AMEX reducing CL for 1/2 of cardholders

New York Times article

New York Times said: An economy propelled by easy credit for more than a decade is fraying as credit disappears. American Express, to take one striking example, is reducing the maximum credit limit for half of its tens of millions of cardholders.

Are many of you seeing reduced credit limits?

nothing so far.

it might very well happen as I havent used more than 10% of their limit

Nothing slashed here.

InfiniTrent said: Actually, I recently went from $15500 to $25000 with my AMEX Blue - so nope.

Maybe they gave you $25k so that they can slash you to $20k and add you to that "1/2 of cardholders"?

Ruh roh !

The CL on both my AMEX cards went up by 20% in the last 6 months. So no.

3v1l said: my blue credit went from 20k to 1500 but my plat stayed at 28k. the blue was barely used.

Platinum AMEX cards do not have preset limits. It's unlikely that figure will move.

Had one of my IN cards reduced to 500 after letting it sit for awhile after using for a BT....hardly even noticed until I tried to open a new card a month ago and declined because recently had a card reduced...

I think this is a new development from AMEX, starting this last week and probably not completely implemented yet.

On a macro level I fear this will become more and more likely from other CC issuers also, depending on how the Gov. bailout affects them.

My AMEX was slashed from $10k to $500. i was shocked when I got the letter. Wall St is swimming this week...

whoDean said: Doing a little more research

Washington Post article

Post article said: American Express spokeswoman Kim Forde said the company typically adjusts less than 20 percent of its customers' credit limits annually. Traditionally, 80 percent of those adjustments are to raise the limit, while the remainder are decreased. That ratio began changing in October and now sits at about 50-50.

So, this isn't exactly what was printed in the Times article, maybe they got it wrong. It does illustrate that AMEX is lowering credit limits much more frequently though.So in the past 16% of all cardholders had their limits raised and 4% were lowered; now 10% are getting raised, 10% getting lowered, with 80% still remaining unaffected. Far cry from "reducing the max credit limit for half its tens of millions of cardholders," and hardly even qualifies as "much more frequently".

whoDean said: If AMEX has 20million subscribers and annually 400,000 of those have their limit adjusted, usually 80,000 a year were lowered, now 200,000 (and rising) are.

Yes, that is much more frequently, in fact this means the rate at which AMEX is lowering limits rose 250%.Only 6% of cardholders have been affected by this trend, a far cry from "half". As a whole those getting limit reductions remain a rather small segment of total cardholders, no reason to cry wolf.

And regardless, why are they lowering limits more frequently? Is it because they've made a active decision to lower limits in general, or is it merely the result of a higher number of cardholders deserving such a decrease? I'd guess that their policy hasnt changed, but more cardholders are falling under the parameters of that policy.

No credit line changes for me or the wife, but what I have noticed is that the credit line reallocation link is gone. I have not tried to reallocate the old fashioned way by phone.

devildoc said: No credit line changes for me or the wife, but what I have noticed is that the credit line reallocation link is gone. I have not tried to reallocate the old fashioned way by phone.

my BT offer link is gone, which was crappy anyway....most likely unrelated though

Hilton Honors slashed to $500 from 25K probably because I don't use it, no change on Costco (25K) probably because I do. This happened in August, btw.

No change here on any of my 3 cards. I plan to apply for a new business card soon though. I may try a product transfer instead.

i recently paid off all of my cards including AMEX, soon as i paid off my AMEX they cut my limit down. i called wondering what happened and they said because of my credit score, i didnt make late payments with any of my cards i just had high usage balances. I was trying to fix my score by lowering all my balances and they cut my limit soon as i pay them off, sucks.

None of my cards have changed that I tell - 2 blue cards with about $20k/each limits on them, plus a corp card with no pre-set limit

Both my hilton (3~4 months old) and my starwood (less than 2 months old) were reduced. It could be because I applied for the starwood, too. I didn't get any note for the reductions, though.

I requested a CL increase today on my regular Blue card. I received instant approval: from $1,000 CL to $2,000 CL. My Blue Cash card is at $24,000 CL, so I leave it alone. I have 0 balances on both and very little recent use.

I've been afraid of them cutting my credit line (which isn't that high to begin with), but they actually increased it this month. The past two months, I've been charging like crazy for a trip and kept having to pay off some of my balance every couple of weeks or so because I kept bumping up against my limit. Was going to make some more purchases that I was afraid might make me go over the limit a couple of days ago, checked my limit, and it had actually increased. Go figure.