AMEX Spending Power: Interesting Development

[CreditCrusader]

Soooo...

As I wrote in another thread, I have recently joined the AMEX club due to the congruence of their rewards to my particular spend.

Despite the many warnings I see here, I have been sort of testing the spending power button to see how much they trust me to charge and pay off.

At first, they set my gold and green limits at $2,000 each.

After 30 days of $6,000 combined spend (and immediate pay once the charges post), they bumped each to $6,000...completely reasonable, IMO.

Here's where it gets interesting (to me, anyway):

I closed all of my cards save four. The closed cards all hit my credit profile over a three-day span.

Subsequently, out of curiosity, I submitted a $10,000 spending power request for both cards. I figured it's no big deal if they hold at $6,000.

Approved...$10,000, each card.

Now, I'm sure the robust spend had quite a bit to do with their rapid bump of my spending power, but is it possible that taking the hatchet to the other credit lines (and potential spend on them) had something to do with the rapid increase?

I'd love for more seasoned AMEX users to chime in here. I'm still trying to understand how to best use these cards.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

To not answer the questions, but anyway:

1) Closing all the cards before being confident that Amex is the right fit is a little, um, brave.  You might find that MRs work great for you, or not.

That said, we don't which cards were closed, they could have been pretty worthless ones anyway...

2) Spending limit isn't really the same as getting a CLI, it can vary all the time.  A transaction for a fraction of the spending limit could still be denied as well, based on Amex's magic "other factors"

[GZG]

I'm sure part of their underwriting for much you can spend on your cards is total overall revolving exposure, but I imagine it's a smaller part of it as opposed to a larger part 

you don't know how much you can spend until you actually do it, and how close you can get to your 'limits' before the "dude what are you doing, pay or else" emails start showing up 

ideally, amex is aware of your likely spend and won't bother you if you are spending near that amount, no matter how 'high' you check in the spending power tool

[CreditCrusader]

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@Anonymous wrote:

To not answer the questions, but anyway:

1) Closing all the cards before being confident that Amex is the right fit is a little, um, brave.  You might find that MRs work great for you, or not.

That said, we don't which cards were closed, they could have been pretty worthless ones anyway...

2) Spending limit isn't really the same as getting a CLI, it can vary all the time.  A transaction for a fraction of the spending limit could still be denied as well, based on Amex's magic "other factors"

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I kept a couple of high-limit local CU rewards cards. Should AMEX close the door all of a sudden, life will go on.

Regarding the spending power limits, are you saying they are essentially fleeting and somewhat arbitrary? If so, should I phone in advance if I want to make a large purchase?

[Anonymous]

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@CreditCrusader wrote:

Regarding the spending power limits, are you saying they are essentially fleeting and somewhat arbitrary? If so, should I phone in advance if I want to make a large purchase?

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No, when I try it is does say good for 48 hours based on current account status.   My point more was it may say $10K today, but $5K or $20K next week as their view of things change.

[cashorcharge]

I knew this feature existed for their Charge Cards including those with a POT limit....

However, this week they sent me an email telling me I could now freely go over my limit on my Credit Cards with them and any amount over the existing CL would come due when the statement generated and that portion must be paid in full by the due date.  They annouced it to me as 'A New Feature" on my accounts so not sure if it's really NEW or NEW to me...