So, I went to cash in my some of my rewards points and received the folowing message:

The Membership Rewards? system is unavailable. Please try refreshing this page or continue your travel purchase with your Card.

Very interesting...

I have been a regular AMEX user for the past 6 years paying off the full balance every month. In November, I "upgraded" to the Gold Card and started using it immediately due to unexpected car repairs, a new clothes washer and xmas gift buying. My bill was due on 12/24 and paid the full balance of $3K well before that. I went shopping on 12/23 and the card was declined. I called AMEX and spoke with CS who saw the declined charge and recent payment and told me that it was becuase of and ID check and everything was ok with my account.

Yesterday, I was shopping at Nordstrom and tried to charge $483 and again was declined (very embarassing). The person on the merchant line explained to me they would approve the charge if I paid off the full balance of the card (about $2K) on the spot. I asked why i needed to do so since my account did not close for another 2 weeks. She said I needed to speak with customer service about that. So I put the charge on my Nordstrom card and called AMEX back from my card and explained all that had just occurred. I was put on hold for almost 10 minutes and was told I needed to pay off the balance and then can use the card again. They told me I needed to establish a spending pattern. I asked if i can expect this to happen every month and she did not respond with an answer. I suggested they look at the previous 6 years of spending I had prior to "upgrading" to the Gold Card and she said they could only see this account and they "value" me as a customer. At one point the representative just stopped talking. Dead silence on the phone. In the end, I am cashing out my rewards points and will take my business elsewhere.

first of all , let me comment this guy who never got an indian agent on the phone (with all my respect to the indian call centers and thier hard work), it seems that this person doesn't has the amex card!!!!
my story is i have 2 cards with amex, and to make my story short , i have experienced limit drop last month. after i return from a trip in italy and egypt.
anyway, i called 14 times to get explaination . but it is hopless company. they were giving me execuses. the fact that they all were telling me in the end of every call that amex facing economic problems.
so to put an end of all of this stories , i would like to ask amex customer to not feel worry or offended because what happened to u , doesn't happen on individual basis. it's company policy .
and as S&P Cut rating amex from A+ TO A , we also have to realize that amex is not the world class credit card company anymore.
i do agree with people who still depend on other credit cards. because we should consider that amex is not the dependable card anymore.
Good Bye Amex

@nickbodkins:

I'm going to do my best. "soon" might be tricky since it is the end of the year and people are trying to burn up their vacation time, but I'm going to get as many people's attention on this as possible so we can find out what the problem is. It could be that the situation just wasn't explained very well, and for that I apologize. We'll get it sorted out though. We'll be in touch.

Done. When this started last week, I cashed in ALL of my rewards points. At this point, after a week, I got a call today, saying that it would be another 3-5 business days, and that they were putting my account on hold again. We've made the payment, brought the card to zero, and I am going to close my platinum card. I told them that I want my annual fees back. I paid $450 for my first card, and $175 for the second. I told them that once my card is at zero, I want my annual fees refunded to me, and that I no longer will do any business with American Express. Our new business will NOT accept AMEX, and a copy of this story, and the comments will be available for any and all of the potential customers that we have that wonder why we don't take AMEX.

I had been an Amex customer since 1993. In late November, I received a letter than my credit limit had been lowered from $7500K (my Visa and MC limits are all much higher than my Amex one, but I kept it open because it was one of my longest-standing accounts and I thought that was good for my credit score) to a rather ridiculous $1K. I have almost no credit card debt, a credit score of 750+, I make well above $100K, and I haven't used my Amex card since 2005. I called to cancel my card (first, a credit card with a $1K limit, particularly with an annual fee, is pretty much useless; second, I was super peeved that this was going to ding my credit and worried they might cancel it on me altogether; and third, I just don't want to do business with a company that operates this way). The woman I talked to said they really valued me as a cardholder (ha!) but processed my cancellation. I asked to speak to the department that lowered my limit, to get a specific explanation as to which of the laundry list of possible reasons mentioned in the letter applied in my case. She transferred me, but I hung up after 37 minutes on hold.

