How long after Amex CLD until they’ll let me CLI

[toadsworth]

My third card was the Amex BCE, and initially I was approved for a $5000 limit. A couple months later I was approved for the everyday card $10000 and the platinum. I always PIF and at that point I was running all of my swipes through the card. One day maybe 6 or so months after getting the Card I see online my available credit is only $1000. Soon a letter comes simply saying my limit has been lowered to $1000. Between the time I got the BCE and the CLD occurred, I attained 9 cards and leased a car. However my overall utilization never passed 9%, utilization on any one Card never passed 30% and I always paid the Amex down before statement. I assume they CLD because of the new accounts/inquiries, but I never dug into the matter because I didn’t want to worsen things with Amex by bugging them about it.

Anyways, 91 days after I noticed the CLD I requested a CLI and was denied with the reason of a recent CLD. I’ve requested CLI every 31 days since (a few months now) and get the same answer. The card reached 1 year old recently. Any advice or timeline on building up this credit limit again? I don’t want to move the limit on the everyday because I find it odd they didn’t touch my newer bigger account that I have with them and don’t want to make them think about doing so (lol). Initially my plan was to close the everyday and move it’s limit to the BCE but given everything that’s going on I’m not making any decisions without a lot of thought.

[Gmood1]

I don't believe it was your accounts or INQs.
Do you have any old baddies still reporting to the CBs?
I don't have a good answer for when they'll reopen the gates.
I'm curious as well as to what spooked them.

[toadsworth]

I haven’t had any baddies showing for years, the only ones I ever had were a BofA overdrawn checking account that went to collections in 2007, and an old municipal ticket that went to collections in 2008. I haven’t seen anything related to these since like 2015 though, so yeah I also am curious what I did to spook Amex. I did at one point run a $4000 charge but I checked the spending power tool, then called to tell them I was going to do it, then did it without any issue and I PIF that month before the statement cut. Then everything was normal still for 2 months after that.

Something else about my relationship with Amex is I’ve never gotten CLI with them. No 61 day no anything. Weird because I didn’t think $5000 and $10000 SL were considered ‘you barely got in’ limits. My initial use of my BCE was lots of swipes all organic spend. At this point I have now only have $60/month of subscriptions go through the BCE monthly, and the ED is sock drawered with me running a few bucks through it every 3-4 months.

Side thought; I’m thinking when the AF on my Plat hits, of cancelling or downgrading it because I simply don’t use it much and don’t use the benefits. Could this help things by freeing up some exposure with Amex? Could it make things worse?

[Gmood1]

I've cancelled several Amex CCs in the past. It hasn't stop my relationship from growing with them. Planning to PC one of my cards next month and consolidate the limits on 1 or 2 others later in the year.
Amex just lowered their interchange fees. They are aggressive about growing their market share. That's with new card members as well as making Amex more widely accepted.