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Right except Chase does not soft pull my credit a few times a week like they do to every card holder. Amex is waiting for the chance to take back all their "generours" limits.
I am not here to defend banks and lenders because they are all predatory. But Chase does not make ambigious rules with trash algorithms that allow people to game their promotions. Chase did not have to clawback $5 or $10 because people stacked an offer that they did not code properly.
Amex is slashing limits on people who do not max out their cards as a long thread indicated the last week. Dozens of people slashed but because their limits were restored if people called and begged Amex everyone was fine with it.
It's nice that people defend Amex like it's their job and they get paid for it, but to me Amex is the card that does not work everywhere.
"I think the issue is that we are also fair-weather friends to the issuers. We will gladly take the SUBs, and then sock drawer (as we have learned not to close soon after receiving the SUB), if a better rewards card comes along we will switch the relevant spend to that card etc. So neither side should presume on a long static relatioship.
Plus, I don't know if Amex is really that special at doing this, we hear similar stories about most issuers (frequently the hate is aimed at Barclays for example)"
Thanks for the reply. In my view We own no loyalty to any lender and they owe none to us. No lender is a friend. We are only profit to them and they are only a tool to me. I was using the term fair weather friend to frame their behavior. But to your point... Their gifts of subs are marketing tools to make money. Additionally, my tax money paid to save quite a few banks from their own foolish behavior so they owe us plenty more than a few subs, which we will never get. And no bank will ever get my "loyalty" if their products or customer service do not suit my needs.
From what I read on this site, Amex is the king of limit slashing. They soft pull every card holders credit report dozens of times a month waiting to kick you to the curb at the first sniff of perceived trouble. I would not know about HSBC but whataboutism is not an easily refutable argument. But I have already decided to avoid HSBC due to numerous complaints I have read and their poor history in the US.
Thanks for the reply. I'm new and I could not find the main thread but Amex is also lowering credits limits en mass. They lowered limits for many members of this site who did not have high balances or any change on their reports. Links to examples listed below, I can't find the more recent master thread where people whose limits were slashed called in ang got limits restored thus proving the reductions were done by Amex for arbitrary reasons not related to the specific borrower's negative actions. And yes, it was very nice that they restored limits to those who went to the trouble to call in and complain. haha
https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/AMEX-credit-limit-decrease-Updated/td-p/5547096
Here's a quote in one thread which references the mulitple credit decreases from: @CreditInspired
"Oh no, another one bites the dust (so-to-speak). I think you’re the 4th or 5th one that this CL slashing has happened to in as many days.
Was the other card another AmX card?
Wow, just one month of nonuse and AmX is cutting limits. Now this is worrisome"
@AceTen wrote:"I think the issue is that we are also fair-weather friends to the issuers. We will gladly take the SUBs, and then sock drawer (as we have learned not to close soon after receiving the SUB), if a better rewards card comes along we will switch the relevant spend to that card etc. So neither side should presume on a long static relatioship.
Plus, I don't know if Amex is really that special at doing this, we hear similar stories about most issuers (frequently the hate is aimed at Barclays for example)"
Thanks for the reply. In my view We own no loyalty to any lender and they owe none to us. No lender is a friend. We are only profit to them and they are only a tool to me. I was using the term fair weather friend to frame their behavior. But to your point... Their gifts of subs are marketing tools to make money. Additionally, my tax money paid to save quite a few banks from their own foolish behavior so they owe us plenty more than a few subs, which we will never get. And no bank will ever get my "loyalty" if their products or customer service do not suit my needs.
From what I read on this site, Amex is the king of limit slashing. They soft pull every card holders credit report dozens of times a month waiting to kick you to the curb at the first sniff of perceived trouble. I would not know about HSBC but whataboutism is not an easily refutable argument. But I have already decided to avoid HSBC due to numerous complaints I have read and their poor history in the US.
The TARP funds were not something you paid from your individual tax money, but even so, the Treasury got back more than what was paid out in TARP funds.
https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/
One of the main drivers of what got the banks into trouble was all the excess lending for homes. Whether we actually recovered from that excess, given the Fed increasing their balance sheet is still a work in progress. But that gets into an impossible discussion about "where do I as an individual fit in the global economic system?"
