American Express Chasing Down Credit

American Express Hates Me, Help Me Obama!

It shouldn’t be any real big news to you that the economy is, well really really bad (to put it in a nice way). And that kittens are starving all accross America. Last November 2008, American Express notified me that my credit limit would be cut from $15,000 to $1500. Whoa! That’s a huge drop. Like a whole 0 and a comma gone! It seems like Amex is doing this to quite a bit of people, (just Google it). The limit cut didn’t bother me too much as I never even breached the $2000 mark. But it made me wonder why in the first place, they allowed a college kid with little to his name, to have access to so much money?

Let’s examine this shall we

Back in 2005 five when I was delivering pizza, I had access to $15,000. Three years later, I’m a young professional with a well paying job and they cut my limit. Now that I can afford to buy things on credit, they cut it. I’m not mad, just a little confused. I was more of a risk to them back in 2005 when I made $259 a week than I am now. I have never missed a payment and ALWAYS paid well above the minimum, if not the full amount.

Why Am I writing This Now?

It seems like a lot of people are getting caught in the middle, and while carrying a balance, get their limit cut so that their current balance is actually above their limit. This just happened to me today. I got cut to a $1000 limit while carrying a balance of $1100. So now my credit score is going to drop because American Express cut my limit. Fortunately I am not going to be penalized for this, but I will not be able to use my Amex until the balance is paid off (which was going to happen this Friday). So yes, I am slightly perturbed, especially since I rely on my Amex card to pay for monthly bills such as gym memberships and my ePass. I have a feeling they may be chasing me down to nothing and by the next billing cycle I won’t have a decent credit limit.

Does anyone out there have any similar situations with American Express?

I would love to hear about, if anyone else is dealing with this. I am slightly worried how this going to affect my spending and credit score. What are some of the things that can be done to protect myself? If anyone has any advice please share with all of us and comment below.

In a way, I’m glad, because now I’m safeguarded against going into insane amounts of debt.

Tags: american, amex, credit, express, limit