@NRB525 wrote:
@CreditChemistry wrote:I had my hard limit removed recently. They originally issued me a NPSL Gold. I never fell behind or made any lates. I did utilize the Plan It feature that allows you to pay over time. I used that a few months. Then, they decided to put a hard limit on my card at $2800. I was there for about 6 months and they raised it to $5700. I had that for about another 6 months and they just recently lifted it. Like I said, I never defaulted or was late, just utilized it more like a credit card than a charge card for a few months and they put the hammer on me. It was a crazy few months. I had a lot of expenses and my credit score was suffering because I was carry a balance on another card as well. Hopefully they will lift your hard limit too. Good luck.
Glad you got the hard limit raised, then removed.
I added a ~$9k Plan It on my Gold nearly a year ago, on a $0 fee offer, nearly have that paid off. Just added, end of April, a Plan It $0 fee item on my Platinum with a $4,500 charge. No indication yet that any hard limits have been imposed on either card.
I think you will be okay. See above on what happened with my account. There was a lot going on. I probably set off some internal switch or something. I'm just happy they let me out of hard limit jail. 
@jarablue wrote:I just opened an American Express Platinum Card. And they told me that I have what's called spending power tool check on the account website. So you just put in the amount you won't charge and it'll tell you if they will approve it. That tool Checker is based on your spending habits payment history and other details. Last I checked I put 2500 in and I was approved to spend it at once. Since I don't spend anything near that I was satisfied. Then again I pretty much stay within $1,000 per month and pay it off completely. But log on to your American Express Platinum account and check out the spending power tool. You can just put in how much or up to you want to spend it once and it'll tell you if American Express will allow you to charge that.
You have to be careful of using that. If you try it too many times, you'll get locked out of it and/or get it shut off altogether for a while.
Also, that spending power tool is meant to check if they'll approve a one time charge of X amount you put in, but that isn't the same as a hard limit. Also, whatever amount you put in, Amex will be waiting/expecting a charge for that amount to be made soon after checking.
So, just take this for what it is... I have a hard limit on my personal Amex cards (not my business cards - no idea why, gold and plat are both NPSL). It happened to me when I bought a car about 6 months ago and app'ed for a bunch of cards at the same time. A few weeks passed and I received emails on all my Amex cards letting me know I had a preset spending limit. They have since been bumped my limits up a bit (actually a lot from where they were), but 6 months later and I still have hard limits...
Never been late, I don't carry balances -- at all, ever. I've put over 80K in the last year on my personal gold card (alone) -- all paid (always) before the bill cuts, and still, it stands. Whatever their algorithm looks for, I flagged for it. :/
As an aside; Income well over 140k, I carry no (or very little if I forget to pay before the bill cuts) or very little balance on any of my cards, I live well below my means (waiting until the housing market wakes the heck up from it's current delusional/inflated state) with substantially more available cash than any balances I carry month to month. My total for the month is roughly 1-5% of my available credit, always.
Point is, don't worry - their algoritm flags incorrectly at times based on their pre-programmed algorithms. Something in your usage pattern matched something they decided they'd hard-code to flag for. (btw, did I mention I'm also a software developer?) I wouldn't stress over it. Most likely at some point it'll decide you're fine, you passed the threshold that "some random number" of people hit that default on payments and they'll decide you're just fine.
Honestly; Algorithm decisions are generally based on basic logic "if x than y" meaning "if {user applies for x number or credit cards in x number of days} THEN {Flag user for x number of days}" -- this is an assumption, but likely in the right ballpark.
Sigh... the tldr is -- don't worry, you're not alone.
@jarablue wrote:I just opened an American Express Platinum Card. And they told me that I have what's called spending power tool check on the account website.
Yeah... I don't recommend you do that again. They have a history of flagging you for exactly what you did. That tool is meant to be used when you need to check, and only then. Don't throw random numbers at it, in hopes of identifying your max limit or you may just find that limit is cut in half. Especially if your account is new.
@CreditChemistry wrote:I had my hard limit removed recently. They originally issued me a NPSL Gold. I never fell behind or made any lates. I did utilize the Plan It feature that allows you to pay over time. I used that a few months. Then, they decided to put a hard limit on my card at $2800. I was there for about 6 months and they raised it to $5700. I had that for about another 6 months and they just recently lifted it. Like I said, I never defaulted or was late, just utilized it more like a credit card than a charge card for a few months and they put the hammer on me. It was a crazy few months. I had a lot of expenses and my credit score was suffering because I was carry a balance on another card as well. Hopefully they will lift your hard limit too. Good luck.
Pretty much what happened to me. Decided to try the plan it instead of pif. Few months later, hard limit.