So to sum up, I hate American Express. And I think it's unconscionable that the credit card companies are allowed to arbitrarily damage their customers' credit without cause, and that there is no recourse for us. (I realize that this situation would be even worse for someone with credit card debt and a lower income; I can't even imagine how creditors are preying on those customers as a result of the credit crunch.)

But it gets better... needless to say, I closed the account in disgust, but for at least a year I kept getting random Amex bills for magazine subscription renewals, etc. Apparently when you close an Amex account it isn't really closed. In the end I had to resort to reporting the card stolen just to get them to close it properly.

My advice is to forgo the pointless vanity of having a shiny Amex Gold / Platinum / Centurion / whatever card and stick with Visa. It's accepted more places and you always know where you stand with regards to your limit. One tip is to negotiate your limit up-front, as in "I really want to carry fewer cards, so I only want this card if I can have at least $X as a credit limit". You might need to wait a day or so while they review your request if it's on the really high side, but you generally get what you want if you're polite and give your rationale.

And if you need to exceed that limit sometime? Experience around my office is that a Visa issuer has never failed to work with you and raise it (either on a temporary or permanent basis). Not so with Amex.

For the record, I work for American Express and have contacted both the editor and messaged Nick to give me a chance to help fix this. I have sent this article on to several people in the organization as well as to the president of American Express, Al Kelly. I have been working to get in touch with someone since this story was posted. I would love to have the opportunity to resolve Nick's problem if someone would just get back to me. I have given my work email and phone number through my communications, but can also be reached through this site as well. I really hope someone will give me the chance to help.

If you need to count on someone, it shouldn't be them.

But you are probably smart and have another card in addition to that corporate Amex.

Still getting balance transfer checks from folks, though.

I NOW HAVE ONE CHASE CARD, THAT GIVES BACK 5% PURCHASES IN POINTS. WHEN I HAVE 10,000 POINTS I CAN REDEEM THEM FOR A $100 CHECK. SINCE MY HUSBAND AND I USE THE CARD FOR EVERYTHING, AND I MEAN EVERYTHING, GETTING TO 10,000 POINTS IS A SNAP, BECAUSE LOTS OF PURCHASES GIVE DOUBLE AND TRIPLE POINTS. WE PAY THE ENTIRE BILL, SO NO INTEREST. I JUST DEPOSITED MY LATEST $100 CHECK YESTERDAY.

ANY CARD THAT MAKES YOU PAY THEM TO USE IT IS A RIP OFF.

Let's take a look at this. You buy a cheap car, say $25,000. You better believe the bank is going to ask for some sort of verification of income. If you default, the bank at least has the car they can take back.

Yet these people are shocked when the bank, in this case Amex, want verification that you can actually pay back a $25,000 credit limit without having any collateral that they can claim if you default.

Amex *is* also raising limits at this time as well. Not sure how many people this is happening to, but they nearly tripled my limit last month. So the street does indeed go both ways.

@adambadam: Very unhappy. They just dropped one of my friend's from about $4,000 to $500 and wouldn't budge. He has good credit and a perfect record of paying in full, on time, but a short-ish credit history, so maybe they're trying to minimize risk - but it was still unexpected and frustrating.

And you sir are on the other side of the country. In Ontario, I assure you, it is extremely rare for me to find anything but a major retailer that takes Amex. So, if you limit your shopping to stores that are several thousand square feet in size, you're right. I'm pretty sure my 1/5 th of stores statement stands here, because they are the 1/5 th I'm talking about. I'm sure Walmart and Sears will be very happy to waste 5% of the purchase price on fees (I expect they told Amex either give them a discount or take a hike, so they probably only pay 1% or 2%). All other stores wonder why they can't just pay 1.3% like their non-Amex debit/credit processing company charges them.

If you need a list of retailers, let me know. I'll check this thread tomorrow if you'd like and over the next week, I'll compile a list of places that say "Hell no" to Amex. I warn you, it'll be long and embarassing, assuming I shop at enough places (I don't, but what the hell, I'll call a few for fun).

I, in fact, live in Canada, I expect for a longer time than yourself since I appear to have the Canadian attitude down, and I've even run a business in Canada. That's how I know what the merchant fees are.

You should really know what you're talking about before you spout off like a complete fool. It's attitudes like yours that make us wonder how much longer Alberta will stay before it joins the US (sooner rather than later would be nice in the current political climate).

just activated my replacement blue card. ending line on the automated phone service, "use your card wherever american express cards are welcome".

