American Express Changes Cards Policies
Well, I guess I was due to feel the effects of American Express’ problems. As of this morning, I received an email stating that my platinum business card was going to have a credit limit, which I’ve never had before, effective immediately. Talk about a major come down and shock.
Or should it have been a shock? After all, Fitch Ratings (Fitch provides issuer and bond ratings, research and surveillance on banks, and commentary on other financial issues) took a more pessimistic view of American Express Co.’s ratings, saying the company’s earnings are likely to fall as more cardholders fail to pay their bills and others charge less amid the recession. Fitch changed American Express’s ratings outlook to negative, which of course isn’t goo at all.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service and Moody’s Investors Services put American Express on watch for downgrade, a more serious move than Fitch’s outlook change, weeks ago. Man, how the heck did I miss this bit of information?
And yet, American Express’ stock price has climbed more than $20 since it hit a low in March, though it’s still way off its figure from 2008. Once again, how does a company’s stock climb when bad news keeps coming up about it? Well, supposedly it’s because they said growth in bad loans slowed; isn’t that an oxymoron of sorts? Because the debt has slowed, even though it’s still accumulating bad debt, that means they’re improving, and the economy is improving? And if that’s the case, why pick on my card?
No matter; it just means I’ll have to find other ways to help sustain my business during these slow days. And at least I still have my business, as Sony announced a $387 billion dollar loss and the elimination of 2,000 jobs; ouch!
. Thanks for providing me the forum for my anger release today, haha.
Mitch Reply:
April 20th, 2009 at 9:59 PM
Hey Justin,
Actually, it has a lot to do with this post. When I first got the card, it wasn’t “unlimited”, as they kept the limit to just around $2,000 until I proved myself. Last year, my credit limit was around $10,000, or at least I had it that high, and paid it down. Then they instituted a revolving credit part where, if the purchase was over a certain amount, they’d move it there and, if you didn’t want to pay it totally off, you didn’t have to. So, I still have some of that on there, and because cash hasn’t been quite up to snuff lately, I haven’t taken any opportunity to pay it off. But I’ve still been paying off what I’ve been spending monthly.
Weasels; this should be interesting to see where it all goes over the next few months. I need my business card because I go on the road, but with that limit, it’s oging to hurt.
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