@Anonymous wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
I get the part where you're angry, but you don't need to go down "you don't know what you're talking about" route with those who are responding to you.
If you've envisioned your post as "I vent, everyone agrees with me", you're in for a disappointment.
Some might if they had similar experiences. Others might try to explain what went wrong on your end, and some might grab popcorn.
In any case, it's an interactive process, and as such, it's primarily driven by your responses.
This. Also, as has been said, it could be any lender (and, IME, Amex is far from the biggest culprit), so, to paraphrase, "stay away from Amex, they a bunch of foolish crooks" is a little misplaced, as someone going to another lender instead could well run into the same issue. You are angry at the first unjustified (to your mind) CLD so, for you, Amex sucks. Doesn't make it a general truth, which is they all suck. Except when they give us nice SUBs, rewards, CLIs whatever. But they are all in it for the money, totally unlike me.
I totally agree with the OP here. As long as I pay as agreed, and guess what, paying the minimum is paying as agreed, and there is not a serious uptick in my overall balance(s) (including other cards) I don't understand and will not accept any kind of credit limit decrease. If you do you are history, simple as that. Amex did the same to me 20 plus years ago and it was not based on slow payment or no payment, they just didn't like that I loaded up the card then paid in full. How often do they cite that people are not using their existing limits enough for an increase but if you do that is no good either? Dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. I expect stable and secure lenders. If you can't take the heat stay out of the kitchen or maybe don't lend to people with scores below 700. It is annoying how many people make excuses for Amex or any bank that does stuff like that here. Also, the timing is ridiculous. Just after Christmas, people quite often have higher balances in January, February. This is hardly unexpected or unusual.
@Anonymous wrote:Did you try calling them? They did a CLD to me once and I immediately called them and spoke to a rep, asked what was going on, explained what a great customer I was, then told them I was going to payoff the balance in full so they completely restored my credit line right away. That said if you really want a lender that won't do this try Consumers Credit Union, when my wife's credit cards were nearly all maxed out and she had a sub 600 credit score they DOUBLED her credit line from 5k to 10k and threw her a free balance transfer at a low discount rate; no bank would ever do this you will only get that kind of love from a credit union. Obviously Amex is just not a great choice for revolving a balance, if you have an 800 credit score and want to carry a balance without getting CLD go get a proper credit union account with a low interest rate many even offer no balance transfer fees and no cash advance fees.
^^This 100%. Forget about the banks if you need to leave a balance, Credit Unions are way better for that.
Diversify and you'll be bulletproof. I love Amex though and it would suck to lose that relationship after many years, but won't affect my profile or options one bit. I can take a CLD from them, it's their money and they know better than I do if I am becoming riskier due my actions. I accept responsibility, haven't always been conservative, and Amex didn't shut the door on me.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Crowhelm wrote:I totally agree with the OP here. As long as I pay as agreed, and guess what, paying the minimum is paying as agreed, and there is not a serious uptick in my overall balance(s) (including other cards) I don't understand and will not accept any kind of credit limit decrease. If you do you are history, simple as that.
This is selective pleading from the agreement! The agreement, that defines what it means to pay as agreed, ALSO indicates that the issuer can change the credit limit at any time (and that you or they can close the card at any time). Also, as mentioned several times, Amex can and does reverse CLDs quite frequently, so not sure what "you are history" can refer to. And "will not accept" presumably indicates willingness to close the card, which is 100% decrease.
I understand that it is not pleasant to get a CLD (particularly when it is apparently for "no reason", or no reason the victim thinks is justified) but it is just the other side of getting a new card or CLI, where we rarely see people rant against the nasty evil issuers.
Basically, most of us here (not all) are playing a game here, trying to get good value from credit cards. I doubt if most people in the wider world, with two or three cards kept for years, really see out of the blue CLDs, except perhaps for non-use. And when you play a game, even with somewhat hidden rules, you must expect some occasional bad with the good.
Yes, I am fully aware of it. But I don't know about you but I understand that as being an option when I mess up, meaning really mess up so deciding to keep a balance for a while is not a mess up. The last time I checked keeping a balance makes credit card companies money, no?
If you want to go along with whatever they feel like doing, that is your business. I have higher standards than that. Obviously, they expect me to have high standards, pay as agreed, be responsible with the credit card and give them lots of swipes so they can make money. So in return, I expect not to have to worry about if my limit will be the same tomorrow as it is today especially when I hold up my end of the bargain.
I find it almost amusing how you see closing the account as a negative. I mean yes in a way it is negative because I signed up with a lousy lender I thought was a good lender and now I need to find a better one but as with everything in life if I don't get the service I expect to get I take my business elsewhere. Wouldn't you do that with everything else? So why not with a credit card issuer?
And yes, we all make decisions based on our own experiences and that experience is what makes us either recommend or reject any business we dealt with. Credit card issuers should never be an exception.