@PricklyPete:

What were you getting for that $450/yr?

Seriously. (I'm not baiting for a snarky $450 gets you screwed 3000 miles from home :) )

When my AMEX Gold card (personal) was disallowed from paying for gas 10 years ago while I was traveling...I pretty much gave up on them.

All payments made on-time, had the card for over a year, etc., etc. The reason I was given for their abrupt decline on my gas purchase...was that the card had tripped a security flag...as it was used for gasoline in many different states over a few day period.

I thought they were just unfriendly towards people that take road trips. In the case of the OP, this has obviously extended to air travel too. ;-)

It's still probably the least accepted of the three, but an MC and an AMEX and I've not had trouble yet.

@RandomHookup: From my understanding from a local tire shop I do business with, it wasn't just the high fees. It was also the fact that AmEx holds onto the money for up to six weeks.

@zentex: Does AmEX also take their sweet time in getting their money to you? The local tire shop I buy all my tires from has recently stopped accepting AmEx and when I asked him about it he said that AmEx took up to six weeks to get him his money, whereas Visa and MC are underwritten by banks and the banks make an instant EFT. He was more pissed off about the long wait to receive payment than he was about the exorbitant merchant fees.

@SynMonger: "Yeah, why didn't they give me a week's head start to max out my card?!"

Ummm, because you're a loyal, longtime customer that has always charged substantial balances and paid them in full every month, and perhaps because you, as the customer, choose to patronize Amex because of their much-touted customer service, especially for businesses?

There's a difference between proper risk management and jerking around your customers. If you want to assume that your customers are crooks, that's fine, but you probably shouldn't be in the prestige credit card business.

@ironchef: The Costco Amex is pretty all-around awesome, IMHO. 1% back for everything, 2% back for travel, and 3% back at restaurants. And I eat out a lot.

@adambadam: The bigger the credit line, the more potential danger. And some of the people hardest hit by this are the biggest customers. Somebody who is wealthy but had his money tied up in the wrong investments could lose it all really quickly.

I was stranded by Amex years ago, and have never trusted them since. I occasionally use the card for small purchases--for car rentals mainly, but never more than a couple hundred dollars every few months. I don't understand why they are rated so high on this site. To me, Amex is just plain wierd and creepy. I'd close the account completely, but like some commenters have already said, it is a good idea to carry more than one type of card.

I just wanted to inform you of a few updates. I've been in touch with ONE representative that somehow understood my plight, and "allowed" me, get this: $300 in spending. OMG, he is so generous to allow me to spend that much on my shopping and fun trip to LA!

I got my CitiCard sent to me overnight, and I called Amex to inform them this morning that I will no longer be needing their services.

It pains me because I love the points, love the perks and everything, but this has been the worst experience ever from a company that is supposed to be the best. I guess I can only hope that they send me one of those JD Power review requests about my card.

I have found a few emails and phone numbers that I will gladly share should anyone need them, but since a few of these folks actually tried to help, I won't post them here for general perusal.

By the way, called my mom this morning, and her and my step-dad are canceling their personal and business platinum cards, and their SPG Amex as well. So they actually lost FIVE cards from my parents and TWO from me, and hopefully after people see how intrusive and disrespectful they have been to me by reading this, some of you will choose to take your business elsewhere!

@MacQix:
Be careful with AmEx "corporate" cards unless your company's financial department is really on top of things. If they pay charges late, it WILL hit your credit report and there isn't anything you can do about it.

So what benefits does this $450/yr card have that is actually worth $450/yr?

Other cards don't have the fee and have points/miles/whatever.

The complaints in here make amex sound just like any other card out there.

@hillsrovey: I saw this on my bill too, called, and had it removed. The barely-intelligible customer disservice representative had no explanation and couldn't make any assurances that the problem would not occur again. All I got was "it is a charge for interest that occasionally appears, sir."

I'm in Edmonton on business as we speak and have been able to use my AmEx everywhere I've been. Additionally, before this I was in Winnipeg and was able to use the card all over the place there as well.

Have you ever been to Canada? You should really know what you're talking about before you spread lies.

