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I’m writing on behalf of a friend who I referred for a BAPP a couple of weeks ago.
They already had a Rewards card, with a credit limit of £22,500. They received an auto-refusal for the BAPP after they clicked on my referral. When they phoned Amex to ask why, they were told that their credit limit with Amex was already pretty high so they couldn’t have an additional card unless they agreed to lower their Rewards limit by £7,500 (Amex’s suggestion) and move it to the BAPP – ie split the existing limit between 2 cards. My friend said they’d prefer to move more across to the BAPP, as they can sometimes hit £7500 spend in a month. They were told that that couldn’t be done at that time. So they agreed to Amex’s suggestion of a £7500 limit on the BAPP, subject to approval of the application.
Their BAPP card has now been approved, and their Rewards card limit has been reduced by £7500 as agreed but the BAPP limit is only £2500. They asked an Amex chat agent today if the BAPP limit could be increased, even if it meant reducing the Rewards limit further or even cancelling the Rewards card (which they’re only holding until they decide what to do with their remaining reward points). But Amex said the BAPP limit can only be reviewed after 3 months.
£2500 is not a good credit limit, given the spend limits required for various bonuses including tier points. So my friend has asked me for advice on what to do next.
I’ve read the chat transcript and the Amex agent didn’t seem very helpful or friendly, even stating that they’d waited 30 seconds for a response and were now going to end the chat at their end (which they did). That seems unusual for Amex in my experience. My friend has been put off contacting Amex again and feels they’ve already done enough by phoning Amex to discuss the credit limits, and then using chat to say that the credit limit hadn’t been split as expected. They’re a bit fed up to be honest, given their long history with Amex (they’ve held BAPPs and various other cards for decades) and given their high income and good credit rating. I think they also feel a bit upset by the tone of the chat agent, given that 30 seconds is not much time for anyone to respond on chat. My friend was doing their best, given that they’re physically disabled. The whole experience has been very offputting.
I guess the other option, if Amex is unlikely to shift on the credit limit, is for my friend to stick with their £2500 credit limit for 3 months, paying it off every week or as necessary? Then get back in touch with Amex and hope to get a better response?
Has anyone experienced anything similar, or have any advice on what to do next? I guess I have a motive to make it work as I’m not sure if my referral bonus would be taken away if they cut up their BAPP into tiny pieces. Also, I might benefit from their 241 when they get it! But I’d also just like to help.
Advise them to phone, and ask to speak to someone in Brighton.
@Ant68 – I suspect that it would be counterproductive to ask Amex to change their minds even if their ultimate decision was different to the original agreement, so it may be necessary to put up with the £2,500 limit and if necessary pay some off as they go along. I would be a little wary of rushing to ask for an increase after exactly three months. Amex is very mercurial but it’s safer to let them be. I’m sure they are being quite careful in the current very uncertain economic environment and the likely impact on household incomes.
Agreed this is rubbish service.
Many issuers are a bit more jittery on available credit so the chances are Amex now think £17,500 is a more appropriate amount to extend to your friend than £22,500 and the algorithm kicked in with the new application.
I would suck it up for three months.
Do they have a target to hit for an account opening bonus on the BAPP and is this feasible? I would try to avoid paying the balance off multiple times during the month as it is somewhat unusual doing so even if the issue is caused by Amex.
After three months either call or brave another chat and ask for some limit to be moved over. I have done this a couple of times in the past and Amex seemed totally chilled about it so I would hope after a few months of using the BAPP “responsibly” it should be routine to move as much of the credit as they wish across from the ARC.
I’ve had exactly this, reduced my credit limit with Amex by nearly 20k, finally got them to issue a Marriott card and it came with a 1500 limit which is pathetic. Multiple requests over the last 9 months and they still won’t transfer available limit across from the MR card to the Marriott.
Last couple of months with heavy spending I’ve had to pay the card balance almost every week, sometimes every couple of days.So your friend’s experience of Amex is typical these days. Unreasonable and unhelpful would be a good description of their attitude. (I’ve been an Amex customer for nearly 20 years)
@Alex-G Speaking to Brighton hasn’t helped me any more.
@Froggee – They just won’t (despite me having it it writing from live chat that they said they would)You can request an increase or reduction in your credit limit via your account, but I don’t know whether it has a better success rate than asking a human!
Agreed this is rubbish service.
Many issuers are a bit more jittery on available credit so the chances are Amex now think £17,500 is a more appropriate amount to extend to your friend than £22,500 and the algorithm kicked in with the new application.
I would suck it up for three months.
Do they have a target to hit for an account opening bonus on the BAPP and is this feasible? I would try to avoid paying the balance off multiple times during the month as it is somewhat unusual doing so even if the issue is caused by Amex.
After three months either call or brave another chat and ask for some limit to be moved over. I have done this a couple of times in the past and Amex seemed totally chilled about it so I would hope after a few months of using the BAPP “responsibly” it should be routine to move as much of the credit as they wish across from the ARC.
