CHESSNOID

The last comment I received is buried in my old post but I thought it was worthy enough to have its own post.  The business person was affected by the overnight actions of American express.  From :

Mark D:

AMEX, AMex, amex…..My story is no different than all the stories above but I must tell it to insure that anyone who is thinking of applying for an American Express card will think twice.
My partner and I have been in business over five years now and decided about a year and half ago we should get an Amex business card. The binnies are good and hell, who doesn’t want to be the owner of an “American Express Platinum Business Card”. So when the Um-teenth application came in the mail (unsolicited) I filled it out and sent it back. Low and behold they accepted it. They gave us a 3K limit right away. We make large purchases on a regular basis so I requested a line increase to 20K and they gave that to us also.
This was just what we needed to help push our company to the next level. A line of credit to help manage cash flow. The card has gone from $0 to 19+K and back again many times sense then and has been used in a professional manner. All payments have been on time and more than the minimum. Some payments were in full and the last one I made was just that.
This is where the problem occurred. I paid down the full balance of the card with intent to use the available funds for a large purchase. There was a three day lag between the pay down and the new charge. This gave Amex the chance it was waiting for.
Half (2 of 3 individual invoices)of the $19,500 purchase went through. At that time Amex dropped the available funds to $9800 ($200 above its new limit) and sent the now famous “We are Sorry for being A**holes letter”. This in effect crippled our cash flow immeadetly and seriously endangered our company financially. I have had to personally loan my company all of my savings just to continue operations.
I know we will make it but that is no thanks to Amex. I have always considered Amex to be the premier card to have in your wallet…..until now. Please pass this web site address to all business persons you know. Maybe we can save one from these underhanded business tactics.

I think the recent news about them accepting bailout money from the taxpayers and their recent layoffs is one of the reasons why they are alienating their customer base that pays their bills on time.

American Express says it will eliminate 4,000 jobs

NEW YORK (AP) — American Express said Monday it is eliminating about 4,000 jobs as part of a plan to slash another $800 million in costs for the remainder of the year.

The layoffs represent about 6 percent of the New York-based credit card issuer’s current global work force.

Many of the affected workers were notified in recent days and the remainder will be notified in coming weeks, said company spokeswoman Joanna Lambert.

Lambert could not specify how many U.S. workers would be laid off, but said the cuts will be across the board.

The newest plan follows $1.8 billion in cost cuts — including 7,000 layoffs — announced in October of last year. The company also suspended management-level salary increases and instituted a hiring freeze at the time.