Bonus points if you can get it to over 3/4 inch thick, since that has extra charges.

Time is money, and if they're going to waste my time with junk mail, I'll waste their money.

@MacQix:

Nothing is guaranteed by your employer. Employers fail to meet business expenses all the time. Corporate accounts are subject to the same credit evaluations and risk procedures as any individual. They may be capable of paying higher balances, but the risk is still there that they might not be able to at some point.

If you call during regular business hours, you will likely reach a native English speaker. Call after 11pm EST, and you will get a call center.

Up until very recently, I too used an AMEX card for my business. I had a credit limit somewhere around $25k. Normally I loathe credit, but this summer I got slammed by a car accident and tropical storm in the same week, and needed to use some credit to stay afloat. I rang up about $6k that month.

The next month, I sent a $6k payment, to bring the balance back to $0. Meanwhile, AMEX went ahead and lowered my credit limit by about 50%, without so much as a letter or phone call.

Fast forward another few months. I needed another bridge loan for some inventory, and I turned to my AMEX card once again. I rang up about $15k, with the full expectation to pay it off at the end of the month. However, I had accidentally exceeded my new, lower credit limit.

Mind you: the transaction wasn't rejected- but AMEX later claimed I had exceeded my limit.

The result? They bumped my rate from ~8% to ~30%, which is actually considered usury (criminal) in the state of Florida, not to mention a $35 fee per transaction. They didn't block the transactions, mind you- they just charged a $35 fee, + 30% interest.

Fast forward- I get the bill, my jaw hits the floor, I call customer service. I waste 2 hours of my time trying to be reasonable, only to be told: "too bad, we can change terms whenever we want to"

Epilogue: AMEX lost my business, and most importantly, my trust. I would never go 3,000 miles without a significant chunk of cash- AMEX doesn't give a damn about the human being on the other end of the phone- they care about computer algorithms designed to limit risk.

I was on a family vacation in Mexico when we received word that a hurricane was heading our way. The wife panicked a little but the result that we had to cut our stay short and leave ASAP. I had $10K+ available credit on my AMEX cards but apparently I forgot to pay one of them (I have three) before leaving for vacation. They froze my account on all three of my AMEX cards (2 personal, 1 business), canceled a return trip that I booked thru their travel service (and didn't notify me), thus when I got to airport, I was credit locked with no confirmed flight with thousands of other passengers trying to leave Cancun.

Fortunately, I had other cards with me but I had to book standby, wait on huge lines, and ended up paying through the nose for tickets (the cost of the standby tickets was more than the original cost of the whole vacation).

The real kicker for me was that my cell phone did work in the airport and I had to use phone phone at the airport to make calls (calling AMEX to find out what the heck happened) but the phone would only stay connect for about 20 minutes ... which is just before the amount of time that it takes to navigate through the automated voice help system and finally get a human to transfer you to the right department ... argh!)

I've had AMEX cards for over 20 years. I plan to cancel them when my debt is fully paid off and use up all my reward points before I do so.

I thought my case was isolated but I feel a little bit better now knowing that they share their special 'love' all around.

I guess now that they are eligible for some of the wall street bail-out money, they will free up some credit and change their ways ... yeah right.

They lost a good customer which won't come back.

-- SleepyCPU

I wonder if this all has been triggered because AMEX is in trouble and it's not public knowledge yet? Maybe THEY are worried about paying THEIR bills because they got caught up in the financial mess...?

My boss recently traveled to Dubai and our company sponsored Amex card was cut-off just as he arrived.

Out of interest, is this only happening to users of AMEX cards in the USA? (I don't have one of their cards, but I'm merely curious, since I'm in the UK, and rarely see/hear of AMEX cards being used).

@zentex: WTH? Wal-Mart sure does take Amex. I have a card from my company, and use it often at Wal-Mart for supplies when they send me out of town.

I had an AMEX card back in the '90's. I had a similar experience except that I wasn't 3,000 miles from home. I was making a purchase at Toy's R Us when the cashier took my card and cut it up in front of me. When she ran it though, the code came back to destroy the card. Customer service was less than friendly essentially calling me a bum and that they never should have issued the card in the first place.

No warning. No letter. No recourse.

