riles me to say, I likely will have to just grit my teeth and pay them off, then use the card minimally to keep it active while I pay down the other ones and get my scores back up.

At that point, I may revisit the idea of getting a regular CC with AmEx and dump the Gold Card and its Fee, if I don't get a card somewhere else and dump AmEx altogether.

And yes, my cat pulled through - thanks for the kind wishes. He's now my 'Thousand-Dollar Cat' and has been informed that he is required to live AT LEAST another ten years!

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:47:24 GMT

@Scamp wrote:

And yes, my cat pulled through - thanks for the kind wishes. He's now my 'Thousand-Dollar Cat' and has been informed that he is required to live AT LEAST another ten years!

Glad to hear it! I've had several brisk discussions with cats over the years regarding their price per pound.

Message Edited by Scamp on 12-13-2008 09:47 AM

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:10:04 GMT

I guess the bottom line is the Extended Pay privilege was designed for other uses that what you have used it for-

Vacations and major purchases-

You are not putting enough though the card to justify the AF for gold- My little Green is back up to $3k again- Good thing this is a short month-

I currently have no reason or desire to revolve on my Green card-

Glad to hear you and your cat has recovered.

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Scamp — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:48:46 GMT

Timothy wrote:
I guess the bottom line is the Extended Pay privilege was designed for other uses that what you have used it for-
Vacations and major purchases-
You are not putting enough though the card to justify the AF for gold- My little Green is back up to $3k again- Good thing this is a short month-
I currently have no reason or desire to revolve on my Green card-
Glad to hear you and your cat has recovered.

I know Extended Pay was designed mainly for big stuff like that; I used it the way I did at this point with the intent of temporarily revolving a larger balance than I typically would try to run up and pay off in full in a single month, which I hoped would give me a higher 'limit' reported to CRA's and help my overall scores, once I paid that revolved balance back down and off. My AmEx card right now IS reported as a CC, presumably due to the revolving balance. I never checked how it was reported prior to that, so have to wait til it's paid off to see how it's reported when I don't have a revolving balance.

I know I don't put enough through most months (yet) to justify the Gold fee in that sense; I got Gold more for longer-term purposes and plans, for domestic travel-related purchases, to gradually build up how much I was charging and paying off every month as my income and spending power grow, and for the perks AmEx gives Gold card travelers. I travel internationally once a year, typically on my own, and I thought that $110/year would be worth it if anything unforeseen ever happened on a trip wherein AmEx's services could get me out of a pickle in another country that I couldn't get out of on my own.

In reading various threads on here, it may be that I could have avoided the suspension if I had called them when the cat emergency hit and told them what I was planning to do.

And I'm not so much angry that they pulled the privilege - they absolutely have a right to pull it if I'm not using it correctly or reach some kind of credit-worthiness limit or whatever - I'm angry that they didn't notify me. I should have been informed it was gone BEFORE I made new purchases under the new conditions of my account. Had I known that option had been removed, I of course never would have put additional charges on that card. Instead, they gave me no warning, no clue that anything had changed, authorized more than twice my characteristic charges in a month and THEN told me I no longer had the option to move some purchases to Extended Pay. Inexcusable.

Message Edited by Scamp on 12-13-2008 09:48 AM

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:30:16 GMT

Maybe try a loan-shark lol jk thats what AMEX sounds like are you sure the Mafias not running AMEX? IMO I'd get rid of em and get a VISA/Mastercard and never do business with them again. First of all I'm not jumping through hoops for some sell out sub-prime card thats sells its logo to HSBC. I would cut up that card into thousands of pieces and get Amex CEO's address and mail it to him and tell him to bend ova and shove straight up his neveamind...lol

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:21:36 GMT

Glad to hear your cat is doing better. I think maybe timing may be a factor as well, it is possible that creditors in general are a little jittery these days. I can't remember who participates in universal default or not, but isn't there something that's supposed to be happening in March? Are creditors doing some additional reviews for scrutiny?

Basically, I'm wondering if your situation happened a year ago, would Amex have pulled the pay later option? (I'd be wondering this question if it were any other creditor as well.)

Message Edited by PenguinGeek on 02-29-2008 04:21 AM

Re: AmEx - Yanked my Extended Pay privilege w/no notice!

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:22:26 GMT

PenguinGeek wrote:
Glad to hear your cat is doing better. I think maybe timing may be a factor as well, it is possible that creditors in general are a little jittery these days. I can't remember who participates in universal default or not, but isn't there something that's supposed to be happening in March? Are creditors doing some additional reviews for scrutiny?

Basically, I'm wondering if your situation happened a year ago, would Amex have pulled the pay later option? (I'd be wondering this question if it were any other creditor as well.)

Chase has announced that as of March 2008 they will no longer practice UD. They announced this a few months ago, to some fanfare, but of course the discussion at that time was about why they wouldn't just cease the practice immediately since they apparently concede they should stop.

There was a post on another board last fall sometime from someone who got a notice of ratejacking by Chase, called customer service and said "I thought you were stopping this unfair practice," to which the CSR replied, "Oh, no, that's not til March."