It’s £6k of spend over 3 months for the sign-up bonus now, which is likely to be problematic without making additional payments as you’ll probably hit your limit before making your first Direct Debit payment.
It’s not a problem to make mid-statement payments with Amex, credit limit is released instantly.
Low CL is only a problem if you want to make very large purchases, otherwise doesn’t affect you in one bit in achieving the SUB.Low CL is only a problem if you want to make very large purchases, otherwise doesn’t affect you in one bit in achieving the SUB.
It is when you’re trying to pay for a 5 night stay in a big city like Chicago and you have no clue when the payment for a pay in advance rate will be taken. The stress of waiting to see if it would bounce because it clashed with a payment that hadn’t cleared (so I could pay it off) was awful.
Ridiculous when I have thousands in CC limit on another Amex that they won’t re-allocate.
While recycling a smaller credit limit multiple times is possible it is hardly fair to say it doesn’t affect you one bit.
You have the extra time and effort of having to keep a much closer eye on how much you are have spent plus making extra payments when necessary, and of course you lose most of the benefit of the interest free period.
The credit reference agencies also start marking you down if you are using more than 50% of your limit on multiple accounts.
While recycling a smaller credit limit multiple times is possible it is hardly fair to say it doesn’t affect you one bit.
You have the extra time and effort of having to keep a much closer eye on how much you are have spent plus making extra payments when necessary, and of course you lose most of the benefit of the interest free period.
The credit reference agencies also start marking you down if you are using more than 50% of your limit on multiple accounts.
It’s not really very onerous to pay the card a couple of extra times in three months to reach the £6,0000 SUB threshold which ought to be easily large enough to cover the very small theoretical cost of missing out on any interest free period.
The error here was to have an unnecessarily large credit limit on the ARC that has almost inevitably stymied this new card application and then to try to resolve the matter on chat rather than speaking directly to a human.
Amex is Amex and it’s their card, their rules so if one wants an ongoing relationship with them, one needs to play along.
My recent experience albeit with much less credit than others here: reduced existing credit limit online, effective almost immediately, before applying for 2nd card.
New card approval email:
Included with your Card you will find your new credit limit, which was assigned based on your existing credit with us. If you would like to adjust the distribution of your credit limits between your Cards, please call us on 0800 917 8047 or +44 1273 620555 where our representatives are happy to help you.Then the contact results were varied:
Chat and non-Brighton call: wait 3 months
Brighton call #1: can’t, but quoted email then credit reassigned immediately
Brighton call #2 for another card: because limit adjusted within the last month, please call again in 1 month.I have nothing against non-Brighton agents, some have been very good, though I would call during office hours and ask for Brighton credit limit agent, or (complaint) which may lead to a more enabled agent. Otherwise I agree with the others’ advice above.
While recycling a smaller credit limit multiple times is possible it is hardly fair to say it doesn’t affect you one bit.
You have the extra time and effort of having to keep a much closer eye on how much you are have spent plus making extra payments when necessary, and of course you lose most of the benefit of the interest free period.
The credit reference agencies also start marking you down if you are using more than 50% of your limit on multiple accounts.
If this such a burden on you (lmao) I’m not sure you should be dealing with credit cards at all. What a drama.
Low CL is only a problem if you want to make very large purchases, otherwise doesn’t affect you in one bit in achieving the SUB.
It is when you’re trying to pay for a 5 night stay in a big city like Chicago and you have no clue when the payment for a pay in advance rate will be taken. The stress of waiting to see if it would bounce because it clashed with a payment that hadn’t cleared (so I could pay it off) was awful.
Ridiculous when I have thousands in CC limit on another Amex that they won’t re-allocate.
It’s almost like I said, and YOU QUOTED, “Low CL is only a problem if you want to make very large purchases” *facepalm*
But like the person above, if that is so stressful that you can’t deal with it, maybe don’t do it? If this is so stressful to you that you can’t deal with it and you force yourself into doing it, not Amex’s fault.Thank you for your replies. I’ll come back with an update if I get one.
As an update, my friend used a feature on the Amex app today to request an increased limit. He asked for £10k and was given £6,500. Which is a huge improvement on the initial £2.5k. He was able to do it well within the 3 months he was told he had to wait (see my first post, dated July 29th). He’ll continue to ask for it to be reviewed on a regular basis.
As an update, my friend used a feature on the Amex app today to request an increased limit. He asked for £10k and was given £6,500. Which is a huge improvement on the initial £2.5k. He was able to do it well within the 3 months he was told he had to wait (see my first post, dated July 29th). He’ll continue to ask for it to be reviewed on a regular basis.
Its like the automated system work better than what Amex allows its agents to do. Its the same with BAPP upgrade/downgrade when asked over phone often refused by online automated systems nearly always work both ways. As an aside my daughter has been given a 19,000 limit for her first Amex gold!
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