I recommend paying off the card but do not close it by your own. You are not sure whether they plan to close it or they want to keep it open with a low credit line. Also, I think there is no difference if it gets closed by you or by lender, as long as the lender does not provide negative comment on the closing reason.
Before paying off the card, also you might call them to get feedback on the status and inform them that you have a good will to pay off the card soon. In case that they have some prior decisions to close it, it might help to prevent it.
Synchrony closed my Amazon store card several years ago without prior notification (the credit reports show: "closed by lender"). I was not carrying balance but their website was very buggy at that time and it was not doing the payments or autopayments correctly. After receiving their letter, I called them to describe the issues but it did not change their decision. Afterward, I migrated to Chase Amazon Prime card to use 5% cashback on Amazon. I heard that Amazon might break with Chase and consider Synchrony or Amex. If it wants to happen, I wish that they work with Amex.
Fico8: EX~EQ~TU~840 (12 month goal~850).
Doesn't sound like an Amex issue and no reason to tell others to avoid doing business with them. This stuff doesn't happen out of the blue. 99% of the time when we see posts like these there is something in the person's credit file/behavior that triggered this result. People can be upset and disagree with Amex's decision, but a lot of times this type of reaction by Amex is easily avoidable.
;Correct. The lenders can excercise their rights to close the credit card at any time. Therefore, it is better to be polite and find out the reasons that such issue happened and fix it. It happend to me once and there was a reason for that (even it was not my fault and beyond my control).
They usually do not do it unless some issues would trigger and reflect a possible financial risk (late payment, drop of credit score, derog, ...).
The impression I've gotten about Amex over the years of watching this forum is....
They are a solid lender who doesn't mind extending credit and even hands out rather hefty limits. However, I also think they are one of those lenders who wants to be paid back relatively quickly. Not one of those that you can carry large balances for extended lengths of time.
If you have used $7,000 on a $20,000 CL card with them and you've only been paying back $100/mth the past 3 years, they are likely to balance-chase.
On Deck: No Plans Currently
@theNavigator wrote:American Express also just had my limit cut by 13k, down to just about where my balance is at, unreal. I am paying my small balance off and never doing business with them again. I advise people to be careful and steer clear of them they really aren't that special to be pulling this tbh.. Never had a company ever do this to me and I don't appreciate it.
No they're not special. They're just another bank. Not to be trusted.
My advice though is to just ride it out and see where you wind up. It's pretty easy to get CLI's from Amex after thing settle down.
They just did this nonsense to me and I'm so pissed $8,900 to $2,000 my balance was $1,500 reason was too many inquiries 6 in 12 months. I'm sure they will close it I never got a whole lot of love from amex no cli's no pre approvals after that my second amex an Amazon prime business was a cold app which I was surprised they approved. I have never had a late payment with them. Hopefully things cool down and they don't close it. I like the bank everyone is always nice and helpful for me but this is just plain annoying.
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