MikeFly

I want to start using a Starwood Amex card for my corporate purchases that would be around $100,000 per month. Since Starwood does not offer a business
version, I would need a fairly high credit limit. Does anyone have any advice or experience with this?

Kagehitokiri

good luck, i look forward to hearing what they say when you ask them about it.

singlemalt

A little. I've been told a couple of times that the highest credit limit you can get with the card is $100K. Supposedly you can get more than one card - I'd be curious to know if anyone's gone that route. Also, when moving your line of credit from one card to another, there are different levels of approval. If the credit limit on the card you're transferring to would be $25K or less, that's considered a low-level limit and should only take a couple of days since there are a number of people at Amex that can make that approval. $25K-$50K and $50K-$75K take you higher up the food chain: fewer people to approve, longer process. If the transfer would take your limit up between $75K-$100K, I was told that there is only one person at Amex that can make that call - the last time I did this, it took two weeks (but it did go through). A week ago I asked to transfer another $10K of credit from my HH Amex to my Starwwod card - I haven't heard anything as of today. At no time has Amex ever asked for supporting documentation, like bank or brokerage statements, tax returns, etc.

There is another route you can look at. Some people have had luck freeing up their credit by making mid-cycle payments. Suppposedly this isn't possble for this card according to the people at Amex, but others report differently (I've done it once in the past year). It doesn't give you a lot of float, though, if this is a consideration.

Kagehitokiri

great info on the levels of approval for transferring.

btw i seem to remember there were/are quantum credit cards with $200 - $250K limits.

gleff

Works for me, month after month.

(I've never pushed the envelope for higher levels of credit with my SPG Amex, charges > $100k go on the plain vanilla Amex Plat)

singlemalt

You can get to the same levels with a Citi AA MC. Citi give you a credit limit, but they also have a spending limit which seems to work like an Amex charge card - if you keep exceeding your previous high spending for a month by a certain limited percentage (I think it's near 50%), you can get your spending limit well beyond your credit limit. Right now I can spend over 2X my credit limit in any given billing cycle without a problem (which gets me to the limits you're quoting). Again, once I started to build up my spending limit, they've never come back for personal financial documentation. But remember, with Citi AA MCs, if you don't have status with AA, your annual mileage is capped. Now that the double-points promotions have dried up on the Amex cards, I'll probably be using this card a lot more.

Kagehitokiri

AA MC/AX don't give you bonus miles either do they?

I was planning on using SPG AX for AA/CX miles.

925

I have two SPG accounts. One for personal, one for business.

I also have been told there is NO WAY to exceed $100K Credit Line, and that there are financial approval levels to break thru at $50K and $75K. I have been told that $75K+ approval required two years tax returns AND financial statements. This is not in my experience set.

I bumped past the $50K Credit level without the financial review by asking them to reduce another Amex account CL while increasing my SPG CL. It worked. (It also screws up the available credit amount on the internet display, but I have never figured out exactly how or by how much-basically, I can show a zero available credit and still clear charges for thousands of dollars, and I have never actually seen the internet tell me my available credit is more than $50K, but my credit line is printed as being higher).

Amex people will sometimes tell you you can not make mid-cycle payments. I make them regularly (as many as 18 times in a single month!), but you need to be a bit careful. First, my experience is that if you make a payment by check, that is it for the month, no matter what. Second, your mid-cycle payments can be made by computer online; probably the ONLY way to do so. Third, you are prohibited from EVER making a payment beyond what your current balance is. Fourth, there is NOTHING you can do about pending authorizations. If someone authorizes a large amount against your card, you must wait until the charge actually hits your account before you can pay your balance down. This is REAL TROUBLE if they handle authorizations electronically, but then process transactions by paper (particularly in foreign countries). Fifth, you can not make more than one payment at a time. In other words, once you make a payment, it has to pass thru their system before you can make an additional payment. (A side efect of this is that I do not think you can make more than one payment in a day. I have sometimes had two payments post on the same day and none on the next day, but never three payments post to the same day. Sixth, the time of day you make your payments matters. Payments are not processed in real-time, but in batches or at a fixed time(s?) each day. So I have seen payments pass thru their system in less than 6 hours, and I have seen payments take over 30 hours (weekends and holidays) to flow thru the system.

I wish you could get visibility on authorizations. This would help a LOT.

I know you can have more than 35 additional carholders on a single account.

For me, there seemed to be automatic credit line increases every 6 months or so if you came close to the top of your credit line at least once during the six months. Usually $5000 per bump. The bumps stopped when the CL reached $50K.

For large charges, they will sometimes authorize substantially over your credit line. The authorization seems to have a human in the cycle, as the electronic authorizations in this case have taken up to two minutes before the approval is granted.

925

Why oh Why would you put your large charges to MR instead of SPG? If it is a Credit Line issue, ask them to move off the Plat and onto the SPG. It only takes a couple of minutes.

azmmza

amexd just started with a business SPG card

gleff

They've told me that they can't move credit across from a Plat CHARGE card to an SPG CREDIT card.

925

Makes sense! I have always moved credit line from a CREDIT card to a CREDIT card. Until this year, I never HAD a CHARGE card.

Best advice I can give you is to try to run up to your credit line on SPG once every six months and wait for the automatic credit line bumps (if they happen to you like they did me). Or ask for a credit line increase.

lessthanzero

After about $25 or so they started asking for documentation, so after that I just bumped other cards and transfered in. I'm now at $65K. I could go further but have no need at the moment.

gleff

I have a decent SPG personal amex credit limit, and I've had success paying it off to free credit mid-cycle. But for individual six-figure charges it's my Amex Plat (I won't spring for Centurion).