A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a question about Amex Financial Review, which significantly lowered card limits.
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Reader Question:
Wanted some advice.
I have the Personal Plat and Biz Plat as well as Hilton Aspire, Marriott Bonvoy and Delta Reserve Biz.
Plats had no limit and the others a minimum of 10k limit. I’ve been a customer since ‘81, have a 790 Fico, have always paid each card off every month in full and have never been late.
Recently I made a 28,000 purchase on my Biz Plat and it was approved.
Immediately it triggered a Financial Review. Annual income is 100k. Had to send 2 mos bank statements which showed 7-10k a month in bank.
They down graded limit on every card to 4400 credit limit except for Biz Plat to 9400.
Now I’m stuck with cards that have a ridiculously low limit. They do not seem worth keeping when I’m paying 3,000 + a year in fees.
It really also pisses me off when I have given them no reason to do this, have often had balances of 10k and still paid them fully off each month.
What would you advise? Don’t want to cancel and tank my Fico.
In the United States, American Express is quite flexible when issuing cards with high credit limits, but sometimes you might get hit with a Financial Review (myself included) out of the blue.
The reader above is correct that the $28K purchase that was approved likely triggered American Express’s credit review, which is called a Financial Review, especially if it was outside the usual spending pattern.
Amex tends to freeze cards for the duration of the review. They ask for in-depth information about your financial standing, such as income verification through pay slips, bank statements, tax returns, and investment profiles.
The good news for the reader is that Amex didn’t decide to close the accounts but merely significantly reduced the limits.
I would try to live with the reduced limits, hoping that Amex would eventually adjust them upwards.
You can make additional monthly payments to ensure that charges go through.
I would make every effort to keep at least a couple of the oldest cards open for credit length purposes and perhaps expand the portfolio of cards to include other issuers as well to ensure that you are not too dependent on one ecosystem.
Conclusion
Amex appears to be quite trigger-happy when it comes to these Financial Reviews, and I am not 100% convinced that this is the right approach, especially for long-term clients with no payment difficulties.
I would try to keep at least the oldest cards open in the reader’s case and explore card products from other issuers to spread the exposure.
What approach would you take on the reader’s case? Please comment below.
