Consumer complaint received 2020-03-02
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Credit card company won't increase or decrease your credit limit

Complaint:
I received my American Express card in XXXX. The available credit was for {$10000.00}. After using it for just a few months they increased my limit to XXXX. In XXXX I had the balance on that card up to almost the full limit. A few months later I made a large payment bringing the balance down to about 40 %. Nothing changed on my account. 
By the summer of XXXX I was suddenly informed that my credit limit was cut down to XXXX, leaving me only a mere XXXX in available credit. 
I appealed that decision and my appeal was denied. 
After this occurred I paid off the card and limited my transactions on it. 
KEEP IN MIND : I NEVER missed a payment nor made a late payment. Not one in all the time Ive had the card. 
Ive always paid more than the minimum, but none of that was considered in their decision. 
Now fast forward to today. Just 6 months later, they have cut my limit AGAIN. Bringing my available credit from {$8300.00} to only {$1000.00}. 
They cut my limit by {$4700.00} the first time and now theyve cut it by another {$7300.00}. 
In only a 6 month period they took away {$12000.00} in available credit. 
My credit score took a huge hit the first time this happened and Im sure will take an even bigger hit this time since it hasnt even recovered from the last decrease. 
When youre in a situation like this your back is against the wall. You are totally at the mercy of the creditor. And that is unfathomably unfair. No one can help you and AMEX does not care about the type of custumer YOU have been to them. 
There is no loyalty to their customers. I did everything right and I was still put in this position. 
I paid on time, paid more than the minimum, and maintained a low balance on the card. 
NONE of that was taken into consideration when making this decision. They went solely based on the other activity on my credit report which should be considered only SECONDARY to the way Ive maintained business with them. That is not the case. 
The appeal process is all you have and all they want to see is proof of income. Something that WASNT even required when opening the account! 
So anything on my credit report that resulted in their decision to decrease my balance then becomes irrelevant if my income is enough?! Thats a very backwards philosophy. 
What AMEX does NOT consider when making these decisions is the affect it has on the overall credit utilization of the consumer and how decreasing the available credit by that much, that quickly, is catastrophic to a consumers credit report. 
Decisions like this should be thoroughly considered and CAREFULLY looked into before they occur. 
I had no drastic changes in my credit report, my income has not changed and even if my utilization was higher than normal, all of my accounts are current and paid on time. Those should be the biggest factors considered when deciding to decrease a consumers available credit. 
Cutting a consumers credit limit by {$12000.00} in less than a year is unacceptable. And for that I am extremely disappointed with the way American Express has decided to conduct business with their customers.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation