Comments on: American Express Limited After All

By: james

james — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:14:49 +0000

I must say this is a great post, and have fallen for that “No preset spending limit”. I canceled all my other cards awhile back thinking “Wow, I’ve got unlimited credit on this card.” ERR – Wrong. I was away on business and had it declined while I was out at dinner with some clients. Just as the commercial says. To make matters worse, how do you pay off nearly $5000 in hotel costs when American Express decides to all of a sudden put a spending limit on your account? Believe me, its not fun and it is definitely embarrassing.

By: Jason Barrett

Jason Barrett — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:43:03 +0000

This is in response to DanLeaveItAlone – We have almost the same story. Bought a damaged tub and although Amex says they guarantee goods they didn’t. The seller claimed we damaged it and Amex wouldn’t allow us to stop the charge from going through. It was also the wrong model tub on top of that. So we had to pay a restocking fee to the seller of $1000 to avoid being charged the full amount of it. Basically what Amex is doing is siding with criminals to shake down innocent people. They’ve done this now three times to us.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 05:51:24 +0000

We have had our AMEX gold card for 5 plus years. We got a request for financial statements a couple months ago. We had used the card for absolutely everything, from inventory, advertising, etc. They cut our so called spending limit by 100K once we gave them our financials. We never had a late payment or anything before that, and they would not explain why. I would advise anyone to NOT send financials if they request them. They claimed “declining profitability”, huh? Yeah I guess when you grow from 25K in sales to 4.5 mil over 5 years the profit percentage might go down a bit. In any case I told them that without the ability to charge our day to day expenses it would delay our ability to pay. As soon as they our paid off we are going with a private bank. The rewards are pennies on the dollar with AMEX, and they hit you at the worst possible times.

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 05:32:52 +0000

I’ve had my Gold card for the past 2 years. On average, I spend 5-10K per month. Never had a missed or late payment. I’ve spent over 60K this month for company expenses, and today, they declined me for 20 dollars of gas. I told them to send me my statement right away, and I will be cancelling their card.

By: dreed

dreed — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 17:49:40 +0000

Well we have been Business Gold members for 18 years. Never had a problem until AMERICAN EXPRESS BANK took over the accounts, last year sometime I believe. Has always had high balances, but because our spending decreased over the past 6 months, they now decline charges that put us over our average for the past 6 months. What’s up with that! Never had a late payment! But the declines state “charges out of normal spending pattern.” Is quite embarrasing indeed. They never communicated this and the only way we find out anything is by calling “AFTER” something has been declined. And how much sense does it make to “pay in advance”? Hence the term, “credit”? And for this we pay over $100 a year? Will be closing the account for sure!

By: Josh Martin

Josh Martin — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:57:01 +0000

Great thread here, btw. I was just approved for a Platinum and plan on using it mostly for biz related expenses rather than my corp card. I travel a lot so getting the additional ‘flight clubs’ at the airports was a big plus. Regarding the credit history and assets: I imagine they know my credit score because I was approved, but do I need to prove assets to warrant an initial high limit? I’m sure they don’t know my assets because it isn’t contained on my credit report and specific bank/investment account information wasn’t given.
Thanks

By: DanLeaveItAlone

DanLeaveItAlone — Mon, 07 May 2007 02:27:38 +0000

Small story bought a $4,000.00 hot tub had it preapproved with the GOLD card arrived damaged by one Individual/delivering agent when three were contracted for 5 weeks after ordering and two weeks after paying the bill therefrom. Told not to worry they would have it worked out in 30 days but certainly no more then 6 – 8 weeks. Now the anticipated date of the “investigation” closure [as all parties involved have already in writing admitted fault] is June 10th a day after my payment is due (never paid late never charged a dime in interest all cards were fee free for first year). AND I won’t I canceled the BLUE, GOLD & PLATINUM but now I’m not eligible for the AMEX INSURANCE should I somehow lose the claim for my $4,000.00 back. Frig them stay with VISA & MC or DISCOVER I went back to 2 of the 3 of three real fast!

By: Nickoli

Nickoli — Wed, 02 May 2007 11:26:49 +0000

If I was offered a card and told I’ll “never have to worry about being declined again”, yet it was declined for something I could pay for, I’d be talking to them about closing my account.

By: INtheknow

INtheknow — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:00:02 +0000

Amex does not waive yearly membership fees.

By: Kevin Marino

Kevin Marino — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:17:13 +0000

Wow, umm. it should get easier, hopefully. If not there are plenty of people out there that would LOVE to have your business. I would also badger them about getting the Yearly fee waived, if you are spending that much.

By: Eric Meyer

Eric Meyer — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:38:48 +0000

It’s a new Platinum business charge card. I wish I’d only been charging a car! In fact, I was paying the catering and hotel services bill for AEA Boston—that’s breakfast, lunch, and snacks for 550 people over two days plus network access, AV equipment, room setup, automatic service charge, hotel rooms for speakers, taxes, blah blah blah. That’s a very, very large bill.

I’ll be interested to see if they invite me to pick up a Black card.

Oh, and once I bought the fighter jet, I could buy the airfield to go with it! Well, if I didn’t have a secret spending limit, anyway.

By: Kevin Marino

Kevin Marino — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:18:52 +0000

LOL,

the key is immediately do a few big charges (make sure credit score and bank balances look good ) then call amex at that time saying Im making this big purchase.

Once you have established you are a big spender you shouldn’t have an issue.

Also to buy the fighter jet you may have to upgrade to a better card, at the very least a platinum. Unfortunately the Black is probably the card you need, and that is invite only.

So start spending and before you know you too will experience the joy of “oh crap, I’ve got to pay off how much!”

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 11:52:20 +0000

I have been a faithful Amex customer for years and very satisfied with their service. Over the years they have always seemed to have our best interest at heart. I am curious to the purchase. I have charged expensive things before halfway expecting them to call or decline due to the large amount. Yet,the purchases always went thru immediately. Where you charging a car or something? Or was this just a new account? Love your blog!

By: Keith Burgin

Keith Burgin — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 01:38:14 +0000

“Hello? I’m calling to ask you why my card was declined.”

“Because you are over your spending limit, sir.”

“I thought there was no spending limit.”

“No, sir. There is no preset spending limit.”

“Well, if my card was declined, then the limit was preset, wasn’t it?”

“No sir. I just set it now.”

“What?”

“It’s set. I just set it now. It’s five dollars less than what you wanted to charge. Just now.”

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:26:51 +0000

sure, sure- buy the fighter jet.

But where will you park it? Hmm?