A few weeks ago I asked for an internally approved increase on one of my Amex biz cards - 6 months had passed since the last one. I was denied - at first was told that my salary didn't support the increase - which I found odd - because my salary is high. They were very courteous - and said they could put in a request thru Centurion bank - however - a hard would be pulled. I declined. The other day - I saw that Amex pulled 3 (three!) soft inq - one on Exp and 2 on Eq - within a 2 day period. Called their credit bureau dept - asked if there was a problem - cuz i never saw them pull 3 account reviews within 2 days. The rep said she wasn't sure why - that the pulls are computer generated - and then an actual person looks them over - and that it could be for promotional purposes - but - if i allowed her to pull another soft acct review - she could look over the report. I agreed She said - well your fico score is high - and your internal score with amex is high - HOWEVER - you have quite alot of credit - and you're only utilizing 2%. She said that this could - not for sure - raise some kind of red flag - and that maybe I should close some of my lower lines. She did say that she wasn't sure that it was a problem - she just noted the possibility that it COULD be seen as a negative by Amex when reviewing the report - and that is possible why I wasn't granted an increase - due to a past account review showing a lot of available credit. I pushed her and she said that she has seen Amex lower credit lines to those who have excessive credit with others. She DID say that she doesn't know if that was going to happen in my case - and repeated that I have a good internal score with Amex. I thought about it - was planning on closing one of my 12K cards - Elan Financial Visa - not a bad card - 7.9% apr - but doesn't really offer any bt perks. But later on - I said to meself I said - WTF! I don't want to close any cards - but then I don't want any of my Amex cards to be in jeopardy... Any thoughts?
Sounds like they try to give you lots of bull. I would never close any good accounts just because amex thinks he might have a problem with you having other cards. Did you suggest to them that you may hesitate to use amex card because cl is so low and you do not want to go over? (regardles of what cl is)
FLEET gave me a FRIVOLOUS +$300 CLI then a FRIVOLOUS -$100 CLD They said I owed too much on other cards...SO I PAID THEIR $14,000+ OFF IN LESS THAN 6 WEEKS!!! You might SHOW AMEX who is boss...0.00% used
good point dwooley - and GEORGE - you may be right - I could transfer my balances from my amex biz cards to other biz cards... HOWEVER - the plot THICKENS!!! After 25 years of perfect credit history........ oh no! sorry - that's some one else............... Turns out the two "soft" inquires which I saw on equifax - were actually hard inquiries! Even tho they don't show up as hard on Eq! Confused? I was too. I will explain. I go onto to Privacyguard and see that the pg report shows that Amex pulled 2 hards on 11/18/ on Eq. i figure privacy guard got it wrong - it was actually two softs - but i call them just the same to tell them that on my ACTUAL Equifax report those inquiries show up as soft.... The pg rep explains - very nicely actually - that i might want to call Equifax to verify that those 2 inqs were soft - cuz they receive the RAW DATA from Eq - and that data showed up as TWO HARD inquiries - and whatever I may be seeing on my actual EQ report - might not be the same as what a creditor would see... okay - still thinking PG got it wrong - cuz my actual Equifax report show that they are soft inquires - i call up Equifax - and explain to them the entire situation. AND LO AND FREAKIN BEHOLD! The Equifax rep says - sorry Mark LA - those inquiries may show up on YOUR report that you pull from the CONSUMER section of Equifax as soft - but PG was right. The report I HAVE shows these two inquiries as HARD INQS! Soooo --- he very nicely puts the two inquiries in dispute - told him i didn't apply for anything with Amex - he says it's very possible that amex meant to do account reviews and that they miscoded their request - and thats why the inqs show up as hards. He also says i should call up Eqs web dept to check why i don't see the inqs as hard inquiries - but rather in the account reveiw section. Anyway - I'm still debating whether i should call up Amex about this new development - BUT - I'm seriously getting nervous about them. WHAT THE HECK IS GOIN ON????
