AMEX doing away with biz lines of credit
 

Got a letter in the mail today that American Express is doing away with their Business Line of Credit and Business Capital Line programs as of 1/15/09. As of 11/15/08 (the day after their mail was created) existing Loc and BCL accounts are limited in further purchasing capacity to 10% of the unused credit limit + the current outstanding balance as of the last statement.

In other words, a $35K line of credit that I never bothered to use is now cut to $3.5K and an then to nothing in 2 months.

Wonder what's next.. my BofA 3.24% home equity line of credit (contracted 2 years ago).

Since my home is paid off and I don't have any loans, to keep my good credit rating, I opened the equity line of credit and use it occassionally then pay it off in large chunks.

Bleck.

I stopped looking at the few stocks I have and my retirement fund (in mutuals) about a month ago.

yep we got the amex love letter too.

I don't have loans either... never liked them.

Yup got the letter as well. Not suprising

It's not looking good on the consumer credit front either: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,2176527.story

I thought it was pretty slick how they date the letter the 13th, make the changes to the limits effective the 15th, and mail the letter so that it arrives on the 20th.

I'm sure they figured that if people received the notice before the date of the change they would have maxed out the LoC since their min payments are going from 1/36 to 1/50 until it's paid down.

Mine hasn't been cut yet, but I've never used it. I think it's like $35k. They did raise the interest rate on it though.

Mine was $35K also.. think that was a pretty basic limit for them.

You might go check your online account if you use it.

I paid my other Amex cards online yesterday and the LoC said $35K available then.. today it says $3.5K.

a little off topic: but since we're talking about credit cards, how likely do you guys think credit card companies will crack down on automatic rebills as a way to "limit their risk exposure"? That's been the rationale for limiting consumer credit card limits.

Fuck, you're right. Mine was cut too.

I believe that paying off your debts in large chunks actually hurts you. Lenders look for people who make the minimum payments albeit on time of course.

Did anyone get the letter from Citibank about the HUGE APR increase??

Perfect standing with them. Perfect credit and no balance and they are increasing the APR huge! I heard everyone was getting one.

Actually I think its the other way around isnt it?
They look to see if you only make the min payments. If so it's not a benefit for you.

Where's the bailout money - wasn't the idea to get people to borrow again, and yet the banks are raising rates and hoarding cash.

Ron

he's right. banks especially don't like you to pay off a loan quickly. for example, if you take out an auto loan it isn't good to pay it off within a year or even two years. they want you to pay the monthly payments stated on time. i guess one reason is that they get the interest by keeping the loan open. if you make large payments or pay the loan off early they don't get the interest (make money)

citi droppped my heloc from 250k to 10k, had to get my home re-appraised and they raised it to 52k (& i have over 400k of equity in my home)

nuts

well fuck amex..
my AA mastercard just bumped my credit line to 40K. i do have 20K+ expenses on it each month, so thats a plus. I never liked amex.
I applied for 3 AmericanAirlines cards at once just to get some extra miles.
Master Card: One was personal, One business ..
MC personal: 10K
MC business: 24K
...............
Amex personal: 2K


so where what card do you think Im going to use the most?

didn't get it. always paid on time and in full. they must hate my ass.

I'm glad I never really got into the credit game except for my house. I have a debit card and I keep a large balance in my checking account, never really had much of a need for credit cards. There have been many times when I go buy a corvette, hummer, new BMW, motorcycles, whatever and just write a check for it. The one payment plan, baby!

Yep, same here - never used it.
What's really funny is that almost every time I go into my bank, they actually almost badger me into getting lines of credit for each of my businesses - and not even the manager, the TELLER keeps saying "you know, you can open lines of credit for your businesses - I can do it for you right here, right now."
They must be the only bank in America that is TRYING to get people to open lines of credit :warning

I've been that way too. When I paid off my house I was fearful of my credit score dropping with nothing ongoing, because of that I opened my home equity LoC. I have two BofA credit cards that I use once in a while and pay down quickly.. and couple of Amex cards for travel. Haven't bought a car on credit since 1990.

yeah... tax returns speak wonders when you need a mortgage, and you can always buy points if you need to.

LoL should have seen the hoops I had to jump through in 1997 to buy my home. From $30K a year doing accounting in '94 to nothing in '95 and then gangbusters in '96, etc.. they wanted income tax returns, monthly bank statements for 2 years and I don't know what all else. Refi in 1999 was alot easier.. and then my CPA said the interest on the loan wasn't really making a difference on my writeoffs so I paid it off in 2001.

Yes, freezing your HELOC will be next. Already happened to several friends of mine - all with hundreds of thousands in what USED to be available HE access, great credit, they rarely tapped it and it was PIF soon after if they did use it.

I refinanced 2 years ago with a nodoc to buy some more land and am 99.9999% sure I couldn't get an HELOC for any amount. Smartest people tapped out their HELOC and did work to their houses at least 6 months ago - they were able to use the equity and increase the house value.

SO FAR I haven't had any credit decreases and in fact have had increased credit limits in the last 2 months and get at least 2 low interest balance transfer offers a week. And I've already had one offer to let me buy my car lease out (not due until May) for thousands less than the original end-of-lease buy out. The biggest issue is that I can't decide if I want the car.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...120_719245.htm

Another Citi article:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...efer=worldwide

No he's not and neither are you. Purely for credit rating purposes the single quickest way to boost rating is to use up to 50% of your available credit each period and then pay it off in one lump, starting again next month.

A change of country a while back meant having to look into that area in detail. Of course whether or not the banks prefer smaller payments for profit is a different matter. However, purely for credit score paying off each month is the way to go.

hmmm.. wonder if I should transfer what I have for available credit in my heloc now and hang on to it in case..

What is bad is a lot of companies especially small businesses use these Amex lines of credit to operate their business and keep everything running smoothly. Just turns into yet another jab at main streets economy and thus the economy as a whole.

If they want the bail out that they asked for the day after they were declared a bank, then they have no choice but to do this.

Yep and I want to know why isnt hank paulson not pissing all over this banks he gave 350 billion for the purpose of unfreezing credit.

5% more. So it wasn't a huge increase, but enough for me to pay it off.

You must have some amazing score, or little no credit. I have a 777 with one heloc recently closed. No offers from any banks, as I used to get them several times a week, two years ago.

Now I'm considering tapping into the one heloc I do have, inorder to get as much cash out, as it is with Citi.

I have to admit I have a great score and tons of credit (it's because I'm old :helpme ) Being self employed though I do everything I can to personally make as little money as possible, ergo I doubt a bank will even give me a free pen if I attempt to get an HELOC so I have equity sitting there because I wanted to make sure I was equity heavy, always thinking I'd be able to tap into if I needed it, but the way things are going bankingwise, I won't be able to.

PK, if you can grab equity money, I'd grab it now. One of my friends has well over 7 figures of equity in his house, had an open HELOC for a few hundred grand, and they froze it. I don't know what bank it is but I can find out.

Our little local banks are doing great - probably because they sell all their subprime loans. When I did my nodoc the guy was explaining everything as I signed it and one of them was "By signing here you acknowledge that we're going to sell this loan before the ink is dry." :thumbsup

Mine is with BofA and I didn't push for large amount..my limit without even an appraisal is less than 1/3rd what the tax rolls say for my home and 1/4th of what sales in the area have been in the last year (market withstanding). Haven't used much of it at all.

It's tied to all my checking and savings accounts. I can go online and transfer money from the line into my bank account or write a check from the line.

Gee.. I have wanted to pull the carpets out and put down wood floors and paint.