Amex Slashed Credit Limits

ronnie_2

Well the good news first of all, Amex customers you are not alone in having credit limits reviewed on your accounts. Bad news, all credit card customers be it mastercard, visa or Amex are having there limits reviewed.

The credit card companies have been piloting this for about a year now, the original reason why they decide to reduce credit limits was initially for fraud prevention however the "rules" can be tweaked somewhat by the companies concerned.

Doesnt matter if you phone up and complain or write, the end of the day the companies have the full rights (in the t&cs) to do this. As far as they are concerned if you dont like it........close up

New business is far more important than customer retention for most of the main players

exel1966

Written confirmation of the credit reduction has today arrived from AMEX. It's basically waffle about how they've determined my previous limit wasn't suitable. It also states that they have withdrawn use of any ATM withdrawl facility !!!! Obviously I cant be trusted.
Time to close the account and move on. Trouble is the choices are getting more limited all the time.

netwalk

To add insult to injury I've realised today that my Amex Gold card that has been reduced from a credit limit of £10,800 to £1,100 has a £40 annual fee! If Amex think I happily let them charge me £40pa for the privilage of a card with a £1,100 limit they must be joking.

I've also been checking my old statements and my Amex Platinum card that has been slashed from £9,000 to £1,800 was only increased from £6,000 to £9,000 in February 2006. How can I have suddenly become such a bad risk for them?

Checked with OH and no notification in today's post from Amex about the reduction; I wonder how long it will take to arrive? I've already drafted my letter of complaint as this is no way to treat long standing customers.

K9cuddles

Oh god.. I just check my limit I'm okay. I've got Amex Nectar.. anyone that this limit problem with this car? Saying that my limit is only £4.5k compared to others on here!

Semantic

Interestingly, when I called to enquire I was told that it was because I was carrying a large balance on another card - 10k on MBNA taking advantage of their 0% BT to april offer.. I personally used it to pick up a car (april = bonus time), but I can see that this may cause problems for stoozers in future.

BASFORDLAD

Its all to do with the increased sharing of information between credit card companies

exel1966

BASFORDLAD wrote:

Its all to do with the increased sharing of information between credit card companies

Not at all - If you read the other thread you'll realise why.

inspector-gadget_4

Amex reduced my limit a few months ago and I got the same letter as everyone else. I called to complain and they said computer this and that and nothing can be done. Took it to the "escalations" dept. - wrote a letter - you know, "disgusted, appalled, greta credit history ..." and still no joy.

Would you believe it, a couple of weeks later, I got a letter of apology for the "computer error" and had my original limit reinstated. I believe that the letter mentioned that the error had affected many account holders, not just me.

So, some of you might get your limits back soon - with luck.

Inspector-Gadget

icklejulez

Letter recieved today saying our 7.5k reduced today to £800. Luckily we paid it off thanks to some inheritance last two weeks else we mightof been in a right mess. Does it seem to be people who have repaid there debts getting this?

Martinslovechild

This thread is deeply concerning.

I no longer have an Amex, but I'm certainly hoping that the issue is contained to Amex as some kind of company 'risk reduction' exercise (although from the above posts, it sounds like they're reducing the risk in the least risky areas!). If this sort of practice spreads to other lenders, it will be very worrying indeed.