ROFL Amex... Automagic!

[Revelate]

So we have been talking about CLD’s by Amex lately, this one’s amusing.

I hadn’t used my BCE basically since I downgraded it (oh 5+ years ago) so I wasn’t using any of the 9K limit.

As it turns out I was approved for the Bonvoy Brilliant card (funny story in itself with my thinking it was a business card) and got a massive limit for me of 30K.

The fun part? Amex automagically simply moved 8K of the BCE to the Bonvoy Brilliant without my requesting it... leaving it exactly at the initial limit that I got back on 1/1/13 of 1K left.

So not quite as epic of a CL as I thought and I have never heard of any lenders shuffling limits around without the request of the consumer.

Good times!

[Anonymous]

I've been hearing about Amex doing this lately, decreasing credit limits. They have long been known for being very generous with regards to credit limits and it looks like may be tightening up a little bit. I got my Blue Cash Preferred in November 2017, $2000 starting limit reporting $15000 income, increased credit limit to $6000 in January 2018, reporting $17000 in income. It's still at $6000 limit, so I have yet to experiece a CLD.

[NRB525]

Congrats on the new card.

Maybe check other AMEX approval threads.... when you reach your max internal credit limit with AMEX, they will reallocate from one revolver to another. Quite common.

It happened to me when I got my Delta Reserve. Instant approval, $14,700, but they pulled over $9,700 from my Delta Platinum to make the Reserve look good, doubtless knowing the intent would be to reduce usage of the Delta Platinum even though I also had a Hilton version and SPG with substantial limits. It put me right at $55k overall revolver limits with no 4506-T along the way, net increase in credit of $5,000 for the app.

BofA also did this when I applied for the Alaska Air card in 2015, reached an internal limit and a few thousand of one card donated to another.

It surprises many people ( surprised me ) because it is not apparent until you log in to your account and some mouse has gnawed away one of your CC credit limits.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Boa does this too. Not really big suprise in that we are soliciting credit and they have the right to dole out that credit in how they see fit. Many times if one is at max credit allowed but they wsnt to approve you, they just move credit limits. Would it be nice to know ahead of time, sure, but , thats just a price we pay for seeking credit

[pinkandgrey]

Well congrats on that new huge limit lol. I would just close the BCE. 

[xaximus]

Congrats on the new limit. AmEx has been re-allocating credit for quite some time now, as others have mentioned as well. They definitely are tightening up purse strings since, what's the point in having a 30K BCE/BCP? I think people have definitely been abusing the 3x policy to pad their UTI if anything.

[AverageJoesCredit]

As the Amex 3x train derails , everyone that can , Navy is still rolling 25k to those who like candy

[FlaDude]

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@NRB525 wrote:

Maybe check other AMEX approval threads.... when you reach your max internal credit limit with AMEX, they will reallocate from one revolver to another. Quite common.

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I'm not sure that you even have to reach any internal limit. I apped for the ED card in February, they reduced my Blue CL by 14.5k (from 31 to 16.5) and gave me 19.3k on the new card. A few days later I apped for the Delta Gold card and got a 10k SL without taking anything from any other cards. Maybe co-branded cards are different, or maybe it is just part of their moves to lower limits on lightly used cards.

The only notification was buried in the fine print of the paperwork they sent with the card, nothing mentioned when the ED card was approved on-line with the $19.3k limit. FWIW, I had a high balance on the Blue card for years, then refi'ed it down to PIF mid-2018, since then it has never had a balance of more than a few hundred.

[JustBPatient]

"They definitely are tightening up purse strings since, what's the point in having a 30K BCE/BCP? I think people have definitely been abusing the 3x policy to pad their UTI if anything."

What's the point of having a 22k BCE or 2 Double cash cards??

The point is, why not?  Same could be said for monster limits on Freedom or DC IT cards when they max out at 1500 per quarter.  And if you have the stats/etc to qualify for large limits then I say go for it!!

[xaximus]

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@JustBPatient wrote:

"They definitely are tightening up purse strings since, what's the point in having a 30K BCE/BCP? I think people have definitely been abusing the 3x policy to pad their UTI if anything."

What's the point of having a 22k BCE or 2 Double cash cards??

The point is, why not?  Same could be said for monster limits on Freedom or DC IT cards when they max out at 1500 per quarter.  And if you have the stats/etc to qualify for large limits then I say go for it!!

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1 DC card is original, the second was a PC. I've been meaning to close that anyway since it's sort of useless. I agree on having the 22K BCE, I generally don't use more then 500-1K on that card in any given month anyway, so when time comes for a CLI, I probably won't request one. I don't need it. I've already started trimming down cards and closing them since, I have a pretty well laid out plan for all my expenses. Unless things drastically change (which I don't forsee), then no point for me to keep all the cards.