So, Amex just lowered my credit line to $1000.

I've been an Amex cardholder for 19 years. Never missed a payment - not on Amex, or anything else for that matter.

Admittedly, I am flipping balances on a couple other cards temporarily, however again, no missed payments - ever.

I had been using Discover because of the great cash back option. I then found that the Costco True Earning Business card had even better cash back percentages, so I opened up a new account. I already had a Blue card with some very high credit line.. maybe $14k - $20k... don't remember now.

So, I get my True Earnings card, and it came with $2900 credit line. I was disappointed because it had 0% for purchases for the first 3 months, and I should have been able to average about $4500 based on my monthly spend during that time...which at 0% would have been nice. Instead, it capped after just over the first month...I asked if I could increase it, and the rep said I could only request an increase after like 60 or 90 days... AFTER the 0% intro period was pretty much up... Nice.

Anyways, I went with it because it was enough of a line for me to put all my charges through without any issues.

In the meantime, I figured if I were to close my Blue card it would decrease my other credit line so that I could increase my Costco True Earnings Business card credit line... I didn't necessarily want to close the Blue card, but I was kind of irritated at the credit limit issue... I had previously asked if I could shift the credit from one product to the other, and I was told that wasn't possible. So, account closed.

At the end of the intro period for the Costco card, I had to pay off my balance in full to avoid any finance charges - so I could continue to use the card for all my purchases.... so I did...paid it off. Just last month.

Much like the other posts here, it seems that once the balance was paid off, boom... credit line decreased. TO JUST $1000.00!!!

Seriousy, WTF were they thinking????

I pay my balance off in full every month.. I was putting every single dollar of spend through the card. My average monthly spend is between $2000-$3000 with at least 2-3 big purchases each year.

I got an email on my phone tonight... ironically just after using my Amex card to fill up my gas tank...It said important account update, so I checked it right away.

After seeing the credit line decrease, I immediately called to see if it could be corrected. I called to explain that I need approximately $3k to use the card... even if I weren't pissed, I'd still need that much to use the card without having to worry at the end of the month if I'm close to my credit limit.

I'm not gonna use a card where I have to wonder "will I at some point accidentally exceed my limit this month?" I don't have to ... I have pleeeenty of available credit on other providers.

The rep said she couldn't help me...said she had to transfer me to someone else... That pissed me off.

So... Gold Card - gone....closed the card I've had since 1990...the card with no limit, that I've paid $150/year for for ages. $100 pro-rated refund coming back... booyaa.

I had kept the Gold card for large purchases.. purchase protection.. yadda yadda.. so it wouldn't interfere with my credit limit on my other Amex card. No longer needed. ACCOUNT CLOSED.

Back to the Costco Amex card. I was xferred to someone regarding the credit line reduction. It seems there's a group of people that get these calls... that hear people complain, yet are trained to simply respond like robots..reading a canned script stating some bogus generic message around why the credit line was decreased. Nothing specific to *MY* accounts.. Just the rep reading a canned list of potential factors that impact the decision to adjust credit line.

I interrupted the rep... I told the rep I know all the potential factors that can effect the decition. I don't give a cr*p. What I said was look at the factors that a.) I've never, ever missed any payments, b.) I've been a customer for 18 years, c.) I put ALL my charges through Amex, d.) I pay them off every month e.) I shop at COSTCO - with my Amex..and will have to switch to Sam's Club because I won't keep an account that doesn't meet my minimum needs.

So the rep.. not saying anything related to what I said, just picked up from that canned note, not missing a beat. I stopped her again, and asked her point blank, "Can you or anyone else, your manager, fix the credit line issue and put it back to $2900" (which isn't huge by any stretch - but would have kept me as a customer). She said there's an appeal process. I'll be damned if I'm appealing anything... Not spending any more time on this... I'm not calling back tomorrow.. I'm not gonna even sit on the phone more than a few more minutes.

The answer was a flat "No".

So... no problem... Close the account.

She goes off and says she is unable to close the account... that I have to call some other number. She can't transfer me. I'm driving and have to take down a number and call back... just pissing me off even more.

So, I call the other number. I explain the situation. I explain that the card is worthless to me if I can't put my monthly spent thru it. I explain that I CAN use my Discover card to put my monthly spent through, and that the benefit difference is marginal... In fact, in some ways it's better than Amex because you receive the rebate amount immediately, whereas with Amex you have to wait until the end of the fiscal year to receive the cash back - decreasing the NPV of the money coming back to me.

So, I give Amex one more chance... I ask again if the credit limit issue can be resolved to keep the card useful.

Flat answer - No.

My response: Fine... close my last Amex account. Customer Lost... For Good. 18 years, and a few HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS of spend over the lifetime of my accounts - gone... never to return.

I was informed that I had $110 in cash back that I would be forfeiting ... Gee - I wonder why I had that cash back coming... Maybe because I USE MY CARD WISELY AND PAY MY BALANCE OFF IN FULL EACH MONTH.

Do I care about the $110? Yes. Do I want to keep my Amex card around for 6 months just to get that cash back? No... Keep it Amex... it's a gift from me to you. I'll call it a wash with the $100 refund from my Gold card annual fees being returned to me...

Next step? Pay off account in full... switch over automated payments... email Costco that I'll no longer be a customer... close my business Costco account, get refund for pro-rated membership fees...Tell them I'm switching to Sam's club because I can no longer pay for purchases at Costco (they only accept Amex cards, and I don't pay with cash or check)... Sam's Club accepts Discover...so I'm good to go. I don't think Costco will appreciate losing customers, but not my problem.

I had just though of the irony of something... with the way things are calculated.

I opened the Costco True Earnings card because of the cash back benefits, but didn't receive enough of a credit line when opening the new account.

I closed my Blue card, which was a large credit line, because I was unable to shift any open available credit from one account to another. I had a large credit line on my Blue card, and a small one on my Costco card, so closed the Blue card and waited to ask for a credit increase.

Instead, what I *presume* happened is that closing the Blue card increased my debt to available credit ratio... it also decreased the average life of my accounts as it was one of my older accounts. This would have impacted my credit score, which is still very good by the way.

I then proceeded to pay off my balance on my Costco card in full.

And that's when the shoe dropped... the impact of closing my Blue card account, which was the only potential way for me to move the available credit over... actually had the opposite of the desired effect - and Amex's new policies reduced my credit line to $1000... making the account utterly worthless for me as a full-monthly-spend card.

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Oh, it gets better... I just realized something else that could have prevented this.

I had previously been using Discover to pump all my spending through because of their cash back.

Before I had a Costco True Earnings Business Card, I had a Costco Cash Rebate Amex card..

I wanted to switch the card type from the Cash Rebate card to a True Earnings business card, but apparently the systems didn't support that switch.. Was told I had to apply for a new account and close the old one.

Had they been able to switch the card type, none of this would have happened.

But, they weren't able to switch the card type, so I closed the old account, and opened a new one.... thereby impacting the average life of my open accounts, negatively impacting my credit score as a first step.

So, I went from Discover... to my new Amex card... closing one account.. then another... trying to make the new Amex card fill my needs... and then this happens... making the Amex card utterly worthless, after I closed two other accounts... I finally closed a third... and then a fourth... and now I only have one left because I have to - a corporate card that I don't have a choice about.

The end.