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Strange message from Amex

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HeavenOhio
Senior Contributor

Re: Strange message from Amex


@longtimelurker wrote:
and being a charge card, utilization increase isn't going to impact the report, right?

@longtimelurker, the Experian 98 family of FICO scores is impacted by charge card utilization. That's the score family that includes the classic score used for mortgage lending. The card's highest balance is used in lieu of a limit.

Message 51 of 53
longtimelurker
Epic Contributor

Re: Strange message from Amex


@SouthJamaica wrote:

 

I don't know where you're getting the idea that the accounts do not offer me advantages. The reason I use them is because they do offer advantages.


I wasn't assuming that!  To quote:  "If Amex isn't offering you any particular advantage, then yes, I can see proactively downsizing the relationship. I just meant that you need to weigh any advantages against whatever you view the risk (and impact) of AA.   Since you were getting ready to reduce your spend with Amex based on something which may or may not indicate pending trouble, that would make sense if the value wasn't that great.   If you find Amex good, then I would be in the camp of some others suggesting you might be being somewhat hasty in downgrading the relationship.   But obviously your call.

Message 52 of 53
NRB525
Super Contributor

Re: Strange message from Amex


@SouthJamaica wrote:

@NRB525 wrote:
In the absence of more specific info from AMEX, and my own experience of calling AMEX when I was wondering why a charge might not be going through for my Platinum earlier this year, when the CSR told me what my charger limit was, and arranged to raise it just in case that might be the issue, my advice is to use the card.

If OP calls AMEX and discovers the charger limit is $1k vs $950 just charged, that may change the advice. Then your comparison to a 20 something and their revolver would have some more relevance.

Cheers.

In the first place, it definitely wasn't the $950 purchase, because that was 3-4 weeks before the notice. All the purchases I'd made after that one, in the 3-4 weeks prior to the notice, were in the $6 to $50 range.

 

If I were to call, the information I would get (a) would probably be the same as what I got from the CSR on chat, and (b) would definitely be as unauthoritative. What the representatives tell you is not something you can take to the bank and there are things going on in the back office which do not appear on their screens.

 

I was told, after 10 minutes of the CSR's "researching" the situation, that there was no reason for the message and that it was just a glitch.

 

I recognize the possibility that the CSR might have been right, as @K-in-Boston suggests, but I am risk averse, and find it safer to assume that this was a back-office algorithmic warning that Amex is feeling a little nervous, as @Remedios suggests.

 

And so I choose to start bailing out, rather than risk capsizing. And rather than waste my time with phone calls with people who may or may not truly know the answer.


Text communications ( such as these boards ) are convenient for each participant but very inefficient for actual communication. The text as someone writes it can have a lot of info left out, and it is difficult to clarify questions, to get a useful back-and-forth to communicate. 

A call to an AMEX CSR makes communication much easier. People speaking in the same language can speak much faster than they can type, and it is faster to pursue clarifications, and to pick up nuances of comments to follow other paths.  

High Bal Jan 2009 $116k on $146k limits 80% Util.
Oct 2014 $46k on $127k 36% util EQ 722 TU 727 EX 727
April 2018 $18k on $344k 5% util EQ 806 TU 810 EX 812
Jan 2019 $7.6k on $360k EQ 832 TU 839 EX 831
March 2021 $33k on $312k EQ 796 TU 798 EX 801
May 2021 Paid all Installments and Mortgages, one new Mortgage EQ 761 TY 774 EX 777
April 2022 EQ=811 TU=807 EX=805 - TU VS 3.0 765
Message 53 of 53
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