Amex being a bit weird!

creditscoremeansnothing

Ive had an amex for a few years and use it to earn cash back. It has a limit of 18k and i usually pay in full (dd for minimum and remainder paid by card online) I usually spend about 2-3 k per month on it.
Last statement i got an email saying they are reducing my limit to 4k as they have done a review of my account blah bah the usual bumf with it.

Not being that happy i called them expecting just to be fobbed off, they was very polite on the phone and said they couldn't give me the exact reason but it was just a review. They did say that if i paid 50% of the balance now by debit card they would reinstate my original limit.
I explained that by the payment due date i would pay the full balance anyway as i usually do and they said they only required 50% which was about £1300.

I paid it in full as it saved me time paying the other half by the due date at the end of the month and she told me the limit would be back to normal the next working day and sure enough it was! Whats all that about?

There has been no significant changes to my usual monthly activity with anyone apart from i am participating in the Curve Beta run with the amex enabling me to use amex for cash back where normally its not accepted.

boo_star

Seems a bit weird.

I can understand them reducing your limit if you're not using it, it's credit they could be offering to someone else. But offering to reinstate it if you pay off half the balance seems bizarre.

[Deleted User]

If you have £18k and only using £2-£3k per month then I can see why they reduced it

pvt

Very strange.

I have an AmEx card, almost exactly the same limit as you, I use it the same way as you (about £1k5 to £2k5 per month typically) and always pay off in full. Only difference I see is my DD is for the full amount, not the minimum. Yet they keep increasing my limit!

Only other thing I can see is that I very occasionally spend more (eg on a large household item or holiday) and once in a blue moon the balance might reach 8k or more, but that's typically only once a year.

Never had any CC credit limit reduced, ever. CA overdraft limit reduced because I never used it, but not a CC card.

A4445

I’ve got an amex Card with £13k limit I probably only spend £300 a month on it. I do use it to book holidays I’ve probably put about 5k extra for that reason. My limit seems to increase every 3 months.

nickcc

Have Amex and spend app £300 per month always paid off by DD. Limit was £3500 which was OK by me. Received letter few days ago telling me they were raising my limit to £9500, not sure why as I only use the card for Amazon purchases.

creditscoremeansnothing

I know, i found it really bizarre. It didn't take no persuading to put the limit back, they instantly said 50% payment will do it.

1 thing i forgot to mention is they also said on the original letter that i can no longer "withdraw cash" on it. I have never ever withdrawn cash on any credit card and when i asked about this she said its okay as that's been reinstated too, i said i wasn't bothered about the cash restriction as i don't do it anyway.

Thats what got me thinking about the curve transactions, I'm sure i read somewhere they treat it as cash withdrawal but when i checked my amex statement it says purchase. I think i will double check this as the curve is working well with the amex for cash back but i don't want it flagging them as cash transactions.

System

I rarely use my BA Amex anymore as I don't fly BA as much so have less use for Avios.
Alas I just got my limit upped from 13k to 18k. I only use it once a month for a coffee. Seems weird they would lower yours?

stevenhp1987

creditscoremeansnothing wrote: »

Thats what got me thinking about the curve transactions, I'm sure i read somewhere they treat it as cash withdrawal but when i checked my amex statement it says purchase. I think i will double check this as the curve is working well with the amex for cash back but i don't want it flagging them as cash transactions.

Curve have been working with Amex to allow Amex on their systems. If someone starts using it for cash, or is suspected of such, I'd imagine Amex and Curve would liaise and confirm/deny it which would (if true) result in both accounts being closed. Amex was pulled from Curve a couple of years ago because people abused it, Curve don't want a repeat of that!

My account got stopped for about a week after I made a large Amex Curve transaction (part payment towards a new car!). My limit was not affected (infact, I now have £9k more limit with Amex than I did back in November).

I doubt they would have lowered the limit for that, if they suspected manufactured spend, they would have just limited the card.

It's more likely an automated process that kicked in because you have a Direct Debit setup for the minimum rather than the full balance.

phillw

My guess is that rather than "reverting" your credit limit, they treated it as if you were applying for a new much higher credit limit.

Asking you to pay 50% now was likely just to gauge how you reacted. If you asked for an 18k credit limit but couldn't pay 1k off immediately then they would be worried.

If you're not using the credit limit then they have either unused capital or borrowing sitting there losing them money. By lowering it for everyone then it frees that up, only people who really need it will bother to phone up to get the credit limit reinstated.