@Save-n-Invest wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:
@Save-n-Invest wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:
If you are being “steered” to use something other than AMEX, even for a discount, that merchant is violating AMEX Merchant Terms of Service. There was a Supreme Court case last year, decided in AMEX favor, that merchants can not do this, if they accept AMEX at all.I'm not being steered. I'm offered a discount.
The merchant will not say “I would like to steer you away from using your AMEX card” but the industry terminology for this discount offer is indeed “steering”.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_v._American_Express_Co.
My post that you responded at first was number 23 on the thread, I think. The begnning of the post was a reference to American Express reducing grocery rewards on my then BCP to 1% after approvimately $1500.00 of spend. BCP cash back is 6% to a ceiling of 6k. That didn't get an honorable mention. That actually happened so I downgraded the card to BCE. It was eventually resolved after a lot of time wasting for me. This is factual.
The remainder of your post was hypothetical upon hypothetical and off and running all the way to SCOTUS in what read to me as an attempt to throw shade on a merchant and place Amex as a victim. I apologize in advance if that is not your take on it. It's the way it read to me.
That most recent discount also makes a reference to carecredit.com if someone needs longer terms tha the practice can offer. I intened to pay in full at the time of service. Using a check is not a problem.
My post earlier today was not directed at you. Please try to understand that. I am amazed at what appears to me to be an amost pathological devotion to American Express on the site.
I actually consider American Express to be a shady operator after several issues since the middle of 2015. Each isssue involved redeeming a reward. If Amex does not want to be in the cash back business, exit the market. If Amex does not want to do revolvers, exit the market. There is no ethcal reason to reneg or attempt to reneg after the spend.
Thanks for understanding that this is not directed at you in any way. This is just the most receant and easiest post to find that shows what I am speaking of.
Thank your for reading.
Trying not to get too far off topic, in post 23, since the thread is AMEX CLD, there is no mention of Care Credit, which to my knowledge is never AMEX. I was replying to this line:
“I am frequently offered a 5% dicount for cash or check payment, 3% for Master or Visa. Is this because merchants love American Express?”
This is steering if the merchant is asking for payment and AMEX is an option. The SCOTUS case was quite significant, very relevant to this situation if AMEX is offered by the merchant.
Please understand my comments are also not personal. It sounds like there are more background facts for your situation we don’t completely know yet, and that is why we tend to go through several sets of questions to get to the reality behind a comment here on MyFICO. My opinion of AMEX is that, within the bounds of what they do, they are one of the most reliable, and rewarding credit card companies to deal with. One does have to make allowances for those limits of AMEX, however.
For example, which grocery store were you using when AMEX stopped giving 6% on your BCP? Did you change which store you use to buy groceries at that time? AMEX codes many places we might buy Groceries as “Not Groceries”, including Fred Meyer where I live. Did AMEX give 3% for Groceries on the BCE after the downgrade? Similarly, the concerns some posters have had about AMEX rewards redemption often have more complicated fact sets, or the cardholder has other ideas about how they want the redemption to work vs how AMEX actually works. Clarifying all those details probably needs it’s own thread.
This thread is for AMEX CLD information, and it seems in the OP case, as with most others, contacting AMEX was all it took to restore the CL. That indicates to me a general change to the algorithm used to pare CL, and is likely part of trying to reduce overall exposure, as several others have noted. If the known 3x CLI rules also show changes, that would be a more significant change.
Also, are the reports of CLD all for No AF cards? I don’t recall any $95 AF or $450 AF cards involved yet, but I could have missed it.
From the bank’s perspective there is no such thing as a Bad CLD.
Either the customer shrugs, and you didn’t really have the customer anyhow, or the customer calls in to raise the limit and you have another “front of mind” opportunity..
Either the customer shrugs, and you didn’t really have the customer anyhow, or the customer calls in to raise the limit and you have another “front of mind” opportunity..
@Anonymous wrote:They got me too...! I just logged in to see that my BCE's $35,000 limit was cut in half to $17,500. I've only been using the card once every few months to keep it active.
I couldnt even be mad about that drop though. 17.5K on a card that you rarely use is quite a bit.
Seems like this is going to be a common occurance now, but Amex has been a high CL gravy train for quite a while for alot of members. Based on the reports I've seen they haven't been cutting anyone limit to anything unusable. It seems they are reducing credit limits for those who dont use their cards regularly.
@Anonymous wrote:They got me too...! I just logged in to see that my BCE's $35,000 limit was cut in half to $17,500. I've only been using the card once every few months to keep it active.
Edit: Called in and it was reinstated after providing updated income information
They dropped me from 24K to 12K recently and we averaged about $300-500/mo. I never applied for the BCE card. It was the consolation prize when Amex lost Costco and it arrived with the $24K CL.
Coincidently, due to recently getting a better grocery card, the BCE is no longer relevant and is in the sock drawer waiting for the cancellation notice from lack of use. If their "deals" improve, I may dust it off for that.
Okay, I confess, last week I used the Amex promo for cellphone bills til June, then that's it. 