Originally Posted by bluto

Well, I just spent 20 mins with Amex's credit limit department asking about this question. It was a pretty frustrating call because of the lack of real answers. Here's what little I could gather:

- There is a 6 month wait between credit limit increases. I had an increase recently on another Amex account so I am stuck until Oct 7. The wait period seems to be inflexible but if this really does apply to everybody, then I am dumbfounded. The rep essentially was saying that if I was Bill Gates and I had asked for an increase in April, and then I wanted to bump it by another $1k today, it would be no dice. If anyone has had actual experience to the contrary, feel free to chime in.

- The deposit into an Amex Savings account does not seem to have an impact on the limit decision. It certainly won't override the 6 month rule, according to the rep. The rep claimed the savings and the credit limit departments are separate. I offered to deposit 100x my credit limit in a savings account and let that account be used as collateral. The rep didn't seem to know what to make of that. She wouldn't say if it would help and was more interested in trying to transfer me to a rep in the savings acct department who coudl help me open up an account.

- Providing balance sheets and tax return data does not speed anything up. It wasn't clear to me if Amex would accept that info unsolicited. I offered several times during the call. The response was (in various forms): if you apply for a credit increase, Amex might ask for those supporting materials, which would then be factored into the decision.

Overall, I was disappointed I could not get someone with more flexibility to look at the details of the case. They sound hamstrung by their iron rules. I've never missed a payment, and have a long history with Amex, but that did not help me get out of their flowchart responses. I have had much better luck with Chase in getting a human who had leeway to look at the whole picture but unfortunately I don't love their reward programs. I was considering switching back to one of my Amex cards to use as my primary card but I guess I will continue with my non-Amex options.