They keep sending me guarenteed acceptance offers in the mail and I just keep shreading them. Amex is one of the last cards I'd ever consider doing business with again. They're great when they like you but, if they decide to turn on you they'll treat you like the bum the think you are.

I've gotten similar calls (for out of pattern spending, not in the thousands of dollars...) from Visa, mainly to make sure everything was ok, but I think a little more tact on AMEX's part would have been nice.

@Michael Sanborn: Not to mention, you could go over your credit limit with rental car and hotel room holds.

@Corporate-Shill: I always thought it had to do with the higher fees that Amex charges merchants and how picky Amex is in choosing retailers.

No they don't; their rewards are 1% tops, which is simply par for the course. It's no better than most other cards.

Amex customer service ain't bad either...they've straightened a few people out so I didn't have to.

I called and received an easily identifiable outsourced call center. He misunderstood my needs and submitted to cancel my card. I called back, spoke with a natural English speaking employee and she read me the notes from their system. it was as if two different conversations happened at the same time with my outsourced friend. I said "Right now, this card is useless to me".. He transcribed "Customer wants to cancel worthless card."

@Dan W: Is your employer a U.S. auto manufacturer?

I had a business platinum card through my company. They cut me off, of course. Then the company went belly up. I went back to school and suddenly I was liable for the entire frakking business debt.
Apparently they did this to all the other business platinum holders as well. We are in the process of suing them, but nothing like having your perfect credit ruined and rude, nasty, slimy collection agencies threatening your wife at all hours for a business card that were not liable for.

Amex are pure slime, that's all I have to say. The converting to a bank to get bailout money just reinforced that rosy image.

Sadly there's very little you can do. It really is just like the caricature: a nameless, faceless company where no one has the will - or authority- to fix problems.

@TrueBlue63: The only time I have ever talked to someone with an Indian accent w/ AMEX is when I had to report my card stolen. The person I was talking to was in the fraud department. So its possible that they outsource a certain type of business.

Having said that, what AMEX did is total crap. Customer service is something that all business suck at in the U.S. It's really getting hard to spend money at places that offer good service.

The experience that was much more surprising was that my Dad, who has been a cardholder since 1958 (yes, you read that right, 50 years) was subjected to a review last month. It was supposed to last 3 days, instead it lasted a month. During all the years years he had the card, he was never late and always had a steady usage on the card. Even more surprising was that this all happened when he had a credit balance on the card for roughly $3,500. They wouldn't even let him use up until the credit balance hit $0.

Throughout all the experiences I was treated to rude, offensive and inconsiderate people. Though, the second time my card was under financial review, the guy happened to see that it was my birthday and took the time to say "must be a lousy birthday now, huh?" Classy.

My balance was at about $200.

I explained that I was hundreds of miles away from home and didn't have another credit card with me, and asked for them to extend my card usage to cover my ticket home. They refused. I explained that this would be a hardship to be stranded in this manner, and they hung up on me.

Fortunately, I was visiting family, and they bought me a ticket home. (This was in the days before there were ATMs everywhere that all inter-connected, so while I had my ATM card, it didn't do me any good.)

So, I not only believe that AMEX would stand a traveler, I've had them do it to me.

Later, I was laid off from my job, and called AMEX to explain the situation and inquire about a payment plan for my smallish bill. (It wasn't much money, but I suddenly had no income.) They began to harass me by phone and letter every day. They called me a thief. They told me they would ruin my credit and I'd never be able to buy a home. They also phoned every number I'd ever called them from, daily, to demand the money... so that included my aunt's and my father's homes. I got my job back, and they began to call my office every day and told my boss I'm a thief and owed them money. I finally told them I'd never, ever, give them another dime and if they ever called me, my family, or my employer again I would sue them. They sent me to a collection agency, which was much more pleasant to me, so I paid the bill to the collection agency.

The strangest part is, 16 years after I closed my account, they reported to my credit report that the account had just been closed, and had been in good standing.

You know why? it's them damn "rewards". None of the Card Vendors pay for the miles, rewards, etc...it's the merchants. My merchant fee's with AmEx/MC/Visa slide on a nice scale depending on the amount of rewards you people have with your cards. It REALLY hurts when someone has one of those amex business rewards cards (cause they give the most rewards)...I'd rather accept a picture of a 7-legged spider than pay those merchant fees, I'd prolly be money ahead.

