For active charge cards, spending limits don\u2019t seem widespread (but there are a few reports).<\/p>\n
Credit Cards<\/h4>\n
On the credit card side we\u2019ve seen:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Credit lines slashed on both idle and actively used cards<\/li>\n
- Taking up to a week after payment to free-up available credit<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Unlike the charge card side, activity on a card doesn\u2019t seem to protect it from a reduced spending limit.<\/p>\n
Observations<\/h4>\n
So far, everyone that\u2019s been affected by the recent charge limits has one of these two traits with their AmEx accounts:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Big balances (think 30%+ of stated annual income)<\/li>\n
- Lot\u2019s of cycling (similar magnitude)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The language used on the AmEx website when a limit is imposed mirrors the language used when a financial review<\/a> results is reduced charging privileges. That could mean we\u2019re seeing a new type of financial review (perhaps a \u201csilent financial review\u201d), and having a big balance or cycling your cards quite a bit triggers it.<\/p>\n
Assuming this round is like past rounds of spending limits, it\u2019ll probably be stuck on your account for a year.<\/p>\n
Why is AmEx doing this?<\/h4>\n
I don\u2019t have inside knowledge about why AmEx is doing this, but I do know that their two major banking partners aren\u2019t rosy on AmEx\u2019s recent financial performance (Morgan Stanley\u2019s bank analyst downgraded the stock this week<\/a> and Charles Schwab has given the company a \u201cD \u2013 Underperform\u201d<\/a> equity rating as of yesterday.) Perhaps AmEx is looking for ways to reduce their risk or for ways to shore up their balance sheet?<\/p>\n
AmEx\u2019s public Q2 financial results are scheduled for early Friday of next week<\/a>, so perhaps we\u2019ll learn more then. In the mean time be aware that AmEx seems to be more on edge lately and act accordingly, like maybe drink a beer<\/a> and chill.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/99c-or-more-1012x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nAmEx understands \u201cno preset spending limit\u201d as well as this shop understands 99 cent stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beginning in mid-June I started receiving reports that American Express has imposed spending limits on charge cards and lowered limits on credit cards. Based on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":2,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-credit-cards","category-louse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4872"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6989,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4872\/revisions\/6989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}