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F*** you, American Express
So I logged on to my Amex account yesterday and nearly had a heart attack when I saw that I was nearly at my credit limit. Then I thought, wait a minute, I haven't charged anything big lately, what happened?? It must be a mistake.
Today I get a letter from Amex informing me that they've decided to lower my credit limit - by OVER TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. One of the reasons? "Your repayment history with us and others is not sufficient to support your spending activity or outstanding balance". WTF?? Over the 8 years I have had this card, I have a PERFECT record of repayments - I have NEVER been late on a payment to any credit card or loan, EVER. I'm even looking at my credit report right now that says the same thing. The other reason is "The revolving balance on your American Express account is too high." So, YOU gave me this credit, but now you're punishing me for actually using it??? And FWIW, my credit score is in the mid 700s.
So you know what? F*** you, American Express. I'm going to pay this card off, close the account, and I will never, ever have another American Express card again. Bastards.
Ok thanks, I just had to get that out.
Re: F*** you, American Express
wow, that is unbelievable! I've never heard of a CC company purposely lowering credit limits like that.
Not like I was in the mood for an AMEX anytime soon, but if they don't want your business, they sure as well don't want mine.
Well, if this is the way they cut corners, fine. I've charged hundreds of thousands of dollars on this card in the years I've had it, and I have never, ever been late, and I frequently pay off the entire balance. Considering they spent the last few years throwing credit increases at me, I think I could be considered a pretty good customer. And if this is the way they want to treat good customers, then fine. As I said before, f*** them.
I am really angry, in case you couldn't tell. I know I shouldn't, but I feel personally insulted by this.
Suze Orman was on the Today show this morning predicting a revolving credit squeeze/crisis, including lowering of limits.
But this is ridonkulous. That's just outright trying to scheme fees from you. Are they charging you over limit fees? I think they need a little piece of your mind.
NPR has reported on this a couple of times over the past month.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96154274
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95611244
I've heard that a lot of cc companies are doing this - it surprises me that they can do it without telling you, since it necessarily affects your FICO score. We just paid of our cc debt, and I am actually concerned about our excellent credit score dropping - since limits can drop with the rationale that "you don't need it anyway."
Crap - I better check mine. That is LAME.
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
my read shelf:
That stinks. I'm so sorry. This is being reported frequently, even among people with really good credit like you. And businesses are getting squeezed even harder on their lines of credit. It's just awful when you've played by the rules to be penalized by global problems you had nothing to do with.
oh good lord. At the very least, call them and make them remove the charges for over the limit before you cancel.
that's ridiculous.
I have the opposite problem. BOA made my 5,000 limit acct a 30,000 limit acct and it looks terrible on my credit report as potential debt apparently. I gotta have em lower it. I hate BOA for a million different reasons.
The pullback is affecting even creditworthy consumers and threatens an already beleaguered banking industry with another wave of heavy losses after an era in which it reaped near record gains from the business of easy credit that it helped create.
Lenders wrote off an estimated $21 billion in bad credit card loans in the first half of 2008 as more borrowers defaulted on their payments. With companies laying off tens of thousands of workers, the industry stands to lose at least another $55 billion over the next year and a half, analysts say. Currently, the total losses amount to 5.5 percent of credit card debt outstanding, and could surpass the 7.9 percent level reached after the technology bubble burst in 2001.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/business/29credit.html
I'm sorry to hear that hon, Amex also reduced one of my cards' limits but it was only by a grand. I only looked after a poster on MM mentioned that she had a $25K limit on a card that was rarely used. She had a perfect score, great repayment history if she did use it and they cut the limit down to $500. How sick is that?
Wow. I've always had awesome experiences with AmEx, from them not charging me anything for the first 2 years I had it to just amazing customer service when I changed my name.
Apparently they're doing this to a lot of customers, which is sh*tty, but I still think you should call as though it was a mistake and also mabye mention sst.
Close the card if you want, even if they are willing to reverse, but you should at least b*tch them out in an effort to get something out of this.
Ditto this. I did here that they will not be messing with corporate cards.
Yeah I'm not sure what to do because they also charge me an $85 annual fee for the privilege of being screwed by them.
At the VERY least they should offer to waive the annual fee for not alerting you to this unwarranted change. If not, I would consider closing it. I know length of history is important, but if you have other cards that have been open as long or longer you should be OK.
That's super annoying.
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
I heard on NPR that they were doing this. ?It's apparently tied into mortgages, and it's pissing a lot of people off.
I've had my own issues with them. ?Namely, that they can't figure out that I have a different billing and mailing address even though I've called numerous times about it. ?It was enough that my laptop purchase got cancelled b/c they kept refusing the charge even though I'd cleared that charge specifically, more than once.?
I just don't see how pissing off customers is a smart move. I know the economy/credit situation is bad right now, but eventually it will get better, and I'm assuming they might want to retain some of those customers when times DO get better, won't they? Come to think of it, isn't this exactly the kind of time you would want to treat your good customers like gold (i.e. the ones who pay their bills on time)???
It's not even really a problem from a practical standpoint - I have other cards with no balances and we're in the process of paying off all our credit cards anyway, so I don't need this card. I just liked getting Skymiles for things, so I used to use it for EVERYTHING then pay it off each month (those miles took me to the Middle East and to Europe several times). But it's really not worth being treated this way.
They actually did this to DH too - the day sst was born, of all times. He tried to use his card at the grocery store that day and it wouldn't go through. We get home from the hospital days later and find a letter in the mailbox: "oh yeah, we lowered your credit limit to the exact amount of your current balance". I was angry then, but somewhat understanding since his credit score isn't that great. Now I'm just angry. Luckily, we just paid off his Amex and are closing that account due to this treatment. I guess mine is next. Jerks.
One of my cc companies just did that to me last week and I was always on time, have pretty good credit, and had had the balance paid off months ago.
I want to close the account, but don't want to hurt my credit, so I guess I'm stuck with the effers.