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I’ve been with Amex for 12 years. Never missed any payments on any credit or mortgage EVER. Had BA Amex for some years and used to churn Gold Amex yearly with my wife. I appreciate my personal financial circumstances are unique but I’m after some general thoughts. My BA Amex has a £7300 credit limit. The Gold card I cancelled in July 24 had a £10,300 limit. Never had any issues in all that time with different cards and the credit limits.
July 24 apply for Plat card after debating for many years really due to upcoming trips/dining credit etc etc. Given £4800 limit. Bit low I thought but hey ho. August 24 go to turkey pay for a marriot hotel and that month comes to £2843 on the card. Then ever since the day I’ve had the card my Credit Karma app has shown my credit score drop from a consistent around 660/710 for years suddenly starts to drop each month. Currently down to 628/710. I’m alarmed and checked and its use of my total credit limit that’s causing it. As we try to put most daily spend and that includes hotels on the Plat card, combined with the monthly direct debit balance of the full amount (until it clears) has meant its ‘looked’ like I’m using a lot of my credit availability.
Ring Amex today and explain. Offered to increase my credit limit to £7k. Its rejected and I ask why. No reason. Come back in January they say and try again. I explain since Amex gave me such a low credit for god knows whatever reason it looks like I’m using a lot per month and I’m going to stop using the card as its causing me more credit score grief than its worth. I ask to escalate and passed to someone who repeats the same story. So long story short I’ve raised a complaint as to correlation of my low credit limit versus in all the years had nearly £17-20k on Amex previously. No change in our financial situation in terms of income (gone up), no new credit cards, no new credit on any other items, same house for nearly 10 yrs, car payments lower, mortgage decreasing etc etc.
I can see why they refused an increase in some ways based on what look like’s high usage per month but I’m worried I’m looking like a financial risk to Amex. Its only ever since I took out the Plat though. Never had it with any Amex or any other credit card ever. Its been passed to the back office for them to review why they scored my credit limit so low but I’ve explained I’ll cut usage on the card right down, get my credit score better I hope and never ever get another Plat!
Anyone else had similar with Amex and a new card??
@Nick G – Amex’s risk appetite has reduced considerably. Their charge off rates in the UK are poor vs competitors and they have access to far less data than other banks. They have created a vicious circle for themselves in that they offer ridiculous incentives to apply and unsurprisingly then attract rubbish cardholders who default.
It’s possible they are seeing something you aren’t aware of but essentially, it’s one of the risks of churning/chopping and changing cards as new applications are no longer treated as favourably even if your financial circumstances have improved.
Sorry what grief is a low “score” that no financial institution gives a flying f*** about actually giving you?
What has actually happened other than damaging your pride?
You’re free to pay down your credit card balance and continue spending and earning points on an Amex so no issue there either.
Unless you’re applying for credit in near future, I’d not care about amex’s decision either.
Or you can play the long game and be patient, slowly increase your limit on Plat. The card very beneficial for me, particularly for rental car and travel insurances, so I am doing everything by the book for them.
1) credit karma score is irrelevant for banks. What happens at credit karma stays at credit karma.
2) one possible explanation why credit karma is reducing the score (even though it’s irrelevant) is their algorithm could be programmed to reduce the score gradually for every new line of credit. A credit card is a new line of credit.
3) your approved credit limit on the new card will also depend on how much credit you have from all sources at the time of application. Amex is notorious for automatically increasing the limits on their cards, so if you have higher limits on other cards, that’s a big factor on any new application.
4) only your statement balance gets reported after the statement is generated. Intra month spending, especially in current month will not impact your credit history. You can reduce the impact of statement balance by pre-paying the card, so that a lower utilisation can be reported.
5) someone asking for a higher limit within a few months of a new credit card, is a huge red flag for banks. As can2 says, give it time and slowly request an increase after a year or two.I’ve also just been refused an increase on my Platinum credit limit.
Started with Gold in 2021, and upgraded to Platinum last year, and also re-allocted some of my limits from the ARCC and BAPP, to the Platinum, at the time.
A week or so ago, I got notification from Amex that my ARCC had been cancelled as I had not used it for 12 months (annoyingly, I had an offer saved that I was just about to use, but schoolboy error on my part for not using it for so long).
And, a few days ago, I decided to cancel my BA card, as I had emptied out my avios doing 2 long haul redemptions (for a family of 3), and had no more vouchers to use, so thought it was a good time to cancel, and hopefully re-apply in 2 years, when there is 70k offer or similar.
I probably should have re-allocated the limit again before cancelling, and just went to increase the limit, but was declined. The limit is a healthy 5 figures, but would prefer a bit more, as I’m close to 30% utilisation this month.
Any idea when I can ask again? It’s not the end of the world, but I would prefer a bit more.
Thanks for all the replies. I understand everyone’s view. What I still find odd is how with the same personal circumstances my Gold card limit was always around £10k and of course plenty so no issues. Never had to ask on any increase on any Amex. Spend is still around the same on this card as well, but for some reason I buy this card and the limit is a lot lower, no reason, no change of my circs. I won’t be asking again for an increase. The renewal is July and won’t renew just stick to the BA Amex I think.
Also I was told you can’t ask for an increase before at least 6 months into the account as it will be refused, if that helps aq. Pity they didn’t tell me that before I asked them to check!
As JDB says yours might not have changed but Amex’s attitude to risk might have. It’s not just a one way relationship.
Utilisation is across all cards so I’m not sure why closing it and keeping BA only would do anything but make your utilisation worse as your total available credit is now lower but your monthly spend is the same
If your issue is just the limit on the Platinum vs BA just transfer it across.
Also I was told you can’t ask for an increase before at least 6 months into the account as it will be refused, if that helps aq. Pity they didn’t tell me that before I asked them to check!
that’s pretty much a standard across all credit cards and if you think about it it makes sense as your circumstances are unlikely to have changed much in 6 months…so asking for an increase that quickly just raises red flags to the issuer
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