@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.
@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.