Posted on 03/15/2009 11:42:38 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner
If you haven't had the credit limit cut on your credit card recently, count yourself lucky. Risk-averse card issuers are getting slash happy. And while many cardholders gripe that such cuts slice razor-close to their balance amounts, for an unfortunate few the cuts go far deeper: below what they currently owe.
Under different circumstances, David Chaplin-Loebell wouldn't have minded that American Express cut his unlimited credit line to just $5,000. Except that when AmEx reduced his line in October, he had an outstanding balance of $10,000. "I found out by having a business purchase declined," he says. Repeated calls to AmEx failed to yield an answer about why the cut was made. Chaplin-Loebell, who lives in Philadelphia, is now paying the balance under his regular card terms, and presumes the line will free up for new purchases once he's below the limit. "For now, they've essentially frozen the account," he says, leaving him to juggle business expenses on his personal cards. American Express did not respond to requests for comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I'm guessing they think they are too big to fail and Odumbnuts will bail them out with "free" money.
I live within my means and pay my bills on time. I get credit card offers in the mail all the time.
Amex sends me pretty much one piece of junk mail every day. I trash every bit of it.
I closed the corporate AmEx account a while back when this all first started. I just had a friend yesterday try to pay a $2000 flight bill with his corporate AmEx but had it declined even though he had been spending ten times that each month and paying it every month without fail and had only used about $10k so far this month. He had another card to use but the entire flight trip might have had issues if that had happened during the trip.
We’re having a heck of a time where I work. We use AmEx business cards and AmEx is not only changing rules and limits day to day, they’re also not operating very efficiently. Payments made aren’t showing up in a timely manner, etc. What do you think is up with that?
Wonder if they are having funding problems. With their margins, it is hard to imagine, but I guess it is time to terminate the relationship, before they do. I really only used it for merchants I didn’t like.
Problem is, in business, you HAVE to use them, especially if you travel, since everything is done by credit card these days. Cash is not an option when it comes to making airline or hotel reservations if you need to go somewhere for a meeting or conference with a client.
My four credit card bills ( Discover, MC, 2 Visa) all arrived within the last week ). I always pay them off in full every month. Have never had a finance charge. Oddly, this month ALL four sent me notices that they were INCREASING my credit line..Go figure..
Various Credit Card Companies are really the unsuspected causes of GLOBAL WARMING. I and millions of others daily received unasked for envelopes, full of paper offering FABULOUS deals on new credit cards. We also received envelopes stuffed with Credit Card Company CHECKS, to used “When and As needed”.
All this paper must be SHREDDED in shredders that consume increasing amounts of electricity etc etc etc.
The above referring to Credit Card companies is TRUE.
The above reference to Global warming....I’m kidding.
Chase pays 1-2% cashback and gives great service if you have good credit.
Chase pays 1-2% cashback and gives great service if you have good credit.
It is my fault. I use credit cards for convenience - like a debit card - and traditional banks for (secured, lower-rate) loans. I keep the credit limit very low, put the balance temporarily into the black for purchases over the limit, and never pay interest or fees. The credit card companies thus only derive from me indirect revenue via retailer/merchant fees/commission.
I am prepared to atone for my sins - send me the tax bill, destroy the value of my savings. I should have never learned addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
To lower your limit and then charge you fees for being over the new limit sounds like a reasonable time to get a lawyer.
bump
Which card or program - they have hundreds of them.
I use cash for hotels/motels all the time.
I have had issues with AMEX,too. They claimed they had not received a payment while I was on an overses trip, called and harassed my wife, later apologized for not having posted a $1,500 payment properly. When I got back to the uSA, I cancelled their card.
Would not do business with them EVER again.
Three years later, a rep called and wanted me to open an account, and was shocked when I told him I’d rather vote Democrat!
I have had issues with AMEX,too. They claimed they had not received a payment while I was on an overses trip, called and harassed my wife, later apologized for not having posted a $1,500 payment properly. When I got back to the uSA, I cancelled their card.
Would not do business with them EVER again.
Three years later, a rep called and wanted me to open an account, and was shocked when I told him I’d rather vote Democrat!
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