tradewinds525

My wife had a problem with AMEX in November where they reduced her limit quite a bit. I was a big screw up and took some doing to get straightened out. (Long Story) AMEX said a lot of people had the same problem mostly in the southeast.

Just curious.

Mike

ramraideruk

I had a letter from them telling me that my limit had been reduced but this was in no way a bad reflection on me or our relationship!

sammy0623

maybe something to do with the economy being in the crapper?? i dunno

did they raise it back to what it was?

mtparadis

Looks like some of mine went from $24,900 (thanks Fatwallet) to $23,000. Not sure why and don't care, I rarely use the cards anyway.

MattUK

Got a letter today telling me they had increased it by 12k which was a bit of a suprise.

painintheuk

How do you determine your credit limit? I browsed randomly through the (UK)website but I can't seem to see such a number.

Thanks

Dr. PITUK

NickW

Pretty sure these people are talking about credit, rather than charge, cards - I have both on my account and I see the credit limit for the credit card right there on the account information page (it's less than the current balance on my charge card - d'oh!).

painintheuk

Thanks Nick. I do have a charge card (though so far none of the benefits!!).

Dr. PITUK

gj83

My credit limit is the same, but I have noticed that Amex inquiries are appearing on my credit report biweekly now. They are listed in the "only viewed by me" section, but still seems interesting.

tradewinds525

Her October Statement was $2789.00. I just received the email statment for the month so it was not due for sometime and decided to settle and pay it in a few days. I was headed out of town and the card was declined for Lunch. We use this card for personal spending. She has had the card an I have a additional card since 2001. I have had AMEX since 1991. This is the only card we have where she is the primary so they would tell me nothing on the phone, but I did notice a ...... attitude.

I call her and she had received a letter from Amex stating her credit line was reduced from 15k to 2.8k. Because of delinquent accounts, judgements, collections, etc. reported by Experian. With just the general 800 number to call. Keep in mind she averages 2.5k per month and it is paid in full usually the day the statment is email by electornic debit.

She calls AMEX they told her she has bad credit reported from experian and her credit has been reduced and that is it. She also noted the attitude, like she was a dead beet. She kept calling back because she knew they where wrong and there must be some error. She ended up talking to several customer service reps and got the same runaround and poor treatment.

I pulled her Experian when I got back home. Funny thing was there was really no credit on the report except one car lease, do not know why yet. Nothing negative but only one item. I also order her Vantage Score from Experian because one of the customer service told her her vantage score was also low. It was 747 which is very good. Again remember nothing negative at all like the letter stated.

So I order all three credit reports and scores to see what is going on. The other two where fine with plenty of credit. Her Equifax FICO score was 790. Again nothing negative at all.

So back to the phones, same crap treatment. One customer service rep tells her she needs to call the credit department that is open 8-5 M-F. So monday she give them a call, wrong number by the way. Once she gets the credit department on the phone they tell her that they are the wrong ones and she needs to speak to the credit line reduction department. By that time it was after 5pm.

The next day she is on the phone to the credit line reduction department. After alot of the same BS and crappy treatment they tell her to fax all the credit bureaus the serperate experian and the scores for a clerical review. They would get back to her within 5 days. 10 days including the weekend nothing. She calls back gets transfered around to a couple supervisors and they finally determine that there is a note on the file that they did not receive the Experian Rerport and score. Keep in mind we fax 26 pages inlcuding the Experian twice once with the 3 in 1 report and once on its own. So the superisor in the credit line reduction department asks her to fax just the experian and the vantage score to her and she will get back to her.

So again 4 working days an nothing. So back on the phone again to the Credit Line Reduction Department Supervisor. Of course a different supervisor. Again keep in mind she has to explain the whole thing over and over again. Supervisor says she is not sure what is going on but my wife does have negative credit from Experian. She asked everyone she spoke to what was these negative items and no one could tell us. So while on the phone with the supervisor we fax the Experian Report and ask her to show us what is negative.

The Supervisor finally admitted that she only had a soft summary of my wifes credit and all she knew was Experian reported soemthing bad. She also admitted that she was not the best at reading a credit bureau. Yes a supervisor and the AMEX Creidt Line Reduction Department only has a soft summary on customers credit and that she can not read a credit bureau!!

My wife would not let her off the phone. She finally told my wife that the internet credit bureau is not the same as the one you get in the mail and she would have to get the one in the mail and call back.

So we order one by mail. I might add that Experians Website says the same report is available on line.

While waitting for the mailed copy my wife receives a letter for Clarical Review saying the credit reduction will stand. One parpagraph long no phone call.

Several calls later after getting the hard copy of the Experian Report she hears every excuse they can think of, maybe too little credit, maybe the credit crunch on the news. These are supervisors at the Credit Department. After 15 different people for Customer Service Reps to Supervisors and being treated like a deadbeet, being told they did not care of we cancelled all are cards and repeating the story again and again and delaing with so called supervisors that are so incompetent your are amazed these people function in life she gave up.

Amazing thing was we where actually wishing to talk to someone in India, at least they fake like the give a .....


Well my wife dept a log of names date and times. We wrote a detailed letter to the president of AMEX. I sent him overnight 38 pages. A week later my wife gets a call from the Presidents Personal Assistant saying how sorry they are and explained that Experian did report bad data, but the worst part was how she was treated by AMEX employess and how they dropped the ball at the clerical review. She said they have found out that nearlly 1 million customers where effected mostly in the Southeast US.

She also said no one bother to overnight 38 pages to the Presindent and they got a laugh out of the "wished we could talk to someone in India after this ordea" and they gave he 25k in Delta miles and flagged her account to where no one could touch it.


Believe it or not that is the short version. I was just curious if others had similar problems or where the just BS'ing her a little.

SectionChief

WOW. Amex locked up some of my credit cards [not charge cards] in November but I corrected the problem with a few phone calls. No one was nasty to me during the calls. I'm in the Midwest.

MattUK

I don't think they show your credit line for charge cards online, the credit line I was refering to was the Credit card.

Amex holds a single line of credit for their entire range of cards, so you can adjust the limits on various cards within their portfolio but it needs to be within the overall limit.

wesley29

After reading this thread, I glanced at my accounts and noticed that one biz credit acct that I rarely use had been reduced from 14.5k to 2k! Given that I have never been a day late _ever_ with Amex and put around 25k/mo on a Biz Plat charge card, I just simply found it insulting. They said it was because of an Experian report which showed too many inquiries and open accounts. I just told them I was going to close that particular account and ended the conversation. It really wasn't worth my energy to pursue it further, but it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.

rwilliams603

Is there anyway to determine the "charge limit" on a platinum card?

super-mileage-fan

To find the limit on your charge card, either persuade a CSR to tell it to you, or call the CSR and tell them you are thinking about making a purchase for $X, and want to know if it will be accepted. If they say yes, you know your charge limit is greater than the sum of your outstanding balance + $X. Repeat this process increasing $X, to find your limit.

And BTW, AMEX has raised my limit over the past 30 days. I am VERY PLEASED with the credit they extend me. I love AMEX!

I hear the FICO2008 scoring system will be implemented soon by credit card companies, and that should also many people.

A couple suggestions if you want a higher limit:

1) Apply for additional AMEX cards [they don't want to decline you, so they give you add'l limit for the new cards; you can then reallocate your limit across the cards using the online tools.

2) Wait until the spring and hope that you will have a better score when FICO2008 scoring kicks in.