shadabing

i have a personal am ex plat card and a am ex starwood card. my company does hundreds of thousands in billings every year and i insisted we get the starwood card for the points. so we call up to sign up. our company also has am ex gold and a high spending limit. the starwood person says we are approved but then tells us it's probably for 3k. we're like "what's the use of that!?" so they are reviewing it to see if it could be higher. i'm thinking not likely in this environment... no?

jcherney

Call and ask them to review it again. I was given a 5k limit on my Reserve card initially. While on the phone w/ them, I asked to have it looked at again. They came back w/ a MUCH larger limit afterwards.

That said, this happened before Sept 2009....

stevenshev

Just call and ask them to transfer you to the underwriting department.

TAHKUCT

I got an SPG Amex for my company last October, and also got 3k credit line and not a penny more. They refused to do a credit limit review initially stating I did not have a card for 6 month. I applied for a CLI again and was declined with a strange letter that I had to many credit inquiries on my credit report. I have pulled my credit report and my last inquiry was in October for SPG Amex and nothing since nor six month before that. Also no credit pull by Amex was there either since 10/09.

shadabing

Got it. we'll find out monday if they'll bump up our line of credit.

shadabing

we typically bill 25K a month on our am ex gold but their final word is "no, 3K limit". they said it "will go up" but it could be 6 months or more.

Counsellor

I guess I just don't understand why anyone would put up with this sort of nonsense.

Do you really *need* them that badly?

chriswufgator

I've been saying that for months!

But there seems to be a small sub-set (of 4 people, to be exact) on this forum who will defend Amex regardless of what they do. They could adopt a policy instructing their collections department to go to your house and kill your dog if you're 5 minutes late with a payment, and those 4 will happily defend this obnoxious company.

Personally, if I were the OP, I would pick up and take all of my business elsewhere.

shadabing

wow, lots of anger. i don't think i'm the one "defending" am ex. my feeling is this... i want the starwood points. i'd take another starwood card if that worked better. starwood points are better for hotels then am ex mem awards points. and transfer from am ex into starwood card is 3 to 1.

what do you suggest?

Eurosport

lately all across the board they've been setting 2k or 3k limits on new cards no matter if you had/have other cards with them, and policy is no CLI for 60 days on a new account.
best thing to do is just wait the 60 days, and request CLI.
the other thing with the requested CLI is they'll approve up to 3X the current limit, so request 6k (if you have a 2k card) or 9k (if you have a 3k card).
once at those new limits wait another 60 days, request again...

lessthanzero

I'm sure I'm counted in the 4 number above, so just wanted to throw my 2 cents in and thank you for the honor. Personally, I find it interesting the amount of time some people will spend fighting Amex on internet disucssion boards - even with Amex noticeably not present. But then, I have my own hobbies that other people question. And it is good for people to be aware of Amex practices, so at least they were warned. Personally, there is only so much warning I really need.

Aside from that, though, the question is similar to what Counsellor posted. Except it's not "do you *need* them that bad?", it is "do you *want* them that bad?" Nobody *needs* amex. Any ole' credit card will do.

My personal analysis is that the SPG points are the most versatile around, and the point earning ratio is higher (when looking at air miles) than for any other card out there, with the possible exception of airline branded cards, for money spent with the airline. I would also not want to tie my points to an individual airline, because it is less flexible, and who knows what will happen to the airlines? I have used the Return Protection, Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty feature of my cards many, many times, and have come to depend on these insurance features.

So for ME it is worth jumping through a few hoops, though not too many. SPG denies about 1 transaction per month for me, forcing me to call in and verify the purchase. Compared to the ~ $100K I put through on the card each month, this is peanuts, and I actually appreciate this security feature. (Irrespective of the brand of software used to calculate the risk on each purchase.) To put it in perspective, my Priority Club visa habitually declines both 1 and 2 purchased per month, and my monthly total with them is about $5K. i keep that card too, btw.

Amex has never been particularly ornery with me, but if they made it difficult to use the card, I would weigh the benefits closely, and go where beneficial to me. So far, I will admit to having kept my first born, and my dog, and only being late a couple of times on payments.

What Amex is not good at, btw, is acting like an accounting department. This does annoy me, since they bill themselves as business friendly. With multiple cards on hand, I use them to separate out purchases for different purposes and departments. Amex doesn't necessarily care, and moving a charge from one card to another is a major pain. Even if the charge originally belonged on a specific card.

skofarrell

Wow. I guess (as one of the 4) I'm just offsetting the other 4 people that spew anti Amex vitriol every chance they get because they had their lines reduced, card canceled, and/or their feelings hurt?

I look at Amex as any other lender. I don't trust them any further than I can throw them, but am more than willing to get the Starpoints they give me for my monthly spend. Since Starwood (like Delta) is an Amex only shop, if you want the Starpoints, you have to play the Amex game.

Amex is a greedy corporation with their own best interests at heart, not mine. They charge usurious interest rates on balances, late fees, over limit fees, and like the other 3 cards in my wallet (BofA, Chase, Citibank) can cut my limit or cancel my card at any time of their choosing.

No loyalty on either side, no hurt feelings. Is simply business.

Steve M

I'll take a wild guess: as a result of what Amex did to them, "Amex has no idea how much money it's going to cost them" after they tell everyone about it.

chriswufgator

You guys are so predictable...

And all we need now is SBM12 and we almost have a complete set!

skofarrell

Pot. Kettle. Well, you know the rest.