Consumer complaint received 2025-10-28 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Credit card company won't increase or decrease your credit limit
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: PA

Complaint narrative:
Summary - American Express declined a purchase despite me having 5x the purchase amount still available in open credit, put my account in " periodic '' review, then lowered my credit limit by over XXXX to put me over my limit instantly. 

Full outline : I have been an Amex customer for just under a decade. In that time I have always paid my balances down, even when I've needed to make large emergency purchases with it. 

My wife and I moved to a new house on XX/XX/XXXX. Prior to that, we had paid {$5700.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and had been making minimum or above minimum payments every following month. On XX/XX/XXXX, we paid {$25000.00} which brought my balance to {$0.00}. 

Unfortunately, with a house built in XXXX comes issues that need repair. Between electrical work, plumbing work, waterproofing work, upgrading old/broken appliances etc, we had racked up around $ XXXX on the Amex card again by XXXX, and paid the minimum payment due in XXXX ( XXXX was paid off with the {$25000.00} XXXX payment ). 

At the end of XXXX, the dryer that was left by the previous owners died, and the washer had already been running poorly. This unfortunately coincided with us needing to wash a lot of clothing, blankets, etc., so we needed an emergency replacement. On XX/XX/XXXX, I attempted to order a washer/dryer set from XXXX 's for {$2100.00} but it kept erroring out without explanation. I checked my Amex app but nothing had changed, and I had no messages or warning. I checked the website, checked my email, but found nothing. My credit limit was around XXXX at the time, and we had XXXX on it, so I was confused. I began a support chat with their AI chat bot via the app to find out that Amex did indeed decline it. Suddenly, my account was under a " periodic '' review, which makes no sense as it was clearly targeted immediately following the $ XXXX purchase attempt ; my card was working prior to this. 

I talked to a human level XXXX support agent, who escalated me to a level XXXX team, who told me that the team that manages my account can only be reached by phone. Not chat not email, only a phone call. 

From that day to today I have chatted with about a dozen American Express agents and XXXX supervisor explaining in detail that I am XXXX, in the process of being diagnosed XXXX, and have XXXX XXXX XXXX  especially when trying to convey and understand/retain information over the phone. I was never once offered an accessible method of communication with this accounts team, and was even lied to by XXXX of the last support agents I spoke with, who gave me a fake/non-monitored email address and told me directly that if I send my concerns to that address, it would be forwarded to the appropriate team who would get back to me. I sent my email and it bounced back. The next support person I spoke with ( and their supervisor ) both told me that email is not monitored and there is no way to email the accounts team. 

As you will see in the attached screenshots, I have spent a month trying to get a company that I have been a customer with for a decade, that I have always paid back my debts to, and that has taken XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXollars from me in interest over that time to give me a fair chance to effectively communicate with the team that made this decision. It is not fair that a single month of making a minimum payment after we had just paid the card completely off at the end of XXXX was enough to XXXX ) decline an emergency transaction without telling me they had declined it, XXXX ) put my account under " periodic '' review, as if it was just coincidental timing that they were reviewing it then, and XXXX ) crippling me and my family by lowering the credit limit I had earned by over XXXX in the middle of us struggling. It's especially unfair that this team gets to hide from me and the company is somehow not legally required to accommodate someone with XXXX XXXX XXXX issues so I may speak directly and effectively with the accounts team.

I know that I may come off as blunt and upset in my chat messages in the screenshots, but please try to understand that I'm ( very likely ) XXXX, I have trouble communicating in general sometimes even when it's text based, and I was at the end of my rope pretty much every time I contacted them just to be told they aren't going to offer me any assistance.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief