Anybody have Amex slash your limit without warning?

Sure, it happens. There are reports here on RFD of Amex doing that as far back as 2009.

DonkeyDoo wrote: ↑ I just logged into my Amex account, and see the limit on my SC was lowered from $20,000, to $2,180.00. There's no notice or message on the account, I never got anything in the mail. I use the card rarely usually just for work expenses.

My credit is perfect and I have zero missed payments across a dozen or so accounts, however, I am carrying a lot of $$$$ of BT promos (~30k) for short term investments.

Anybody ever seen this?

Not just Amex, I had my PC World Elite Mastercard drop my limit from $40k to $7,500 and when I inquired they said that I was not meeting the spending limit. I had dropped my spending on the card by about 90% so whatever. I was a little miffed that I received NO notice about it and found out when I logged into my account one day.

I had my credit limit slashed significantly on a Triangle World Elite MasterCard, without notice, after taking out a large student line of credit.

rkjredflag wrote: ↑ I had my credit limit slashed significantly on a Triangle World Elite MasterCard, without notice, after taking out a large student line of credit.

Did you get notice of the change?

kr0zet wrote: ↑ Did you get notice of the change?

No, I did not. Any sort of notice or explanation would have been nicer.

kr0zet wrote: ↑ Did you get notice of the change?

He said right in his post "without notice". Banks are not required to give you any notice when they cut your credit limit. It sucks, since if you want to increase it, you might need to consent to another hard credit check. And then in the future they can claw it all back for any reason they want.

Kiraly wrote: ↑ He said right in his post "without notice". Banks are not required to give you any notice when they cut your credit limit. It sucks, since if you want to increase it, you might need to consent to another hard credit check. And then in the future they can claw it all back for any reason they want.

Yeah that's what I found weird. I mean, an email, letter, or even maybe just a phone call asking why I was carrying high balances... But the only way I found out was logging in. Ironically I have about $1800 of work expenses on there right now - if I hadn't logged in, the only way I would have found out would have been when the card was declined as there's only $300 ish limit left! I would have been super annoyed if that had happened!

DonkeyDoo wrote: ↑ Yeah that's what I found weird. I mean, an email, letter, or even maybe just a phone call asking why I was carrying high balances... But the only way I found out was logging in. Ironically I have about $1800 of work expenses on there right now - if I hadn't logged in, the only way I would have found out would have been when the card was declined as there's only $300 ish limit left! I would have been super annoyed if that had happened!

Usually in your statement at that specific month.

But they don't give advance notice for sure. But I do remember they communicate with you at that decreases month. Communication for CLI is advance but CLD is always after fact

smartie wrote: ↑ Usually in your statement at that specific month.

I didn't even get that... My July 10th statement says $20,000 limit, today it's $2,180.

DonkeyDoo wrote: ↑I just logged into my Amex account, and see the limit on my SC was lowered from $20,000, to $2,180.00. There's no notice or message on the account, I never got anything in the mail. I use the card rarely usually just for work expenses.

My credit is perfect and I have zero missed payments across a dozen or so accounts, however, I am carrying a lot of $$$$ of BT promos (~30k) for short term investments.

Anybody ever seen this?

AMEX normally mails you a letter. AMEX slashed my Cobalt credit limit last year. I only noticed after receiving an alert that I was near my limit. Checked the app and sure enough, my limit had been significantly reduced from $10,800 to $4880. This strange limit was basically my outstanding balance. I had only been carrying a balance from a low interest rate promotion offer. Letter arrived 2 weeks later. The letter didn't provide any reason other than to say my limit was reduced just because they felt like it. I called to complain but it was a waste of time. Good reason to never rely on one card or one bank.

Yes mine got lowered from 8,300 to 1,000 last week too. When I called Amex, the rep mentioned it could be because of the line of credit I got approved.

Oddly enough on my SCP, I hadn't used it for a couple months and got a letter in the mail, then logged in and it was an offer for a limit increase to what it was before they dropped in, no score changes no new debts no new trade lines just wasn’t using it for everything for a couple months. They never decreased my cobalt, essential or any other card I have.

