Amex asking holders to pay balances...

[RickNATL]

I've been reading threads that have mentioned Amex asking holders via emails to pay their balances, sometimes even in advance of due dates.

Keep in mind, most have been surprised by it and consider themselves great customers, long tenure, and PIF practices.

It  seems odd, and I'm not sure if this is true or even a past practice (i.e. 2007/2008 economic collapse) to protect against losses, etc.

This hasn't happened to me, but curious since quite a few have mentioned it (on personal and business cards)..

Has anyone heard of this or experienced it...?

[RickNATL]

Some theories mentioned:

They want payment because there is talk in Congress in making CC interest rate a temp ZERO% and no late fees...

Fraudulent email/phone calls...

Happens with an unusual spend pattern, i put around 20k across all amex accounts last month, got emails and calls...

[NRB525]

I have a PoT promotion on my Platinum, carrying a $2k tax payment from Dec, plus other regular charges. 
On Hilton, a Plan It charge of $1,500 or so. 
Some charge activity on Gold, and Green, several hundred a month. 

No indications to me AMEX has any problems with these amounts ( and no calls / emails regarding Please Pay in the past either ). I have some good history of occasional charges of multiple thousands on my AMEX cards, so these levels are not excessive for me. 

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Change your alert settings for the card in question.

[AverageJoesCredit]

This is first post ive read on Amex asking people to pay their balances now.  I assume if you owe its a valid point but so far dont see Amex trying to recoup their money stat😏

[seattletravels]

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@RickNATL wrote:

I've been reading threads that have mentioned Amex asking holders via emails to pay their balances, sometimes even in advance of due dates.

Keep in mind, most have been surprised by it and consider themselves great customers, long tenure, and PIF practices.

It  seems odd, and I'm not sure if this is true or even a past practice (i.e. 2007/2008 economic collapse) to protect against losses, etc.

This hasn't happened to me, but curious since quite a few have mentioned it (on personal and business cards)..

Has anyone heard of this or experienced it...?

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The only time I've heard this is in reference to their charge cards and has generally been with newer customers who havent established history/patterns.

[iced]

Also have not heard of this.

I also know that when someone feels the need to preclude a complaint about being asked to pay early by declaring themself a great customer with a long relationship and PIF track record, something in their story is being embellished to support their narrative. If American Express did ask someone to pay, there's a risk-related reason for them doing it which contradicts those declarations. To unilaterally ask all customers to pay early would be a PR disaster, which they aren't dumb enough to do unless they're between a rock and a hard place (which they aren't).

[K-in-Boston]

I've not heard of this outside of newer customers with NPSL charge cards, and that's not demanding payment early but asking them to make payments in order for them to be approved for additional charges as they have reached their internal limit.

Edit:  To answer another question in the original post, during the economic collapse of '07/'08 I was never asked to make early payments on my charge cards, even while running Pay Over Time balances up to astronomical levels.

[imaximous]

We haven't had this issue come up as long as we stay below the credit limits on revolvers. The times I've got emails from Amex about making a payment is when we've exceeded the limit. They'll just say to make a payment for the amount above the limit to avoid future charging issues. But, when I check the spending power, we can still charge close to double the limit so we keep using the cards. They seem to be automated messages in this case.

[Anonymous]

I haven't been contacted to pay any balances. Though I would like very much to see that temp 0% go into affect. Unfortunately if that happend, I think the issuers might deny any charges during said time frame?