...and people wonder why WalMart doesn't take AmEx and had a pissing-contest with MC a few years back.

My company ran into this a few years ago and are in a constant 'dance' with AmEx. They basically get 'nervous' when you start to spend outside of your 'pattern' and that magic limit shows it's face...but the limit isn't always the same. One quarter it was $25K a year later it was $10K then later it was $30K. All it ever takes in a bit of time and a few phone calls and all the fuss goes away.

They keep saying 'oh you have a good payment history blah blah on time blah' and 'we just review accounts on a regular basis and we are getting concerned because of the economy blah blah blah' and 'oh you have nothing to worry about blah blah blah but we are gonns slap you in the face after 10 years anyways, ah ha! say my name! who's your daddy!'...

Twice, in the last 1.5 years they wanted Company financial statements to make sure that we weren't gonna go under or something; I assume that a lot of their SMB customers are going tits-up, I dunno.

Please AmEx...make up my friggin mind already, do you love me or do you want out of this on-again-off-again relationship? My heart can't take any more of this abuse.

For those wondering, the countries I know of where you won't be able to use Amex are Canada (I'd say 1 in 5 stores might accept it, sometimes with a special fee attached... Amex ignores these fees because so few people take them in the first place, better they take them against the rules than not at all), and the UK (when I was there I can't recall any store at all taking it, of course, I wasn't in London, in fact, I wasn't anywhere near a tourist area).

Perhaps the touristy areas take it.

Furthermore, that would be weird and pointless thing to lie about, don't you think? I know this is the internet and all, but is that level of suspicion warranted?

(This is just a suggestion, I'm not blaming this guy. That what happens when you trust a credit card company.)

The lounges, insurance, and automatic elite status at other businesses (that we already frequented prior to getting the card), only sweetens the deal.

Other features like the free companion tickets on international travel are nice, but very expensive to actually cash in on. We generally don't try to pretend we can afford to.

It's not for everyone. Like anything when it comes to money you need to weigh the benefits and costs. It doesn't always add up. For us, it did. And then some.

It doesn't do much I guess, but it sure feels like a little piece of victory.

I called and they told me that they didn't like that I'd taken out a car loan, so they cancelled the account because I wasn't a good risk any more. They certainly understood that I'd never paid late and had been a good customer, but that didn't matter. In fact, the previous day, I got the "your statement is ready" email on my phone, and made a payment right then and there. The rep saw this and said it changed nothing.

Don't waste your money on American Express. They ruined my vacation.

Your unadvertised limit is based on AMEX's (or here the AMEX Bank of Canada's) opinion of your financial ability. So while it is more fluid than a hard and fast limit (it can go up as your spending on the card increases over time). However try to jump up in spending by a large amount and you'll get asked to provide statements which support your ability to pay back those sums.

As a charge card you have the balance in full and so your financial situation is of more importance (though I don't believe it should be less so in regards to real "credit" cars.)

The same thing happened to me.

Have been a good customer for a dozen years. Had no balance currently on any of my cards with them. Suddenly get 3 letters on the same day in the mail. One asking for additional information. The other 2 informing me that since I never responded to the letter, they were cancelling all my cards. I call up customer support to find out what just happened and right away get India. Obviously no help. They transfer me back to the US, but of course, they dont pick up the phone. I have to keep trying to call them. Finally I get someone in the US and they tell me I am cut off because I never responded to their letter (even though they sent me all 3 letters at the same time), no options and I need to reapply.

That is ridiculous. I ask to speak to a supervisor, they transfer me to a voicemail. At leats I get the supervisore extension and keep calling her back. Finally get her on the line and she tells me that there is a reconsideration procedure but it will probably not make a difference. I ask for her supervisor. She transfers me to a voicemail. Once again, I got the extension and followed up. Spoke to the supervisors supervisor and was told that if I submit the IRS paperwork to them, they will reinstate my cards. I agree. I am waiting to see if they be true to their word.

Honestly by this point I am ready to chuck AMEX and go to the other cards only. What happened to the vaunted customer support that AMEX claims. So far they have treated me rudely and not once have they apologized for putting me through this bother.

