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American Express Credit Card Limit Increase Tutorial
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Regularly requesting credit limit increases, if done correctly, can increase your credit score and mitigate the effects of canceling credit cards. This post will explain how to navigate the menus of American Express’ online interface so that you can request a credit limit increase without triggering a hard credit inquiry. I have done this successfully myself several times.
Begin by logging into your American Express account. On the Summary of Accounts screen, click on the link that says “See all Account Services.” It should be located in the right hand side under Manage Your Account. If you can’t find it, here’s a screenshot of how it looks on my account (blue box around the link):
The next screen will list your cards, click on the little yellow arrow to the left of the card. This will expand the account services for that card. Click on the Credit and Balance Transfers tab, it will be the third one. Under the Line of Credit label, there will be a smaller link that says “Increase your Line of Credit.”
After you click that link, you’ll be prompted to enter in the 4-digit security code on the face of your card. Once you enter those digits, you will be faced with this screen:
From here, you just need to enter in your desired credit limit (not the increase, but the credit limit you want) and your income. Click submit and you will either get a screen congratulating you on your new line of credit, available for use within 15 minutes, or you won’t. Don’t abuse this (do it once every six months) or you’ll get a call from AMEX’s Financial Reviews department for further confirmation (according to users of Fatwallet). There have also been reports that it’s simple as long as you keep the limit under $25,000.
Just as an FYI, to get the screenshots for this tutorial I actually requested a credit limit increase. I had a credit limit of $20,000 and was approved for an increase to $25,000 on my American Express TrueEarnings card.
Enjoy!
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I have used this process in the past, and can attest to the ease with which Amex makes the process. The best part (in my opinion) is that they make you enter the security code on the front of the card in order to process the request. This way, the company can be reasonably assured it is you who is requesting the increase, since it requires both the card and the log-in information.
I also like this process, as opposed to the automatic increases that some credit issuers extend to cardholders. I know that a lot of people have trouble with managing debt, and the latter only gives them a longer rope to hang themselves with. Personally, I think it should be left to the cardholder to request an increase and then the creditor can evaluate the situation rather than taking it upon itself to just raise limits.
I’m not a fan of the automatic increases either. I look at some of the limits on my cards and I wonder what the card issuers were thinking!
Yup. I’ve had a Blue card since college and have gradually increased my credit from $500 to $30,000 over a period of 8+ years. But of course I rarely spend more than $2000/month on the card and I always pay it off.
I just tried it and instead of a congratulation note, it says that the request have been submitted and a written notice will be sent.
@Alan – That is almost a sure sign that the request will be declined. Have you recently had your credit line reduced on any open accounts with Amex? If so, that is most likely the reason why it was treated that way. In any case, they will give you an explanation in the written notice they will be sending you shortly.
Lovely….they reduced my limit from $9k to $1.5k a year ago because of a accidental late payment for one of my student loans. Is that even allowed? I’ve had perfect repayment with amex for 2-3 years. The one time that I have a smudge with a STUDENT LOAN (which has nothing to do with amex) they drop my limit to crap.
None of the other cards cared at that smudge. Maybe amex is just anal like that.
@Alan that’s one of those things that is being cleared up in the new CARD act…but won’t get put in place until 2010
Just did a 40% increase and it worked great! Thanks and very helpful article. 10K to 14K. Cheers!
@ Jillianlou so if the new CARD act goes through does that mean I can make a case to get my limit back up? or is this one of those “from now on” type of acts?
I just did it in 3 minutes and increased my credit line from 10k to 15k no problem.
Thanks for the tip, that was awesome!
AMEX definitely makes it easy.
Another thing I have done with BOA – switching limits between cards. I have 3 cards with BOA, only 1 is used for my non AMEX purchases. Back in the 0% days, I would get the offer from card #1, then move the limit balance of #2 & #3 to #1, and borrow off that. Instead of credit lines of 5,000, 8,000, 10,000 I had 22,000, 500, 500.
Awesome!! Just doubled my credit in 2 minutes.
I’ve seen the feature but thought it was a hard credit pull so never tried it. Thanks for the clarification!
Thanks for the guide, but I ended up getting hit with a financial review after requesting an increase from 19K to 24K.
Mine keep automatically going up, without me asking for (or wanting) them to. I’ve gone so far as to ask them to keep my limit where it is, and they do…. for a while, then jack it up to where it would have been if they had been incrementing it all along. I guess I should just be happy that it’s improving my credit score and leave well enough alone.
I cannot find any way to increase my credit line when logged into my account. the links above in the pictures aren’t there :/
nevermind I found it.
It looks like they have removed this option and to increase your credit limit you need to call since they are discussing this individually.