American Express Membership Rewards - Amex cancelled all my accounts without option for restoration

I've been with Amex for 11 years without any issues. 2 personal and 3 business cards total.
Last month I made a payment for $2000 to pay the statement balance and I made a mistake by clicking wrong bank account to withdraw money from. I didn't know until it was too late and payment was returned. Actually I called in after 2nd failed attempts and they said they cannot adjust the payment in after it's been submitted...

Next day Amex cancelled all my cards including plum which had $160k balance.. I pay full balance every month and it's more than crucial that I have the Plum card in order to sustain my business..

After failed attempts to restore the account, a manager gave me option to restore the card if I pay balance in full. But my spending limit will be limited to $3200 for rest of my life, and I will lose every other cards except Plum.

I'm looking for ANY help or recommendation to restore my account in full. If all fails, please suggest other cards that has such large amount spending limit...
I made one simple mistake of clicking wrong box and now it's coming back to threaten my living, I wish dearly that I could go back and double check before submitting 'ok'....

Thank you in advance.

I would suggest contacting the Chairman's Office.

I had a payment declined by my bank once (bank error). AMEX went out of their way to help me. I'm surprised they would come down so hard on you, especially with your history and charging activity.

Maybe there is something else going on? Have you looked at your credit report recently?

Given your level of spend, I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem opening an account at UBS, JP Morgan or a similar private bank. You can typically get credit card limits well north of $100K at those institutions if you are a private banking client.

In the same vain, you should also be able to use a debit card linked to a brokerage account and draw off the available margin balance (sky is the limit here assuming sufficient collateral and having your financial advisor remove daily spending limits from your account).

Otherwise, I don't know of many other issuers that will offer such high credit limits. I'm sure someone will chime in with other options.

I second contacting the Chairman/CEO's Office.

You need someone outside Customer Service to examine your situation and make a decision based on good business and logic, not customer service protocol.

I had a payment declined by my bank once (bank error). AMEX went out of their way to help me. I'm surprised they would come down so hard on you, especially with your history and charging activity.


I as well had the same issue and AMEX went out of their way as well. I average 30K a month in charges all paid in full

Hopefully someone at Amex will read this thread because I have had the frustration of clicking on the wrong account also and being told no way to cancel even after immediately making several calls. This was before they modified the system and you could only make one payment a day. I think I did a wire or something odd like that. People make mistakes and I think Amex should be a little forgiving.

... a manager gave me option to restore the card if I pay balance in full. But my spending limit will be limited to $3200 for rest of my life, and I will lose every other cards except Plum.

Did American Express request any updated personal or business financial information?

Did you have a Client Manager at Amex OPEN that you've been dealing with? They're able to do more than regular customer service reps, internally.

I would reach out to some higher ranking person at OPEN, since the business cards are more important to you.

I'd worry about personal cards later, since you have to continue running your business.

It sucks.

I've been with Amex for 11 years without any issues. 2 personal and 3 business cards total.
Last month I made a payment for $2000 to pay the statement balance and I made a mistake by clicking wrong bank account to withdraw money from. I didn't know until it was too late and payment was returned. Actually I called in after 2nd failed attempts and they said they cannot adjust the payment in after it's been submitted...

Next day Amex cancelled all my cards including plum which had $160k balance.. I pay full balance every month and it's more than crucial that I have the Plum card in order to sustain my business..

After failed attempts to restore the account, a manager gave me option to restore the card if I pay balance in full. But my spending limit will be limited to $3200 for rest of my life, and I will lose every other cards except Plum.

I'm looking for ANY help or recommendation to restore my account in full. If all fails, please suggest other cards that has such large amount spending limit...
I made one simple mistake of clicking wrong box and now it's coming back to threaten my living, I wish dearly that I could go back and double check before submitting 'ok'....

Thank you in advance.

Call the Executive Offices at 1-800-297-6197. They are very helpful.

Before you call anybody, make sure that there are no other changes which could have caused all of this.

Needless to say, the returned payment would trigger a credit review for obious reasons and even a temporary suspension until you made good on the returned payment.

But, it's unlikely that the returned payment alone would have led to the result. Have you had other credit problems, is your business in good shape, is it out of compliance in any way?

Once you've eliminated everything else, then go ahead and make your calls.

I've been with Amex for 11 years without any issues. 2 personal and 3 business cards total.
Last month I made a payment for $2000 to pay the statement balance and I made a mistake by clicking wrong bank account to withdraw money from. I didn't know until it was too late and payment was returned. Actually I called in after 2nd failed attempts and they said they cannot adjust the payment in after it's been submitted...

Next day Amex cancelled all my cards including plum which had $160k balance.. I pay full balance every month and it's more than crucial that I have the Plum card in order to sustain my business..

After failed attempts to restore the account, a manager gave me option to restore the card if I pay balance in full. But my spending limit will be limited to $3200 for rest of my life, and I will lose every other cards except Plum.

I'm looking for ANY help or recommendation to restore my account in full. If all fails, please suggest other cards that has such large amount spending limit...
I made one simple mistake of clicking wrong box and now it's coming back to threaten my living, I wish dearly that I could go back and double check before submitting 'ok'....

