Closing Amex Gold question

[wasCB14]

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@Slowlyrebuilding wrote:

No late payments with Amex. All accounts are at zero monthly. I've never asked them about the preset because I didn't really care. Like i said in the first post I'm planning to close it either way because they got rid of the perks I used (airline credit and Uber eats membership) so I can no longer justify the annual fee. My only concern was whether the preset limit would affect overall utilization. I've done a lot of work getting it down. 

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I'm not currently up-to-date on AF refund policies for closed Gold cards, but if you plan to close soon anyway you might see if you can get a retention offer.

[MrDisco99]

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@Slowlyrebuilding wrote:

So a little less than a year ago my Amex Gold was given a preset spending limit. It wasn't a huge deal to me at the time but since then Amex has dropped the benefits from Gold that I use the most to justify the fee so I am thinking of closing. I have 3 other Amex credit cards. I wanted to transfer the credit limit from 2 of them to one and close. So essentially I would be down to 1 Amex card. 
When I try to transfer the credit limit it says it's denied because the Gold has a preset spending limit. 
I have 3 questions:

1) if I close Amex Gold will it affect my utilization or is it not calculated in?

2) has anyone had success closing a card with a preset spending limit and then being able to transfer credit limit?

3) does closing cards with Amex affect your ability to get approved with them in the future?

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1) Charge cards do not affect utilization.

2) Never tried it.

3) Yes.  Make sure you don't close any card you've had less than a year.  If it has an annual fee, wait for the fee to post then cancel.  They will refund the fee.  Otherwise it should be fine.  I've closed a lot more Amex cards than I currently have and they still approve me.  I did close one card less than a year after I opened it and they put me in pop-up jail for a little while, but they eventually started approving me again.

[jcooks]

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@MrDisco99 wrote:

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@Slowlyrebuilding wrote:

So a little less than a year ago my Amex Gold was given a preset spending limit. It wasn't a huge deal to me at the time but since then Amex has dropped the benefits from Gold that I use the most to justify the fee so I am thinking of closing. I have 3 other Amex credit cards. I wanted to transfer the credit limit from 2 of them to one and close. So essentially I would be down to 1 Amex card. 
When I try to transfer the credit limit it says it's denied because the Gold has a preset spending limit. 
I have 3 questions:

1) if I close Amex Gold will it affect my utilization or is it not calculated in?

2) has anyone had success closing a card with a preset spending limit and then being able to transfer credit limit?

3) does closing cards with Amex affect your ability to get approved with them in the future?

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1) Charge cards do not affect utilization.

2) Never tried it.

3) Yes.  Make sure you don't close any card you've had less than a year.  If it has an annual fee, wait for the fee to post then cancel.  They will refund the fee.  Otherwise it should be fine.  I've closed a lot more Amex cards than I currently have and they still approve me.  I did close one card less than a year after I opened it and they put me in pop-up jail for a little while, but they eventually started approving me again.

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OP stated that he's had the card for years.  He only had the preset spending limit put on the Gold card less than a year ago.  If you don't see value in keeping the card, close it.  Just keep in mind, you'd lose all your MR points unless you have another card that is in the MR points ecosystem.  

[jcooks]

OP, is the reason for denial in reallocating limits is because the Gold has a preset spending limit?  

Ultimately, I think because of the charged off acounts, Amex took AA and put the spending limit.  I think the charged off accounts is the main culprit.  So I think closing the Gold, they will still continue to deny reallocating limits.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Slowlyrebuilding wrote:

Just to clarify I wasn't looking to transfer the gold limit. I have 3 Amex credit cards (2 Hilton and Bonvoy). I wanted to transfer the balance from 2 of them to the 3rd. When I try to do that now it denies the request due to having a preset limit on the gold.  

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It's not blocking you because you have the Gold.

It's blocking you because you're trying to do more than one.

You need to do one at a time, and space them out over at least a month.

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No, it's blocking the reallocation because the op was flagged by Amex for AA. A preset spending limit is just one of the steps taken. Others include no credit limit increases, no new cards, and no ability to send referrals. Until the issue that caused the preset limit is resolved, op will not be able to reallocate limits.

[NRB525]

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@Slowlyrebuilding wrote:

I didn't try to do 2 at once. I tried with the one card first (Hilton to Hilton) and it went to a processing message. I received a letter in the mail specifically stating they wouldn't transfer the credit line because the Gold card has a preset limit.

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Sorry to hear about the issues OP.

I'd close the Gold card, since you know you want to do that, and the $250 AF is a large issue.

Let the accounts flow for a few months, then try the CL transfer again. 

How much are the limits on the Hiltons and Marriott cards? I remember a few years ago when I was trying to transfer limits, I could not transfer $10,000 of the limits but I could move $5,000 of the limits. I haven't ever had a hard limit on my charge cards ( not even sure I had an AMEX charge card at that time ) but I kept getting messages when the amounts were too large.

[Slowlyrebuilding]

@NRB525 
The limits on the 2 Hilton are $2800 and the limit on the bonvoy is $2000. I'll take your advice and close the Amex and try again in a couple months. 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Slowlyrebuilding wrote:

Just to clarify I wasn't looking to transfer the gold limit. I have 3 Amex credit cards (2 Hilton and Bonvoy). I wanted to transfer the balance from 2 of them to the 3rd. When I try to do that now it denies the request due to having a preset limit on the gold.  

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It's not blocking you because you have the Gold.

It's blocking you because you're trying to do more than one.

You need to do one at a time, and space them out over at least a month.

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No, it's blocking the reallocation because the op was flagged by Amex for AA. A preset spending limit is just one of the steps taken. Others include no credit limit increases, no new cards, and no ability to send referrals. Until the issue that caused the preset limit is resolved, op will not be able to reallocate limits.

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Thanks. I stand corrected.

[Aim_High]

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@Veronik2019 wrote:

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@Slowlyrebuilding wrote:

2) has anyone had success closing a card with a preset spending limit and then being able to transfer credit limit?

YOU CANNOT TRANSFER A CREDIT LIMIT THAT DOESN'T EXIST. CHARGE CARDS DON'T HAVE PRESET LIMITS. 

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While that's generally true, @Veronik2019, AMEX is known to sometimes place hard limits on their charge cards.  It's been discussed on numerous threads in the forum by multiple members who had preset limits. 

I think you've gotten good advice already @Slowlyrebuilding.  Closing the Gold will not affect utilization and as @Brian_Earl_Spilner mentioned, the preset spending limit on the Gold is more of a symptom of their concern of your profile than the root cause of the inability to move limits.  I agree that closing the Gold and then waiting may improve your odds of later consolidating limits. 

[jcooks]

Keep in mind, if you close the Gold and don't have any other cards that are in the MR points system, you will forfeit all MR points.  Use it before closing our the card.