CHESSNOID

I used to have 7 American Express credit cards. I am currently down to 5 now, since I have canceled 2 of them. I plan on canceling them all eventually. They used to be the Rolls Royce of credit cards but now that they have been hammered by the housing crisis they have to do what they can to save the bottom line. At one point, they were aggressively marketing their cards which is why many people have multiple accounts. They have soured their image and reputation and now are chasing their loyal customers away. I have put links on all my blog posts below so you can see the many comments in each one.

American Express stories 8-11-08

Amex credit cut

American Express “financial review” comment

Merideth Whitney comments on the Future of Financials

American Express losing future potenital business

American Express dissing consumers

American Express playing “chasing the balance” game

Recession is forcing American Express to reduce credit lines for no reason

Recession forcing American Express to target profiles to decrease credit limits

American Express don’t leave home with it

Un-American Express targeting profiles to decrease credit lines

I was contacted and interviewed by both the by Eric Dash of the NYTimes  and by Michael Moore of Bloomberg . Eric wrote an article Banks Trimming Limits for Many on Credit Cards but I didn’t make it to the final edit. I am still waiting for Michael’s article. Both found me through my blog from one of these posts.

Initially, all my credit lines were reduced to the balance I owed. Then as I made payments, they chased the balances down (basically, reducing my credit lines by my payment amount). From the comments I read, they started doing financial reviews of current customers who wanted to keep their credit lines by requesting their previous taxes filed. My understanding is the cardholders charge privileges are suspended until you submit to their “financial review process” which calls for you to sign a form authorizing them to release your taxes from the IRS to them. If you object to this process or ignore it, then I believe your account is just canceled in 30 days.

That didn’t happen to me, but all the same, my cards are effectively no longer charge cards since I really can’t charge on them. If I do get a letter or call from Amex, then I will just cancel it there and then. I only hope I don’t lose my 3.99% fixed rate.

The latest thing I have read is that they are canceling cards altogether in an effort to save money that have rewards tied to them. Again, I don’t know this as a fact, but it would follow the pattern of trying to cut costs and save money. I believe I have a card with about 35,000 HH points but I don’t think that is enough for more than 1 night at the Hilton hotels. Just the same, I should try to spend these points while they have some value.