Techiedude wrote: ↑ Oddly enough on my SCP, I hadn't used it for a couple months and got a letter in the mail, then logged in and it was an offer for a limit increase to what it was before they dropped in, no score changes no new debts no new trade lines just wasn’t using it for everything for a couple months. They never decreased my cobalt, essential or any other card I have.

Amex behaves like a pendulum at times. I had 2 Amex cards last year - both personal but one used strictly for business expenses. They reduced the one I used for personal by 66% and left the one I used for business untouched. I too was taking advantage of their own 0.99% balance offer for 12 months (not balance transfer, but charges I make regularly and pay only the minimum balance - rest gets dinged 0.99% until offer expires). I only got to use 34% of my limit before they reduced it to basically make the offer useless for me.

Issue was, I was 3,600 kms away from home and found out the embarrasing way when card got declined.

In short, you can't rely on Amex (or PC MC) for when you're travelling or when you have monthly pre-auth transactions setup!

sprinter wrote: ↑ Amex behaves like a pendulum at times. I had 2 Amex cards last year - both personal but one used strictly for business expenses. They reduced the one I used for personal by 66% and left the one I used for business untouched. I too was taking advantage of their own 0.99% balance offer for 12 months (not balance transfer, but charges I make regularly and pay only the minimum balance - rest gets dinged 0.99% until offer expires). I only got to use 34% of my limit before they reduced it to basically make the offer useless for me.

Issue was, I was 3,600 kms away from home and found out the embarrasing way when card got declined.

In short, you can't rely on Amex (or PC MC) for when you're travelling or when you have monthly pre-auth transactions setup!

I don't really get the whole embarrassment thing when a credit card gets declined.
I've had it happen to me before, and I've never felt embarrassed one time.
Basically because I don't care what the cashier may think of the reason for the decline.
I'm sure most do think that you're maxed out or whatever, but they're idiots if that's what instantly enters their mind.
There are many other reasons for a declined card.
Heck one time my card was declined at one store, so I just used another card.
Called the issuer, and they confirmed there was nothing on their end that caused the decline.
Next store I went to use it, it went through no problem.
Sometimes merchant or bank systems can be dumb, and decline for no apparent reason.
It happens, and life goes on.

It happens pretty often, you can call the credit department and ask for a review but even after send the documents they want it might not be successful.

A coworker bought a new home and the credit union requested all credit card and loans be brought down to zero prior to closing. So the lawyer sends cheques out to Amex and the other banks. The other banks seemed fine with that, but Amex doesn’t like receiving payments from 3rd parties. They limited his charge cards to $1,500 each, but they left his $60k cobalt alone.

Just use a charge credit card and you won't have that problem.

iamthebest wrote: ↑ Just use a charge credit card and you won't have that problem.

Charge cards are even worse.
Don’t think they don’t have a limit, they do.
The limit is just not disclosed to you.
I’d rather know what my actual limit is, not guess at it.

coolintheshade wrote: ↑ Charge cards are even worse.
Don’t think they don’t have a limit, they do.
The limit is just not disclosed to you.
I’d rather know what my actual limit is, not guess at it.

If you play around with the "check spending power" tool on your Amex account you know what your approved 'undisclosed limit' is at any given time. The thing is you just have to keep entering an amount until it says you cannot charge that high of a total to the card. But the tool only allows you to enter so many numbers in at a time.

DonkeyDoo wrote: ↑ I just logged into my Amex account, and see the limit on my SC was lowered from $20,000, to $2,180.00. There's no notice or message on the account, I never got anything in the mail. I use the card rarely usually just for work expenses.

My credit is perfect and I have zero missed payments across a dozen or so accounts, however, I am carrying a lot of $$$$ of BT promos (~30k) for short term investments.

Anybody ever seen this?

let me rephrase that for you .. amex decided that they wanted to re-evaluate the credit they provide me using their money.

as for why it happens they probably looked at your credit file and the criteria for the limit they gave you changed.