AMEX's Strange Arbitrary Statement Closing Dates

[Credit_hawk]

Hey guys!

Just thought I'd put this out there to see if anybody could enlighten me or add comment as to why AMEX has such unpredictable and strange statement close dates every month. It's like they arbitrarily choose the date on the fly for each month. Unlike Cap One, Chase, BofA, Discover that have the same exact open and close dates for their statement periods every month, AMEX is schizophrenic. Even if they list the date as say the 20th it doesn't necessarily mean the 20th because if you make a $1,000 purchase on the 19th, sometimes it will not close until that charge processes. They're really kind of funny the way they do that. I don't mind that they will pause your close dates to try to capture as much costs on the nearest bill as possible but I like stability with my finances. I like to be able to make purchases and payments before and after hard open and close dates. Stability is good in banking, imho.

I go to check my balance today and it says my statement closed on 2/17. I was surprised because it closed on the 21st  last month and never closes before the 20th for me. They seem to have such an arbitrary open and close compared to many of their competition. The only other bank I've noticed that does this is Citi. But they're not as wild in variation as AMEX.

Any thoughts about this?

[Anonymous]

Maybe because we are in a shorter month? That would be my guess. I just checked my Amex and it's still the same date of the 1th

[Anonymous]

Shorter month... Nothing special. 

[Anonymous]

I think the closing dates must be somehow related to the opening account time because mine are all different:

Plat - Mar 8

PRG - Feb 24

SPG - Mar 3

ED - Mar 14

SPG Bus - Mar 20

SCP Bus - Mar 9

[accidentalpancake]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Maybe because we are in a shorter month? That would be my guess. I just checked my Amex and it's still the same date of the 1th

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I don't know, but a date of the 1th seems pretty odd to me...

[Anonymous]

It's a special agreement Amex and I have haha. It falls between the 31th or 30th and the 1st of the month haha

Yes, a shorter month does play into due dates as well. I have two cards that close on the 29th and the 30th. My CSP closes on the 29 and they moved the date to the 3 or 4th I believe. And my 30th day for discover shifted to the first.

[Anonymous]

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@accidentalpancake wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Maybe because we are in a shorter month? That would be my guess. I just checked my Amex and it's still the same date of the 1th

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I don't know, but a date of the 1th seems pretty odd to me...

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^^^ I don't know if it's just me or was that funnier than it so should've been...

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I think the closing dates must be somehow related to the opening account time because mine are all different:

Plat - Mar 8

PRG - Feb 24

SPG - Mar 3

ED - Mar 14

SPG Bus - Mar 20

SCP Bus - Mar 9

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I'd found it necessary to contact all of my creditors and have the closing dates switched to the 2nd on all but two cards. I did that so I could guarantee that my due dates feel within a couple days span and also to roll my cards to have a 0 balance at cut date. Before I did that, managing all the different dates became overwhelming...

[K-in-Boston]

In my experience, the statements close at the end of the day and I usually don't have a statement balance until mid-morning the next day. I have 3 cards (Platinum, PRG, Blue) and the only one that has a floating statement closing date is the PRG. It's because AmEx likes to keep the due date (or formerly Please Pay By... date) exactly 25 days after the statement closing date. In the case of my PRG, it's due on the 10th every month so my statement closing floats around a few days. I can't recall the blue dates exactly since I haven't used it in a while, but my Platinum (formerly a green rewards) always closes on the 2nd and is due on the 27th. Regardless, AmEx is one of the best of my lenders to always clearly display the statement closing date when you are logged in.

[WST]

My Due Date with PRG is always the first, but I believe the statement close date floats - no worries, I like it this way.