The funny thing is that just yesterday I got another invitation to sign up for the Gold American Express.

@Trick:

Yep.

Amex did NOT randomly cancel the guy, Amex targeted potential dead beats and the guy caught in the chum line.

Does anybody wonder why the majority of small businesses will not accept Amex... could it be as small business owners they are well aware of the conduct of Amex and will do everything they can to avoid the company?

First, I had to have my employer provide income verification on a signed statement with proof of address, social security card, and driver's license.

Second, I got a F/R 5 days after getting the card. Eventually passed after 10 days of waiting.

Third, a few months later I got a call from the fraud dept that wanted my Notarized DL/SSN/Proof of Address "for my protection." What's great about this last one is that the day I sent all of this in, the credit department closed my account anyway. Read www.creditboards.com if you really want to hear horror stories. I get there's a credit crunch, but alot of things that AMEX has done defies logic, though I guess my $100 a month, pay in full charges were too much for them to handle.

Also - not all AMEX cards have annual fees.

Amex is going under. Somewhere in this nonsense is a plan someone dreamed up to mitigate their losses. I do have to wonder if the Wall Street mess had a larger impact on them than other card companies. Maybe too many of their high end clientele now have no money to pay their bills? Maybe they were heavily invested in some of the junk that was posing as investments?

We have an Amex Blue that we used to use for everthing and then paid it off at the end of every month.

I say used to because last month they slashed our limit without notice from 15K to 2500, rendering it pretty much useless.

A call to Amex discovered that they didn't like that we have a new mortgage, no matter that our term went from 30 to 15 years and our payment went DOWN.

We're paying it off and letting it sit. They've lost our business.

I'm glad we are in a position to pay it off. The drastic cut in limit slammed our scores.

I had a Amex Blue card with a 10K credit limit and never carried a balance. After a so called financial review they cut the credit line to $500. So I called and canceled the card. I didn't think too much about it, as I had been reading that they were pulling this crap on a lot of people.

A few weeks later, I tried to make an $800 purchase with my Amex Platinum card. They told the merchant to call in. I said screw that and wrote a check. When I called to find out why the charge wasn't approved they said it was "outside of my normal spending pattern." I've charged 10k plus at one time in the past, so $800 didn't seem that strange to me.

I then got a letter stating that I could no longer carry a balance on the Platinum card... oh, and I needed to cough up my $450 membership renewal fee. I typically didn't carry a balance, but did have a $2000 balance on the card at the time.

I paid off the card, and called to cancel. The CSR was polite and apologetic and I wasn't rude, I just told her that it was pretty clear American Express no longer wanted me as a customer. I've never missed a payment or been late.

I really hope that people cancel their cards, or tons of people default on their card agreements.

I guess in reality they did me a favor. WTF was I thinking using a card with a $450 annual fee?

F%$k American Express.

From the ad: "Imagine being in New Orleans, and having an AMEX concierge whisk you away to ride on a float in a Mardi Gras parade. Or when in Miami, being invited on an impromptu deep sea fishing trip".

Sounds like the OP would like an AMEX concierge to "whisk" him back home, as it were. Best of luck.

@shepd: ummm, i've been to southeast asia many times. they do NOT accept visa or mastercard there. many, many, many, many places accept amex.

This is not a blame the OP. This is a lesson to everyone else.

Diversify.

What would happen if you lost your only credit card? Pretty much the same thing... you would be out of luck on buying small things as well.

AmEx has done some odd things with my cards, lowered the credit limit and all. No biggie. The rewards make up for any hassles.

But I would never travel with just one card, no matter how much I trusted the company. I don't go with a wallet full of cards but I do carry a few just to be safe.

I can't guarantee that my credit card will always be there for me, but I can guarantee that I will always have a credit card available to use if I need it.

Status symbols arent worth it if convienience is out the door. Especially in these times people will just cancel to avoid the hassle.

@MacQix: Either your employer doesn't trust you (too many charges at the strip club?) or you shouldn't trust your employer if Amex doesn't (do they have junk credit?)

:)

I've got my corp Amex through CostCo, and then a backup Wells-Fargo high-interest, high-credit-line card for emergencies.. Which I never ever use.

