Amex cardholders Shopping

[wmarat]

Do you get rewards using cash?

Do you buy now and pay 25-55 days later using cash?

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@KingAdrock wrote:

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@wmarat wrote:
4. Have back up. And I do not mean plastic. Have sub prime cash.

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What on earth is sub-prime cash?

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[CHARGE_IT]

There is something wrong with one's financial info if $3000.00 is the limit Amex gives you. This is a very small limit by their standards. A nearly perfect report as implied would definitely rate a higher limit.

As far as prestige is concerned ; every time Amex eliminates people who are marginal and trying to rebuild from their ranks, they are regaining the prestige such customers have cost them.

As someone on here frequently writes; no one is told they have to have Amex. I do notice that most who write about Amex are on the outside looking in.

If I sound like I work for the Company, you would be correct.

Charge_it

ps this is off time though, so let's all just enjoy the forum

[oracles]

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@CHARGE_IT wrote:

There is something wrong with one's financial info if $3000.00 is the limit Amex gives you. This is a very small limit by their standards. A nearly perfect report as implied would definitely rate a higher limit.

As far as prestige is concerned ; every time Amex eliminates people who are marginal and trying to rebuild from their ranks, they are regaining the prestige such customers have cost them.

As someone on here frequently writes; no one is told they have to have Amex. I do notice that most who write about Amex are on the outside looking in.

If I sound like I work for the Company, you would be correct.

Charge_it

ps this is off time though, so let's all just enjoy the forum

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Hi Charge it and welcome to the forums

Thanks for your response in giving us a view from someone who works for amex. I actually loook forward to some responses you will hopefully give in the future.

As far as $3000 dollars being a symbol of someone having trouble with their finances, i can attest to the fact that this statement is not true. I had a credit line of 3k before they reduced it.  I actually have a very nice salary, with a nice 401k, money in the bank and own my own house with 24% left to pay on my mortgage (thank God). I have credit cards that range from 5k to 35k. I actually called them to ask why was the limit so low and their response was because i had many inquiries at the time. I unfortunately went on an app spree in this time period (never again lol). My scores were in the low 700 at that time. Therefore it had nothing to do with my finances.

I currently have scores in the mid 700's. Time has passed and i recovered some pts from all those new accounts i received and util% reducing.

Please do some research on here to see and read all the loyal, long time, prestigious customers (by your definition of a prestigious customer)  who are still having adverse actions done to.

There are many examples of this all over the boards.

Again i am glad you are giving us a view from the inside of amex and what they are telling you but please also take a peek outside the window and see true reality of what they are doing. Even to your definition of a prestigious customer.

Go to a fico member name Matth and look at one of his latest post and see what he wrote in regards to his background (past and current) and see what they did to him.

Edit to add:

Actually Matth's post is number 19 in this thread that speaks about his situation. Please read it.

Thanks

Message Edited by oracles on 01-24-2009 01:28 AM

[Anonymous]

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@CHARGE_IT wrote:

There is something wrong with one's financial info if $3000.00 is the limit Amex gives you. This is a very small limit by their standards.

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I have a $2000.00 limit with them. I guess this means that there must be something seriously wrong with my financial info then.

[MattH]

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@oracles wrote:

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...

Again i am glad you are giving us a view from the inside of amex and what they are telling you but please also take a peek outside the window and see true reality of what they are doing. Even to your definition of a prestigious customer.

Go to a fico member name Matth and look at one of his latest post and see what he wrote in regards to his background (past and current) and see what they did to him.

Edit to add:

Actually Matth's post is number 19 in this thread that speaks about his situation. Please read it.

Thanks

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Thanks, Oracle!

My AMEX is a traditional Gold card so it does not have a hard limit; although of course there is a soft limit on what they would approve I have never had any purchase denied (and if I did I would simply put it on another card since my limits on those range from $10K to over $20K).  And for me the APR has no practical significance because I don't pay it (and in the highly unlikely event I should need to carry a balance, it would be on my Chase card because that has the lowest APR of my cards).

What irritates me is that I am getting mixed messages from AMEX: at the same time when they raise my APR they still keep trying to get me to switch to Platinum (while I could easily afford the increased annual fee the extra goodies are not enough to justify the cost).  The crowning insult was a mailing in early January that basically said, "if you spent a lot over the holidays remember you can carry a balance."  If they really wanted me to carry a balance, they should not have raised the APR!

[marty56]

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@CHARGE_IT wrote:

There is something wrong with one's financial info if $3000.00 is the limit Amex gives you. This is a very small limit by their standards. A nearly perfect report as implied would definitely rate a higher limit.

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One's CL is based mostly on their gross income is.  If someone has a low DTI or lots of debt, they would probably be declined for the credit vs given a low balance.

LOL my total credit limtis are less then a third of what they were when I had 70k of CC debt and my scores were sub 600 and possibly sub 500.

I think I like the low CL option better.

[haulingthescoreup]

While I respect that Charge_It works for "the Company", the trend that I have observed with CL's over the last year is that the length of "membership" seems to be a huge factor. Granted, a year or so ago, people were getting killer CL's and CLI's right out of the gate, but when the weirdness started, it seemed generally to be that it was the AmEx newbies who were getting the drastic CLD's. Less of a track record, I'm sure.

It has now broadened to where we're seeing long-termers like MattH get hit as well, presumably because many of the newbs have already been milked dry.

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MattH wrote:

What irritates me is that I am getting mixed messages from AMEX: at the same time when they raise my APR they still keep trying to get me to switch to Platinum (while I could easily afford the increased annual fee the extra goodies are not enough to justify the cost). The crowning insult was a mailing in early January that basically said, "if you spent a lot over the holidays remember you can carry a balance." If they really wanted me to carry a balance, they should not have raised the APR!

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But of course! Every time they sell a Plat, they get $450 right out of the box (positive cash flow.) It's a relatively low-risk card in that they can control how much you put on it, and as it's a charge card, they'll know within a month whether you're going to renege on your debt.

And as interest on carried balances is also a source of cash flow, raising APR's and then encouraging the carrying of balances makes financial sense for them as well.

Pretty much all the banks are shaking the money tree, and American Express is doing so the hardest.

[KingAdrock]

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@wmarat wrote:

Do you get rewards using cash?

Do you buy now and pay 25-55 days later using cash?

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No, you do not get rewards with cash, and obviously you can't pay it off later. If you could pay it off later, it would no longer be cash. It would be credit. My point is the term sub-prime applies to credit. Some types of credit are better than others, hence prime and sub-prime. But cash is cash, it's all the same. Applying the label sub-prime to cash doesn't make any sense.

[MidnightVoice]

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@KingAdrock wrote:

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@wmarat wrote:

Do you get rewards using cash?

Do you buy now and pay 25-55 days later using cash?

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No, you do not get rewards with cash, and obviously you can't pay it off later. If you could pay it off later, it would no longer be cash. It would be credit. My point is the term sub-prime applies to credit. Some types of credit are better than others, hence prime and sub-prime. But cash is cash, it's all the same. Applying the label sub-prime to cash doesn't make any sense.

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It could be a joke?  With the implication that using cash is of less benefit to the consumer than sensible use of rewards cards?

[Anonymous]

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@MidnightVoice wrote:

It could be a joke?  With the implication that using cash is of less benefit to the consumer than sensible use of rewards cards?

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I guess that's what he meant. On the other hand, paying with cash always means that you actually have the money. But it's a weird world, and you seem to be more valued when you borrow the money.