Thank you in advance.

I sincerely hope you have good luck as well as inform us of the outcome

Did American Express request any updated personal or business financial information?
No they did not ask for one. I've never been FR-ed and is not afraid for one as I've been honest with my reports with them. I wish they look deeper and see that I'm not a risk. :(

Call the Executive Offices at 1-800-297-6197. They are very helpful.

Thank you for the info! I'll give them a call

Before you call anybody, make sure that there are no other changes which could have caused all of this.

Needless to say, the returned payment would trigger a credit review for obious reasons and even a temporary suspension until you made good on the returned payment.

But, it's unlikely that the returned payment alone would have led to the result. Have you had other credit problems, is your business in good shape, is it out of compliance in any way?

Once you've eliminated everything else, then go ahead and make your calls.

Thank you for your comment. I believe high balance of my Plum card also came into play when deciding to close my accounts.
I do not have any negative record on my CR and my score is around 740-750 FICO. Not super but not too bad. I'll keep updates. Hopefully I hope they give me a second chance!

No they did not ask for one. I've never been FR-ed and is not afraid for one as I've been honest with my reports with them. I wish they look deeper and see that I'm not a risk. :(



Thank you for the info! I'll give them a call


Like Often1 said before you call have all your ducks in a row.

1) Be prepared to not only explain the check return situation but be prepared to explain the balances you are carrying on your accounts when when you anticipate paying them off.

2) Remind them that you have been a member since xxxx and always paid on time and value your card membership, blah, blah. but your disappointed on the way this situation has been handled.

One of the reasons I like to stick with just couple cards is knowing at any time I can add the total up in my head and pay off everyone I owe completely. As in owe zero nada zip. Unfortunately that is the way you have to operate in today's world including with a plum card or other biz card.

I know a major bank that shut down a credit line of a friend who ran a very legitimate business that was highly leveraged. He went from private jets, a fleet of luxury vehicles to having no car and no home. It was like dominos watching everything fall down. I think it all could have been avoided if the bank game him time to find a new credit line. I am sure he likely broke a loan covenant but it was really sad.

One of the reasons I like to stick with just couple cards is knowing at any time I can add the total up in my head and pay off everyone I owe completely. As in owe zero nada zip. Unfortunately that is the way you have to operate in today's world including with a plum card or other biz card.

I know a major bank that shut down a credit line of a friend who ran a very legitimate business that was highly leveraged. He went from private jets, a fleet of luxury vehicles to having no car and no home. It was like dominos watching everything fall down. I think it all could have been avoided if the bank game him time to find a new credit line. I am sure he likely broke a loan covenant but it was really sad.


I agree with you. A business needs to be fluid and have reserves to survive this climate. However, its not that easy for a business to be able to build reserves and ween it self from credit.

On a good note, banks are lending and catering more to businesses.

I agree with you. A business needs to be fluid and have reserves to survive this climate. However, its not that easy for a business to be able to build reserves and ween it self from credit.

On a good note, banks are lending and catering more to businesses.

Depending on OP's company's size, $160K on a single CC may be a lot of money or not that much. But, CC issuers are much more careful these days and even solvent businesses may run into credit problems if they are too highly leveraged.

At a minimum, Amex may well reissue the card but cut the credit limit and suggest that OP use a business line of credit to pay down the credit limit on the card.

Thank you for your comment. I believe high balance of my Plum card also came into play when deciding to close my accounts.
I do not have any negative record on my CR and my score is around 740-750 FICO. Not super but not too bad. I'll keep updates. Hopefully I hope they give me a second chance!

Anything north of 740 is just showing off :)...you're fine on that front. How does you DNB rating look for your business (if it has one)?

Hopefully someone at Amex will read this thread because I have had the frustration of clicking on the wrong account also and being told no way to cancel even after immediately making several calls. This was before they modified the system and you could only make one payment a day. I think I did a wire or something odd like that. People make mistakes and I think Amex should be a little forgiving.

I did the same thing once - I clicked the wrong bank account for payment and that account had nowhere near enough for the payment. When I called Amex, they were very helpful in setting up a new payment from the correct account, but they couldn't cancel the original payment - they told me that I should do a stop check with my bank, which I did and that worked fine. Amex also ended up charging me finance charges on the balance of the returned payment but they immediately removed it when I called and explained the situation and they saw that I had paid in full the following day.

It seems pretty odd to me being that this is the first time this happened with the OP that Amex jumped the gun and just shut everything down. I usually find them to be helpful with almost all issues I've had in the past and I agree with the suggestions to call the Executive number.

Good Luck!

Must have pulled a D&B on you and for whatever reason it did not look pretty to them.

How did this call to the executive offices go? Did someone actually talk to you or were you laughed off the phone?

I'm curious as well. Please keep us updated..

OP, sorry to read about this. Any update?


I know a major bank that shut down a credit line of a friend who ran a very legitimate business that was highly leveraged. He went from private jets, a fleet of luxury vehicles to having no car and no home. It was like dominos watching everything fall down. I think it all could have been avoided if the bank game him time to find a new credit line. I am sure he likely broke a loan covenant but it was really sad.

So he lived large on credit?