Amex lowered my CL's 6 months ago. Will I ever get it back?

[Anonymous]

About 6 months ago Amex lowered the limits on my two cards to $1000 each (from 12k on one and 3k on the other). Since then I've reduced my CL debt by 2/3's (thanks to some tax refunds and all of the stimuli we rec'd during the year). My utilization was at 29% when they lowered it and it is now down to 9%. When I called Amex, they informed me that they would review it if I did the tax form thing granting them access to all my tax records. I'm not doing that. I did a CLI request a few days ago with a denial because of "a recent limit decrease by Amex". Should I just give up on AMEX or will I ever get any of my original limits back?

[Remedios]

Hi and welcome

I wouldn't expect increase any time soon unless you go through income verification.

While it may appear on your end that things are fine now, on their end there is a concern if you will be able to repay if it happens again.

When evaluating for increase, they're not only taking into consideration how you're managing their cards but the rest of your cards, too. 

Was this related to utilization only, or do you have negatives (old or new) on your CR? 

[Anonymous]

When Amex makes a 4506T request it's usually absolute. Without agreeing, the accounts are likely to stay as-is. People have canceled their cards and reapplied a year or two later, and approval has been dependent on the form at that point. When they decide they want it, they rarely budge.

29% overall seems kind of low for that though unless your aggregate limits are very high and 29% represents a very large dollar value in relation to your stated income. Did you have any derogs enter your reports or a sudden considerable score change? Loss of employment? I ask because I was being approved by Amex a couple years ago with higher utilization than that and a dirty file. Did something else happen in that time period? 

ETA I guess I'm typing slowly today @Remedios , you beat me to it

[Remedios]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

When Amex makes a 4506T request it's usually absolute. Without agreeing, the accounts are likely to stay as-is. People have canceled their cards and reapplied a year or two later, and approval has been dependent on the form at that point. When they decide they want it, they rarely budge.

29% overall seems kind of low for that though unless your aggregate limits are very high and 29% represents a very large dollar value in relation to your stated income. Did you have any derogs enter your reports or a sudden considerable score change? Loss of employment? I ask because I was being approved by Amex a couple years ago with higher utilization than that and a dirty file. Did something else happen in that time period? 

ETA I guess I'm typing slowly today @Remedios , you beat me to it

---

Well, it's bad news. It's only natural Negative Nancy delivers it. 

[Anonymous]

It was a pretty large amount ($25k). Nothing else has changed and I have no derogatory items on my credit report. I never suffered loss of income, even during the pandemic. I'm slightly hesitant to drop the cards because I've had them almost 5 years. Not sure if dropping them will greatly change the overall age of my credit. 

[Anonymous]

Dropping them wouldn't affect your credit age until they fall off your reports, usually ten years after closure. I'd keep them. No real reason to close them out of hand.

[Remedios]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

It was a pretty large amount ($25k). Nothing else has changed and I have no derogatory items on my credit report. I never suffered loss of income, even during the pandemic. I'm slightly hesitant to drop the cards because I've had them almost 5 years. Not sure if dropping them will greatly change the overall age of my credit. 

---

Closed account continues are included into AAoA calculations untill they are removed from CR.

They can stay as long as 10 years, but I've had some removed after only four or five years. 

[FinStar]

OP, as mentioned by @Remedios, the IV route would be the only option to get the limits reinstated.  Unfortunately, there's no specific timeframe as far as whether AmEx decides to relax that IV requirement for you in the future, so all you can do is try the CLI again in 6-12 months.  Your decision of course.

The alternative option, if you're going to be in the market for a new AmEx CC at some point in the future, would be to see if they approve you for a high enough CL and then redistribute a portion of that into one of the CLD cards.  

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. I kinda figured that was going to be my only option. I'll give it some additional thought as to dropping them. They don't do me much good at $1000. 

[MitchDeerfield]

What's the big deal about showing your tax return information?