Amex Slashed Credit Limits

netwalk

Help!

I have 3 Amex credit cards, a Blue, Gold & Platinum with credit limits of £7,800, £10,800 & £9,000 respectively. I have just been into online banking to print off my latest Platinum statement (the card I use the most) and find my limits have been reduced to £800, £1,100 and £1,800 respecively; a total credit reduction of £24,000!

Why? How? What? I have received no notification of this and my accounts have been run in perfect order. No late payments, no arrears, nothing. My Platinum card is used for all my day to day spending and paid off in full each month, my Gold had a 4.9% LOB transfer that I paid off last month and the Blue is rarely used. Looking at my records I have had an Amex account for at least 7 years!

I've not had any change in financial circumstances, my gross income is £45K+ and I own my own home. I wouldn't really miss the Gold or Blue cards but the Platinum is my equivalent of cash. With transactions I've already made that have yet to appear on my online statement I have already exceeded my vastly reduced credit limit. Can they do that? Can they charge me for exceeding it?

Before I phone them I need to calm down as I'm furious about this. I'm almost tempted to wait until they let me know in writing and then conduct everything in writing as I'm sure they will have made a mistake.

The only thing I have done differently recently is pay off my LOB transfer of £2,000 on my Gold card. Surely this cannot be a reason for slashing limits? I also posted on Friday that MBNA have reduced my credit limit on a card with them by £6,100 shortly after I paid off a LOB transfer with them as well. Coincidence surely?

What's happening? Julian.

md_14uk

Same here... My limit was £10,000 and it has been cut to £2,100!

Perhaps they have realised that the limits they set were a little excessive??!

mountainofdebt

Hubby had his limit on his Capital One card reduced from £10K to £800 last year although it didn't affect him too much as there was no balance on it.

When he rang up to ask why, he was told it was for his own protection just in case the card was stolen.

As I posted elsewhere I was accepted for an amex platinum card and had a limit of £9200 :eek: :eek: but cancelled it as they no longer offered balance transfers.

When I queried this I was offered different explanations as to why this was the case - the 1st said it was because the UK has unacceptable debt levels (so they give me an extra £9200 to spend !) and the 2nd time I asked, the response lead me to believe that it was because they weren't making enough money out of balance transfers. When I tried to confirm this was the real reason the guy clammed up but as I said to him, his silence told me everything.

Semantic

Same here - 5k limit on amex plat credit and 5k on ba amex premium plus cut to 500 and 1500 respectively (especially weird as they were both increased by £500 last month)! Also earn £45k+ and have spent over £40k on the cards this year (business travel) with perfect payment history. I also had cash withdrawls turned off on all my cards after taking out £200 last month when I forgot my bank card. Called amex plat charge card division today and they said they would get back to me tmrw as this was accounts doing.. Not impressed. Especially annoyed as I need to book some long-haul flexi business tickets - should still be able to on the plat charge, but no bonus BA miles. Bah.

exel1966

Ditto - Reduced from £8000 to £700 overnight !! Absolute perfect 100% credit history with nil changes to affect it. I'm baffled !!!
I've rang them this morning, but got through to India who were as much use as a chocolate fireguard. I did obtain a number for their credit accounting dept who deal with these matters. They are open 8am - 10pm Mon-Fri and can be contacted on 01273 576112.

My cashback of £154 was also paid yesterday. Any significance in that I wonder ?

mrbigd

exel1966 wrote:

They are open 8am - 10pm Mon-Fri and can be contacted on 01273 576112.

Switchboard number for Amex in Brighton is 01273 693555 if it helps anyone.

neil40

Hope that does not happen to me.We use the blue card for almost everything instead of cash.We have a credit limit of £4200.A reduction to anything under £1500 would be no use to us!

jimmyjim_uk

my amex blue limit is unchanged

maybe amex have had a lot of bad debt recently and are trying to limit risk

exel1966

I think there is more to this than random limit slashing. I believe it may be some kind of error generated by the system due to the changeover of their cashback percentages.

It just doesn't make sense to randomly cut my limit on my account that has probably only had a max spend of 50% of the credit limit attached to it, has never had a late payment nor gone over the agreed limit in the eight years I've held the account. Maybe it's because I've managed my account well and never paid them any interest in all that time.
If they have reduced my limit correctly by approx 90% then I would take it as an insult and will immediately close the account.
Tomorrow I'll call again so will know for sure !!

CopperPlate_2

I take it these limit reductions are being given the "30 days notice of change" or whatever AMEX is required to give? They're not instant are they?! I'm only thinking about those people who have a balance on their card and pay it off each month, only to find the limit reduced and they're suddenly over the new limit?

exel1966

Checked my online account on Friday and limit was £8K - Today it's £700, no notification !!!