American Express Cut Off Sign & Travel With No Warning, Asking for Full Payment When We Were Late: 27% El Paso Texas

I have been a member of American Express for many years..I am proud to say
that I have never been late on my account with them or any of my numerous creditors. ..My credit is immaculate A+ credit history..The other day I was advised that the extended payment portion of my account has been terminated. I called the company to inquire why and I was told by the credit department that many card members are losing this benefit and its based on the economy!
Well at this time I do not have a large balance..I will pay it off and close the account.
Want to know more about this company..READ MY REPORT UNDER "AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVELERS CHEQUES.. THEFT OF $10,000 IN AFRICA!

I think the end is near for this company!

All these folks that have been living "on the edge", the end is near. With gas prices skyrocketing, same for food prices and now utility bills and everything else, you're screwed. The banks and credit card companies are losing money out the butt, so they're trying to make it up someplace.

The chickens have come home to roost. And it ain't gonna get any better. People are now "living" on their credit cards to make ends meet. That'll only go so far and put off the end for a short period of time. Read the articles about how the credit card companies are now cutting people's credit limit, sometimes, down by half.

They cut your credit limit from $10,000 to $5,000 and you have a balance of $4,000. Your credit card is now at 80% of max, thereby DROPPING your credit score even further, thereby RAISING your interest rate on your other credit cards, you're screwed.

If you were using Sign and Travel for Christmas purchases, I can understand why they terminated that option on your bill!

Anyway, the way I'm reading the T&C for their pay over time options on the green card allow them to change the limits and the enrollment in the plan based on your credit and recent spending habits.

Since you were constantly maintaining a "high" balance, one little trigger in your credit may have flagged your account to downgrade it based on *risk*. So you paid late over two months to pay it off. Well, two late payments will trigger the serious default rate for 12 months, but now you can't afford 26.99% interest vs. about 17.49% (what your interest rate should have been in Dec 07). But if you paid the balance off in 2 months, why couldn't you keep up with the payments?

Is it because you charged it to the max again after Christmas? I don't see the ripoff here. You had a "pay in full" AMEX that they were allowing you to pay over time, something triggered them to demand it in full, you couldn't pay in time, so they raised your rate. You had a choice to stop using the card or you never actually paid the card off in full, one or the other.

'Amex suddenly terminated our Sign & Travel (which allows you to pay for higher-priced purchases over time)'

This is NOT TRUE as I have never signed up for any of their peripheral programs yet I can and do pay for some purchase (in excess of $300) over time. So, there clearly is another reason for the increase and demand for payment.

As for the other joker, you were admittedly late and went over the limit and they raised the interest as ALL credit cards do. Learn how credit cards work.

American Express is doing this to a lot of people. Search this site for "American Express" and you'll see. They moved their credit operation (on paper) to a state that allows a default rate of 27%, gave everyone the choice of accepting the new terms or paying off their entire balance (ha!) then set about putting as many people "in default" as they could.

From what I've read, Amex has a lot of bad debt out there, and the market is worried about it. So they found a way to maximize the interest rate their good customers pay, to make up for the losses they expect from the bad loans.

In other words, they're making their good customers pay more, to make up for the bad loans they made. That's why people like you (and me, and many others) who have been good customers for years and have always paid on time, are suddenly getting killed with the insane interest rate. Like you I was baffled that they would do this to a good customer -- but it turns out that's exactly the point: the better a customer you are, the more likely it will happen to you. They need the people who always pay to be paying a higher interest rate.

I'm not surprised to read that it happened to you the way it did; by canceling your Sign and Travel without prior notice right after Christmas they were almost guaranteed that you'd pay late. And when you did -- ka-boom: 27%. In my case they said I paid late, charged me a late fee that put me over my limit, and whammo: I'm "in default." 27%.

Anyone who doesn't think they planned this is crazy. It's happening all over the country, to lots and lots of people. It was a plan. Make up for the bad loans they made by finding a way to charge the paying cardholders the highest rate allowable. Step 1 was move the operation (on paper) to another state. Step 2 was force as many people into "default" as possible.