As to AMEX limit slashing, correct me if I ignored the latest news but my scan showed all the cards were BCE, no AF cards, with light or no use, raising the question, "why was the limit needed?"
As to cash advances, yeah, AMEX is not the place to go for frequent CA, but if I am in a pickle away from home, having the ability to ring up a CSR to get some cash can be quite important. I don't abuse it, but I do know it will be there if I am a cardholder. My employer even sent out an email clarifying that cash advance on my corporate AMEX is available up to certain daily limits.
OP, best of luck on getting yourself back on track.
Hi again
Hi
Thanks so much for the link and info.
As to your question why were the limits needed? I would reply to that in with the same level of argument.. Why would a lender give the limit in the first place? Why would a lender overextend themselves in the first place? We could ask a million questions back and forth but the bottom line is that Amex slashed limits en masse because they overextended themselves, not at the fault of borrowers. I have not read of any other lenders balance chasing and slashing limits to the degree that AMex has done. I was specifically refuting the point of another poster that amex only reduced limits beause it was the borrowers fault, my point is they also reduce limits because of their own errors in judgement (giving limits they can not cover).
@AceTen wrote:Hi again
@ jbestman007 and sorry I have not figured out how to properly quote text.Classic you say. That was my first post on this forum. The reason this thread made me come out of the lurkers garden after so many months is your exact sentiment but in reverse. I was not so much trying to vilify Amex so much as refute what I see on this forum which makes me scratch my head... and that is the cannonization and stanning of Amex. So many posts I see here are singing the praises of Amex just because everyone seems to think Amex is prestigious as they make their products worse and treat customers poorly, in my opinion. It is weird to me that some people here view amex as something to aspire to, that someone gets a card because perceived prestige. So I thought I needed to share my "classic" opinions about Amex.I could have done a far better job explaing my point, but to me there is no prestige to amex because they do not deserve the praise due to the instances of limit slashing as I cited above as well as their poor coding of bonus offers which resulted in $5-10 clawbacks. I never heard of clawbacks so that thread really helped turn me off to Amex. If people disagree with my opinion then that's fine, I am commonly wrong. I still do not like fair weather lenders and in my limited experience with posts on this forum, Amex is the king of balance chasing and reduced limits.
And Chase is known as the king of just closing your accounts. Once again, try what the OP did with a Chase card and tell me how that works out for you. The same effort you used to dig up all those Amex links, use that to research Chase arbitrarily closing all your accounts with them simply because you opened up one card too many. Once again, these are lenders; not your buddies. Don't take things so personally.
You are upset that people speak well of Amex? Maybe, just maybe, it is because they actually love their Amex! I have had nothing but stellar experiences with them. Sorry.
You write, "Chase does not soft pull my credit a few times a week like [Amex] do to every card holder. Amex is waiting for the chance to take back all their "generours" limits". That is patently false. You see, I have both cards. I have never been soft pulled more than once a month by Amex. I have, however, been soft pulled twice, one month, by Chase. Once again, part of doing business with these lenders. No biggie.
I may be wrong, but your continued use of the word prestigious, makes it look like you have a serious case of Amex envy. It is just a card. They are not for you? Good. Move on. And if you genuinely dislike Amex, that is fine also. We all have the advantage of choice. Choose what works for you. I chose to do business with both Chase and Amex and I have had nothing but great things to say about both of them.
"Give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves"....is that the Amex Stance?
If Amex sp's cr's then why doesn't Amex control CA's like BT offers? Dang, seems simple enough.
Risky profile=No CA or Bt offers.
Moderate Risk Profile=CA and BT offers with a certain limit. (perhaps reduced offer)
Strong Profile=CA and BT offers and limits remain intact from day of approval.
Seems like Amex would have shortened the rope as they collected data instead of snatching the rug out from under OP's feet.
An Offered Feature should never be a "Trigger Point". There's too much control to prevent these types of situations.
@jbestman007 Out of curiosity, what's the limit on your BCP?
I can see it on Delta Gold, but not on that one