CLD season has arrived. Amex AA

[creditguy]

You know what would be nice? If a Card would just lay out up front with their terms and conditions what behaviors they prefer and what the consequences are if you stray from their wants and needs. You don't like people carrying a balance, then say hey you carry a balance too long and we will CLD you. It just seems odd to CLD a cardholder who has exhibited no out of the ordinary behavior because they did something you don't like, and then leave them to guess and wonder why. I have no problem with CLD or AA if warranted, because after all they have interests to maintain, but geez be clear on how and why it can and will happen. 

[baller4life]

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@creditguy wrote:

You know what would be nice? If a Card would just lay out up front with their terms and conditions what behaviors they prefer and what the consequences are if you stray from their wants and needs. You don't like people carrying a balance, then say hey you carry a balance too long and we will CLD you. It just seems odd to CLD a cardholder who has exhibited no out of the ordinary behavior because they did something you don't like, and then leave them to guess and wonder why. I have no problem with CLD or AA if warranted, because after all they have interests to maintain, but geez be clear on how and why it can and will happen. 

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+1000!! Plus the crash of 2009 has these banks so paranoid. They have all these computer algorithms to try and predict trouble but in the process they are punishing and alienating good customers who are paying their bills on time.

[LadyJEsq]

I agree! ^ One of the reasons why I feel there needs to be more transparency when it comes to credit. There's just too much guesswork and people's credit can be seriously negatively effected.

Sorry this happened to you OP. I hope you can get it reinstated.

[jbsea]

In general I dont carry balances anyways, but no way would I carry a balance on Amex.  I use my ED card everyday but I think of it just like PRG... Pay that baby off every month.  If I'm going to carry a balance it's on venture or nfcu.  Not worth the risk

[Anonymous]

You can carry a balance for several months. Like 3-4. For one of our businesses we go to a trade show and buy $7000 worth of merchandise, and make several payments a week as we sell it. I paid it down to $875 in 3 months and paid the rest down over 30-45 days plus Costco charges. No problems. 

They don't like people using the 0% interest free period and making monthly payments for 6-12 months on the balance.

I don't know why. This needs to be questioned to their management.

[NRB525]

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@baller4life wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Does this mean that Amx doesn't like balance transfers either? Even though they encourage you to do it?

So sorry, OP. Very disappointing.

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Put it to you like this ML. I've had a promo apr of 6.99% since March of this year good till March of 2016 and I refuse to carry a balance with Amex. I have read way too many horror stories of these AA's from carrying a balance too long with Amex. Now before the naysayers chime in, I am well aware that many have carried a balance without incident. However, I personally choose to put Amex in the pif category.

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On the other hand, I've had a 6.9% Holiday offer on my Delta Gold card since November 2014. Did a 3X CLI from $3k to $9K on Nov 15. Ran up charges to get it to almost $2k by the end of December, then set up my autopayment to $300 per month. Some other charges in there, but it was generally going down. Then made another $2,500 charge in July to get it up to over $3k, at about the time I did a small CLI from the $9k to $12k. Got three new revolvers for $35k extra CL, and the PRG in this time period, still have $500 to finish off the balance, bonus spend cycling in the other cards has been PIF.

Now, this experience with balances is not much different from my earlier history with this card, since early 2013 with PIF mode, so it's not really pushing the credit line in this case. As noted in the other thread about BT, my history with other cards shows large balances, and no missed payments, no issues with bringing those down, and that likely works in my favor in this situation. What we don't know about others reporting AA is how much they have had reporting in other balances, or how sudden these balances are compared to how much time AMEX has had to observe their payment actions.

[Anonymous]

At this point I can't be too worried about it. I've only had my Amex accounts since March and a PRG in April. The latter gets the most use especially since they introduced X2 on restaurants. Everything was probably fine until these last couple of months that saw that BCE go from 0 to 1500 plus the usual 2k spend on my PRG. I actually haven't used it for like 2 weeks and made half my payment last week before statement and will pay off the remainder this week. Anyone good at recognizing patterns will see that my spending habits have increased. Being that I am new with this lender I can see how this could raise alarm, but as I have already stated, this is my normal pattern. Holidays: up! New Year: bonus, taxes.. down!

I am going to give them a call after I payoff my PRG this week and see if they will reinstate. If not, I'll just pay them down when I do and move on from there. At this point, I'm not house shopping, card shopping or anything like that so I'm willing to take that utilization hit for a month or two.

[NRB525]

When you started adding amounts to the BCE, on the way up to $1,500, what payments amounts are you making, and how do those compare to the minimum payment amount?

[Anonymous]

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@NRB525 wrote:

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@baller4life wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Does this mean that Amx doesn't like balance transfers either? Even though they encourage you to do it?

So sorry, OP. Very disappointing.

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Put it to you like this ML. I've had a promo apr of 6.99% since March of this year good till March of 2016 and I refuse to carry a balance with Amex. I have read way too many horror stories of these AA's from carrying a balance too long with Amex. Now before the naysayers chime in, I am well aware that many have carried a balance without incident. However, I personally choose to put Amex in the pif category.

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On the other hand, I've had a 6.9% Holiday offer on my Delta Gold card since November 2014. Did a 3X CLI from $3k to $9K on Nov 15. Ran up charges to get it to almost $2k by the end of December, then set up my autopayment to $300 per month. Some other charges in there, but it was generally going down. Then made another $2,500 charge in July to get it up to over $3k, at about the time I did a small CLI from the $9k to $12k. Got three new revolvers for $35k extra CL, and the PRG in this time period, still have $500 to finish off the balance, bonus spend cycling in the other cards has been PIF.

Now, this experience with balances is not much different from my earlier history with this card, since early 2013 with PIF mode, so it's not really pushing the credit line in this case. As noted in the other thread about BT, my history with other cards shows large balances, and no missed payments, no issues with bringing those down, and that likely works in my favor in this situation. What we don't know about others reporting AA is how much they have had reporting in other balances, or how sudden these balances are compared to how much time AMEX has had to observe their payment actions.

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Early on, I came across your posts about carrying balances and how it can be beneficial to avoid issues if I ever found myself in a position where I needed to carry a balance. Because of your post, I always carry a balance on at least one major credit card during an introductory period.

OP, I have never carried a balance on my Amex credit card, but every month I allow one to report on DH's Amex and then PIF before any interest can be billed. I hope you can get your limits reinstated. Please let us know the outcome. Best of luck to you!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
At this point I can't be too worried about it. I've only had my Amex accounts since March and a PRG in April. The latter gets the most use especially since they introduced X2 on restaurants. Everything was probably fine until these last couple of months that saw that BCE go from 0 to 1500 plus the usual 2k spend on my PRG. I actually haven't used it for like 2 weeks and made half my payment last week before statement and will pay off the remainder this week. Anyone good at recognizing patterns will see that my spending habits have increased. Being that I am new with this lender I can see how this could raise alarm, but as I have already stated, this is my normal pattern. Holidays: up! New Year: bonus, taxes.. down!

I am going to give them a call after I payoff my PRG this week and see if they will reinstate. If not, I'll just pay them down when I do and move on from there. At this point, I'm not house shopping, card shopping or anything like that so I'm willing to take that utilization hit for a month or two.

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Excellent strategy!