Mod: thank you for reopening this thread!

All: this is a VERY DIFFERENT incident from the one in the lowering AMEX credit thread. There, we were worried about lines getting too large and AMEX cracking down. Here, ironically, the allegation is that a BUSINESS LINE (not CC) wasn't large enough (since when does a business line not get paid up and down all the time...?)

I will be calling AMEX ASAP, hopefully tomorrow, to get to the bottom of this. What I'd very much appreciate in the meantime is any experience, links, advice, useful contact people, etc. for resolving this as amicably and quickly as possible. TIA!

And in the meantime, I suggest we DON'T PRE-PAY and spend over your limit with Amex, EVEN IF IT'S AN LOC!!!

I read about a similar problem with AMEX... wish I could find the thread. The end result is that the issue was not resolved to the satisfaction of the customer.

mephisto, thanks for the helpful data point. It suggests the initial claim is all the more implausible.

Crazytree, do you mean a thread other than the one the moderator linked?

Palador, your explanation certainly makes more sense than what I was told, and is consistant with mephisto's experience.

I'm now home, and spent the first 10 minutes combing the complete terms of the card. It's available at http://www.dhanson.net/Amex-tou.pdf for anyone who's interested. The most germaine passage says,

<< You may send us more than the minimum payment, pay us before the payment is due, pay more than once a month, or pay off your balance entirely without any prepayment penalty. You may not however, pay us with a check drawn against your Account or any other account issued by us. >>

How I was supposed to interpret this agreement as prohibiting my conduct is beyond me--especially when it's issued to a real-estate business in the first place, which will often have high-dollar transactions by its very nature.

Also irritating but unsurprising: no one will ever communicate with you in writing on stuff like this. I asked if they would send their request in writing, and was told they would send something, but it would say "you need to call us" and that's it.

I had a similar situation with my AMEX Starwood card. We put an auto down-payment on the card (for the points) and did an online payment that night for the whole amount. A week later (still same billing cycle) my card gets declined for dinner (very embarrasing). I am pissed because at this point the card actually had no balance at all. I call AMEX and they say that I used up my limit for that billing cycle and it didn't matter what my balance was. I had to put the card away for a week until it could be used again.

You would think they would offer to raise the limit but didn't...thanks AMEX

nhokt said:

<< I had a similar situation with my AMEX Starwood card. We put an auto down-payment on the card (for the points) and did an online payment that night for the whole amount. A week later (still same billing cycle) my card gets declined for dinner (very embarrasing). I am pissed because at this point the card actually had no balance at all. I call AMEX and they say that I used up my limit for that billing cycle and it didn't matter what my balance was. I had to put the card away for a week until it could be used again.

You would think they would offer to raise the limit but didn't...thanks AMEX >>


I hate their stupid spending limit policy...because amazon.com canceled an order for $500+ and that counts against my spending limit for the month even though Amazon credited the amount back to my card. In Amex's eyes it's already been used. UGH.

So even though my limit is $4000 and I only have $500 in actual charges, the stupid card only shows $2500 in remaining credit. I don't even know what other charges they're tabbing in their head but it's horrible that they're doing this...I think they counted a refund I got from COMPUSA towards my limit. How this makes sense to them is beyond me.

DaveHanson said:

<< So then, do you see the threat as an empty one, that should have been ignored? Or would you just run the risk that they'd cut you off? >>

Was there a balance outstanding when they called? Or was it paid down? I;m guessing there was a balance...and at any rate, I would pay it down to 0 before calling in!

I wouldnt necessarily describe their call as an empty threat, but a flag probably popped up and they started their procedure: "contact the client, request docs, freeze lines, etc"...I would have just paid the line down. I think that would have solved the problem and the further steps would have dropped off the "to do" list. I know how employees are soooo lazy and just hate to have to do things such as follow up, generate a letter, etc., and paying it down likely would have averted further action. I dont think theyd cut me off...but now youre on "step 3" of their program, instead of step 1...

Good luck and keep us posted..

My experience with prepaying AMEX cards and exceeding the CL is that officially (i.e. if you speak to a CSR) they don't allow it, but the computer lets it through in certain cases. In DH's case the amount may have been large enough to attract somebody's attention.

Thanks for the replies all.

SIS, thanks for clarifying. There was an outstanding balance, around $19K. If I had had the capacity to pay it down online before calling in, I probably would have, except that it honestly didn't occur to me what they were calling about. I do have a BT in progress that will effectively pay it down shortly...

I can certainly see why my case attracted attention if this is a prohibition of theirs. And, while AMEX never said anything in writing about this, other threads here did warn us that such behavior wasn't tolerated on their credit cards. But it just didn't occur to me that a line of credit would act this way. I feel a little stupid about not guessing this might happen anyway--I was trying to pull off both a BT and a RE close, and wasn't thinking about it--too used to the way EVERY OTHER LOC I've ever used behaves!

The unfortunate thing here is that AMEX LOC would otherwise be PERFECT for quickly accessing BTs. Virtually every CC will BT to AMEX electronically, so it's painless. Then, checks allow you to redeploy the BT proceeds immediately. But clearly it should only be done in doses small enough to steer clear of their rule.


Palador, I'm neither a Platinum nor Centurion member--I have Costco Business, Blue, Cash Rebate, and Business LOC.

I confirmed that all the cards were frozen today. An AMEX supervisor from another division did indicate that I'm not tagged for fraud or anything, but that it's company wide policy to not allow charges that total more than the card's limit. She indicated that if I comply with the request, this would likely be over quickly, and I could call her back if I had problems...I will probably call a senior supervisor in that dept per SIS's suggestion tomorrow, and see what happens.

AMEX must be scrutinizing their cardholders accounts more than they used to do.

I got a call from an AMEX rep about a month ago wanting financial statements, etc. I declined to provide them. The concern was that the balance owed for the past three months had ranged from $60K to $90K - this was the total between the prior month balance (before the due date) and the current month's charges. It had been ranging between $40K and $70K over the past year. This is on the regular AX card that does not have a pre-set credit limit.

I told them that I was perfectly willing to switch my charges to MBNA - who keep upping my credit limit though I hardly charge anything to the card. They then gave me a spiel about how much they valued my business, etc.

They acknowledged that I had paid the balance in time every month and there were no delinquencies. They said it was more to do with it being a business decision as to the level of exposure that they were willing to absorb without some documentation to show that I could support this level of debt.

The arrangement that I reached with them was that I would not exceed a balance of $50K outstanding at any point without first clearing it with them and that I could make interim payments during the month to keep the balance below this limit. I have been doing this without any arousing any questions. The AMEX rep told me that there are other card holders who do this with their accounts.

They also told me that the Blue Card which has a $25K limit was not part of the $50K limit mentioned above. So I could, in effect, go as high as $75K between the two cards. The information regarding charges for a particular month not exceeding the limit for the Blue card is certainly useful because I did not know that AMEX frowns on charges n excess of the limit even if the balance stays within the limit through interim payments on account.

If I was willing to provide financial statements, they would remove the limit. I felt that their position was reasonable. If I went to my bank and asked for a LOC of $100K I would have to provide a financial statement. I think what bothered me is that given the fact that I had the card with AMEX for the best part of 20 years without a single late payment, it seemed a bit needless to suddenly want a financial statement.

DWJoe said:

<< My experience with prepaying AMEX cards and exceeding the CL is that officially (i.e. if you speak to a CSR) they don't allow it, but the computer lets it through in certain cases. >>

Yeah, I spend 600% of my Starwood CL in each of two consecutive months and never ran into any problems, but I dont use for everyday usage so might have inadvertently avoided times when it was frozen for a few days.