upgrader

Interesting. Mrs. upgrader got an AMEX Hilton Surpass card with a 5K limit, had it for about 4-5 months, went online and requested a 15K limit and was approved immediately online. I guess just another case of YMMV.

skofarrell

In the short term, it will cost them money and goodwill. But if they have made the decision to "raise the bar" on minimum requirements from 680 to 720 (or 750) then there's going to be some pain as they cull their client list.

The interesting thing to me is that they seem to be content in letting the computer make the decisions. I've stated all along that if they are going to let the computer make the cuts, they should have some formal appeal process in place for exceptions. FICO is not infallible. There are high net worth individuals with lower FICO scores because they choose to carry debt. FICO makes no allowance for income, or net worth.

But I'm sure that Chris will point out: its Amex's funeral.

writetorich

The macro credit climate is what it is.


If you prepay $20,000, you will be able to charge $23,000 if you have a $3000 line.

Sure you are losing the float on the money, but if you value SPG points a lot more than M.R. points then maybe its worth to to you.

lessthanzero

LOL, you do know most people post and read here because they *have* an amex card, right? By that I don't mean that others should leave (far from it), but that as a whole people, who hold any type of card have typically made the determination that the benefits outweigh the costs.

If I'm wrong in this assumption, then I feel sorry for all those people who have determined they are too good for their amex card, yet continue to pay the fees and/or read & post ad-nauseum about it.

Oh wait, here they are to run off with my dog again.

lessthanzero

MR points are close to worthless to me, due to the limited number of airline partners and horrible conversion to hotels. It does have a decent selection of gift cards.

shadabing

ding ding! back to your corners!

i pretty much dislike all credit cards. i don't trust any of them. hopefully the new obama credit card legislation will tip the balance to be more in favor of the consumer.

Avalon28

I heard Obama's new CC program will pay off all delinquent debt, and if you show proof that you are a welfare recipient, all your CC limits will be increased to $100,000, and the government will pay all your future bills through the year 2025.

This is such a simple solution to our country's consumer debt problem. I can't believe no other President in history has come up with it before.

shadabing

yes i'm joking. it's gonna get worse (but i do support obama). Thanks Bush!

i'm saying all credit is challenged nowadays. You could complain about am ex until the cows come home but i could tell you horrors about capital one, citi, and visa. when it comes down to it, its about the points and starwood points to be specific. sorry, that's what works for me. so i have to ride out the storm.

chriswufgator

Hey you coulda done that for far less $$$ than Bush gave AIG, not to mention the banks, and at least that would have stimulated consumer spending and the economy.

And I'm not necessarily the biggest O supporter, either. When the election came around I didn't even care who won, I was just happy that the buffoon would be gone no matter what. Seriously, anything's better than Bush.

HCA

That's a good way to work around if it allow you to overpay (I thought BoA does but AMEX does not).

Even if it works, the other drawback is the limit for single transaction is still $3,000.

Mr. Bean

This is allowed with Amex - I just got off the phone with an agent (regarding another issue).

My issue is that I called Amex to reduce my cash advance limit, but they also decreased my credit limit without telling me (apparently they are inextricably tied together at Amex). Now they won't bump my credit line back up to what it originally was until 60 days...

What's more, they won't even extend the promo deadline to spend $15K for 15K bonus *points. I'm stuck at $1K CL. I refuse to go through the prepay hassle (unless someone wants to lend me $15K )

Not a good way to be accomodating to new customers.

ThirtyOne

Hmm...

My May Amex credit card statement showed my limits for both, as they have always been: cash is 20% of the total limit. The June statement for the same card, however shows an increase in my credit limit by $5k but my cash limit is now $0.

Amex sure is great at causing confusion, that's the conclusion I have reached.

Here I am reading stories about how people's limits are being cut ruthlessly on cards they use all the time, while my credit card (which I use sporadically at best... I use my charge cards) gets a $5k limit increase I didn't ask for. On top of that, like Mr Bean above, I was under the impression that the cash allowed was always linked to the overall limit. In my card's case at 20%. I knew this because I actually did use this card for the odd cash advance under circumstances abroad when it was cheaper to do so than to use an ATM card. But my statement now says my cash limit is $0. This is on the heels of them cold calling me up two days ago offering to upgrade my gold card to a platinum card. Again, while people seem to be getting the axe by Amex for actually using their cards, they're calling to upgrade me when I barely put enough through my gold card to justify even having that card, let alone the plat. Amex just confuses the hell out of me. I dumped them before, I came back to them, and now I don't know what's up with them.

pueywei

I feel that it does the exact opposite, unfortunately.

ffI

1
The best way is to set up the Amex as a payee on your bank end and
PUSH the funds.
You cannot pull the funds any more with Amex, if it crosses your limit.
If you opt for autopay full balance and then pay the bill online soon after the bill you can every month go to twice the credit limit.
My new letter from Amex tells me that if I pay the bill they can reduce my autopay amount, but they have not yet actually done so.

2
Interestingly that is not true.
Once you prepay, Amex lets you often charge more than the credit limit.
I do not know exactly how much.
I have a 1 k SPG that is getting by with 10k per month due to prepayment.
My Biz SPG has a 3k limit and I just put 9K on it in one transaction.