I'm trying to see what AMEX is doing with all of this, and it just does not make sense to me. The customer paid on time for YEARS, and they screw him into being stuck 3000 miles from home. I remember the stories about people getting replacement cards hand delivered at no charge when they're about to leave on a trip and misplaced their card, all the rewards etc. Guess all that's gone now.

I recently got one through my job for travel, and it's been nothing but a pain in the ass. No one seems to take it, unless they're part of some national chain. I support mom and pop operations and this card makes it impossible in some places, not to mention that I can't pay my bill online with my check card (company re-imburses me and I have to pay it myself). How in the hell would I know my routing number, I haven't written a check in 11 years.

I guess the glory days of AMEX are over, oh well.

What's the point? Is there some hidden benefit that I don't know of? At least I can bring my Visa or MC with me and use it everywhere (including the US).

They froze the card.

No call to check, no notice. Just a waiting coming back with your card.

On the other hand, the first time I tried to buy a laptop with my AMEX platinum card it wasn't declined outright; instead I was asked, by Apple, to call Amex to confirm the purchase. I knew it was the very first time I was putting $2.5K on that particular card and it made sense. This was a more transparent security measure.

So it turns out I have a fraudulent student loan (I didn't even know fraudulent student loans existed) on my credit report. I haven't been paying it - since, you know, I never got the bills or even had any clue the loan existed - so it took a huge chunk off my credit score. Amex found out and slashed my credit. Now I basically don't use the card at all. It's useless with such a low limit. I used to use it for my larger purchases.

You see they don't say there's no limit, they say there's no "preset" limit. Which is just marketing jargon since most cards assign you a limit based on your means, which is exactly the same in this case.

As a Platinum Card holder in Canada, I spend far less per month than many commenters. I continue to be apprehensive about this card and maybe I should simply ditch it - though the perks have actually been worth the fees.

Nick here. To answer some of your comment questions. I DO have a W-2 with verifiable income. I own an advertising and design company and have a W-2 from my company. It was just our INCREASED spending that the investor is kicking in for.

While my card doesn't have a "pre-set limit".. that's just a buzz word. They DO, in fact, have a set amount that they will shut down your card for. We didn't go over that.

I didn't mind sending them my financials, even though I have credit cards with other companies, no of whom have asked for that, but what my problem has been is that they didn't CALL, EMAIL, send a LETTER, nothing. I found a card that I rarely use in my wallet, so I guess my LA trip is going on that, but it scares me that those ads about how embarrassing it would be to have your card declined are just crap, because they should say, "unless your card is in review."

let me know if you have any other questions.

Wait till someone who you can understand confirms the initial decision before jumping onto a bandwagon.

I wasn't stranded as I do carry other cards as AmEx is only accepted at about half the places I go to.

The only thought that I have, is if the account is often paying paid with checks from a 3rd party, it may have set off an alarm.

Just the same, I would think that in an emergency, a few phone calls to other CC's might have solved Nick's problem. I feel for Nick, but no company out there has your back, no matter what the commercials might suggest.

Also, pretty unfair not to give a little warning first.

they did this to me as well. executive customer service was helpful, especially compared with frontline service, but I'm still having a couple of issues. Specifically, they closed one of my accounts in the process of fixing problems on my account and opened two others in my name, charging me $300 in membership fees.

We got a letter last week saying his interest rate, on a card that's carried a zero balance since March, is going from 9.99 to 16.99. Way to encourage us to use your product! They apply to become a bank, get a bailout and then turn into major assholes. I'll keep giving my business to Bank of America, who have actually been really great to us.

Just like the guy in the story, I also have paid every single amex bill in full, on time, and last week noticed a "finance charge" - I checked when my payment posted and amex's website said I paid 3 days early, but their phone system said I paid 1 day late. Got the charge refunded, but seriously, what gives?

They've been doing this for years, although it's been stepped up of late. There's a big thread about it here: [www.fatwallet.com]

It's called Financial Review (FR for short). Essentially, they want to ensure that you can actually pay your bills. That being said, not at least authorizing a small amount of incremental credit seems insane to me.

All this being that case, you should ALWAYS carry more than one card!