I wonder if they cut him back because he just started shopping there, he was a long time shoper and they only recently noticed it, or they just used it as the excuse of the day....

Card companies adjusting credit limits
[www.ajc.com]

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In tha 360. MRF User Map

I guess its a good thing i closed my AMEX account.

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AMEX is a desperate company. Even their best customers are suddenly defaulting on them. They've been allowing more customers to keep balances and pay just the accumulating interest. Which makes them kinda predatory.

People get all flabbergasted when they're mistreated by the likes of an American Express because they feel that they've followed all of the rules. It should be a lesson to the Kevin Johnson's of the world. You're "nothing" to these corporations. And you never will be. They have zero loyalty to you no matter how fastidious you are. Consumers need more protections.

I had disagreements with them (Amex) for years, and for the last ten years didn't carry one of their cards. I was a Platinum card holder, and when ever I made a major (like $4-5,000 purchase) they'd go nuts, even though I'd done it a number of times and they were always paid in full by the due date. I'm in the carnival business, and I guess they never cared for the fact that the only time I'd have any money in my bank account was when I was getting ready to pay their bill.

I do carry one of their cards now-and it's only because of fuel prices this year.

They have always been very arbitrary (in my opinion) and when you bring up this "No pre-set spending limit" it's very quickly explained that this is true BUT every customer has "spending patterns".

Screw them-I did without them before, I can do it again. I miss my Diners Club!

Astounding:


“Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express,” the letter said. Johnson complained to American Express by phone and letter.

Guilt by association?!

This is part of the completely arbitrary and capricious use of power by credit card companies.

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I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

I've told this story before, but it relates to this. My sister got married several years ago and since her bridesmaids were located throughout the country she decided to order some inexpensive skirts from David's bridal and let each girl pick out her own top for the skirt.

I went to the local store to pick up 3 of the skirts. The total was under $200 and I put it on my Visa. The woman ran the card, looked at the display thing and made a call. She talked to whomever for a moment, looked at me and said "They want to speak with you." "They? Who is they?", I said. She replied it was Visa.

Now my head was spinning a bit. The charge was not significant, I was nowhere near my limit and I was on time with my payments. When I got on the phone the Visa rep said she needed to verify that I was really dmann. She asked some questions and once she was satisfied I was indeed the card holder she let me go and the charge went through.

When I got out to the parking lot I called back to try and figure out what had happened. Apparently, Visa had identified an unusually high number of fraudulent charges run through David's Bridal nationwide and they had taken to verifying most purchases done there.

I definitely felt that shopping there reflected negatively on me in the eyes of the CC company and that was very strange.

DM

dmann - Sounds to me like they were just fishing where the fish are... Meaning, they notice a pattern, and strike right there.

Jeff



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2008 03:17PM by kj4btkljv.

When we would drive cross-country, we routinely would start to have our Amex denied, and we would have to call them and convince them that our card was not stolen. Now we've gotten in the habit of calling ahead and telling them our travel plans. A pain, but I guess that's the climate we live in now.

All in all, I've only had good customer service experiences with Amex. One time, I paid about 95% of our monthly balance, not realizing that the TOS specify that the interest would be calculated on the average daily balance for the whole month (so, I got changed the same interest as if I had paid 1% of my bill) - in other words, only paying 100% gets you off the hook for interest payments. I called them an complained about the charge (it was about $300, though it was clear in their TOS), and they removed it. There have been other little things - all of which we've had handled quickly and without problems. I hope their level of customer service does not decline (though sounds like it is from this story and other posters above).

Amex keeps offering me a gold card with the first year's annual fee ($125!!) waived. I have always replied that if they want me for a customer they need to waive the annual fee permanently. After hearing this I wouldn't take their card for free!

Neither of the credit card companies I deal with has tried to lower my credit limit, but I suppose it's just a matter of time. I have never come anywhere near a tenth of the limit anyway, and I pay it off every month.

"When we would drive cross-country, we routinely would start to have our Amex denied, and we would have to call them and convince them that our card was not stolen. Now we've gotten in the habit of calling ahead and telling them our travel plans. A pain, but I guess that's the climate we live in now."

I do that every time I travel outside my state. they call it a travel advisory. You specify the date range, and area of travel. The last thing I wanted was my card being declined in Budapest, and being stranded.

A short time ago, we took advantage of a really good balance transfer rate from Chase.
A couple of months later, they notified us that they were going to hit us with a $10/month fee, plus nearly triple our minimum monthly payment (from 2% to 5%). Utterly unmanageable. We called them up to ask whether they *wanted* us to declare bankruptcy or what. As it turns out, this was just an arm-twisting maneuver; they would keep our min. payment low and waive the monthly fee if we would surrender the promotional interest rate and go with 7.99%
Bastards.
I'll be so happy to get out from under their thumbs.

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This remote controlled tree is a must for the person who wants to be on the cutting edge of Christmas technology.

Quote
Racer X
I do that every time I travel outside my state. they call it a travel advisory. You specify the date range, and area of travel. The last thing I wanted was my card being declined in Budapest, and being stranded.

Yeah - we learned our lesson. When we went to Japan this year, I called twice to make sure they had us in the database.

We have coorporate AMEX's and have had no problems with them. I do call when I am traveling (especially out of the country). I have had numerous calls to the extended warranty department with no problems. I have had issues with sellers and AMEX has handled them quickly (never to my detriment). I had a rental car accident (NOTE: read the fine print next time if you don't purchase their insurance..scary!). AMEX has rental car insurance automatically with business accounts. Budget was rubbing their chops about the car (first thing they said was "You didn't purchase our insurance...how are you going to handle this"). I called AMEX and gave them the info...done. I even called 2 weeks later just to make sure....covered. No cost to me or my company.

I think all credit lenders are just this side of the 'money-lenders in the temple' but have no complaints about AMEX's customer service.

Jay

Quote
volcs0
When we would drive cross-country, we routinely would start to have our Amex denied, and we would have to call them and convince them that our card was not stolen. Now we've gotten in the habit of calling ahead and telling them our travel plans. A pain, but I guess that's the climate we live in now.

All in all, I've only had good customer service experiences with Amex. One time, I paid about 95% of our monthly balance, not realizing that the TOS specify that the interest would be calculated on the average daily balance for the whole month (so, I got changed the same interest as if I had paid 1% of my bill) - in other words, only paying 100% gets you off the hook for interest payments. I called them an complained about the charge (it was about $300, though it was clear in their TOS), and they removed it. There have been other little things - all of which we've had handled quickly and without problems. I hope their level of customer service does not decline (though sounds like it is from this story and other posters above).