You must be doing quite a bit of spending if they're already calling you within 2 months.
@ilove2learn wrote:
I fell for the hype of how great American Express platinum is. In the numerous reviews I read prior to applying NO ONE mentions the the 2 AM emails stating: "You’re spending more than usual "The balance on your account is approaching a level where we may need to temporarily suspend further charging. To ensure uninterrupted use of your Card, please call us at 1-800-230-1284 to discuss your account(s). We’re available to assist you 24 hours a day, seven days a week." Followed by the text messages and phone calls from random numbers throughout the day to "assist" with making payment arrangements prior to the due date or statement closing day. Already made a payment? Doesn't matter the phone calls are coming! Tired of receiving notifications and calls? Not an issue opt out of them contacting you and Amex will simply suspend your account, but you wont find out until checkout! Accquiring inquiries on your credit report N-O-T related to American Express? Be prepared for a well-mannered person to call demanding payment while graciously informing you your spending power has been reduced due to the recent inquiries then politely reassuring you the platinum card is a "performance card", the more you spend the higher your future spending power. It's great the balance of the card does not impact credit utilization. However, this card will NOT be a daily driver! I am only two months into using Amex Platinum and the honeymoon is over I will be switching to one of my traditional high limit cards with a set credit limit.
I'm on your side. I used to have the gold card. I had a perfect record, fairly low utilization, and limits totalling $94k on my Amex revolvers. Then one day I decided to give the card some love and put a $3k veterinarian's bill on the card, and they declined the charge. Not a fraud alert, they were just declining the charge outright. The reason they gave me was that I had never paid more than $1700 in a month with the card in the past.
I got rid of that card. No more charge cards. I will only use cards where I know what the credit limit is, and don't have to guess, at the risk of being embarrassed.
No one mentions those in reviews because it doesn't usually happen to Amex cardholders. Calls asking for early payments and setting a preset limit on charge cards is their reaction when they feel that the cardholder is in financial distress, or if there have been delinquencies either with Amex in the past or with other lenders that appear on your credit reports. It really depends on the profile, but for the average person applying for a lot of credit in a short period of time or quickly adding a lot of new debt can be a red flag that the cardholder is under financial duress and has a higher likelihood of defaulting.
I've been with Amex for almost 20 years. Never had a call asking for early payment. Never had a preset limit imposed. Never had a charge declined even if it was a very large dollar amount and I hadn't used the card in a long time, or even in cases of obvious fraud (they prefer to accept the charge now and ask questions later so as not to inconvenience their members). All of that even when I had revolving utilization in the 80-90% range for years after the Great Recession caused my other lenders to rate jack and balance chase and while owing Amex some serious cash on Pay Over Time balances. They have never let me down when it comes to feeling like a valued member and kept me afloat for years.
@ilove2learn I understand your frustration, I been there for the t-shirt and signed. But here is what I can tell you from experience. They are so relationship based company, the first 6 months was tough, emails, text and calls. But I figured out the "system" by talking to retention specialist- it is all system based and the system looks at your spending and payment habits - here is the short version
Example 1
week 1 spend $1000
beginning of week 2 you pay $1000
multiple that by 4X a month the system thinks you can manage paying $4000 a month
Example 2
week 1 spend $1000
beginning of week 2 you pay $2000
multiple that by 4X a month the system thinks you can manage paying $8000 a month and then some becuase ur paying more than your actual "spend"
I did example 2 for 3 months - after that - my Platinum was free as a bird, and all the other AMEX cars NO ISSUES, but as everyone has stated it all depends on the situation, but I can tell you AMEX loves payments multiple times a month and paying more than your spend.
hope this helps and hope you give AMEX a few more months, but once you past that stage your golden
I support the decision to cancel also. *If* I was looking to keep it I might call and offer to do a financial review or whatever they call it (4506-T)? Or submit additional income verification to keep them off my back.
