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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.
You can’t do it online anymore but you can call and do it through their automated system I raised mine 70% with no problem and it took effect within 15 minutes.
Worked for me online today. Went up 50%.
I was able to do it online today, no problem. I doubled my limit from 5K to 10K.
Thanks for the advice. Was able to go from 13k to 20k without any issue. Just make sure that you have selected ‘Credit and Balance Transfers’ and you should be golden!
When I login to my account online, I don’t even get the option of Line of Credit…:(
This means that I am not eligible for increase??
I’m also not presented with the option to incease the limit online… what does this mean? Am I not eligible or have they stopped the online CLI?
Do NOT ever do this unless you have at least 800 credit score with no debt at all. I did this just this week and I have flawless credit with zero late payments in 7 years. My balances have been high though for that whole time but my rating is over 720. Perfect credit high balance.
They closed my account. Paid them $15,000 in interest over 15 years with no late payments. That is what they will reward you with.
So if you want to lose your account go ahead and ask for a limit increase. They are closing accounts to get their cash reeled in because they know they are in trouble and they are trying to stay afloat.
Do not ever ask for a limit increase unless you absolutely must have it and can risk losing the card.
Don’t help these companies out any longer. Go with your debit card and keep only a small credit card. A few thousand maybe.
Let’s get America out of debt here. This is our last chance. I am done giving these people money.
Why not do it? It’s not my problem that you can manage your finances. You gave amex $15,000? haha! I charge my card up and pay it off everything, so i’m not giving them a dime.
I just tried. Didn’t work online but I called and in less than 3 minutes I had my credit limit doubled, the increase showed up online instantly before I even hung up the phone call (total length of call 3 min 27 seconds). I always pay everything off in full every month… I don’t need a whatever percentage loan to pay off.
Sooooo I did it 20 mins ago. Went small because I wanted to be cautious – asked for an 18% increase and I was instantly approved. I hope this really doesn’t lead to a hard inquiry or I will be pissed…
I found this page from google researching if there would be a hard pull from this. Hopefully not! I’ve been a Delta Amex cardholder for 9 months, and upped my limit from 2k to 5k successfully.
AMEX has removed this feature. I am not sure if this a permant or temporary
Tyler, the feature is still there. I just did it now.
This feature moved from my account summary page to my account STATEMENT page. I couldn’t find it anywhere else.
I also just went up from 4.6k to 9k.
How early can I do this? I just opened a blue cash card with only 2500 as my limit. I have a score of 830 and low balance to credit ratio that’s y I was surprised to be approved for such a small amount so do u guys think 1 month is too early for an increase or since its a soft pull it shouldn’t matter? Thanks!
I’d like to know the answer to this question as well.
You have to wait 6 months from receiving new credit or an increase before you submit a request.
Definitely works, thanks!
For everyone who’s successfully increased their credit lines, do you mind stating your credit scores (or range ie,700-850) and how long you’ve had an account open w/ amex. Oh, and what cards you have. Thanks!
Credit Score = 765 (per free CreditKarma.com) so it is an “unofficial score”.
I signed up for my first Amex (clear) in 2001. Never used it.
I signed up for an Amex Platinum Business Open card in 2004 (hardly used it, a total of maybe $3k spent on it).
Closed my Clear card in 2004. My Business card member date listed 2001.
May 2009 signed up for Hilton Surpass Amex and received a $5k limit. Complained to Amex as I am a consultant and travel every week and my monthly expenses for airfare and hotels are $10k+. They told me I had to wait 60 or 90 days for a limit increase.
August 2009, I called and asked for a $20k limit. It was denied as they will only increase a MAX of 3X your limit. In my case, they would only take my $5k to $15k and this was approved on the phone.
May 2010 – I found this web site and said what the hell, did what it said and Amex took my limit to $21K.
I currently only have the Amex Platinum Business Open CREDIT card and the Hilton Surpass CREDIT card with Amex.
I will be applying for the Delta Amex card in the next week or so – the best offer I found so far was for 50,000 miles on signup but still looking.
Great! Thanks for the info.
Thanks so much for the tip,
I had a limit of $2000 since 2008,I asked for increase for $5000,It got approved in seconds.
Thanks so much for the great tutorial.
So here’s my story, after 7 years of of carrying only one credit card Bank of America pulled my account for a random review (hard credit inquiry) then they pulled my credit line and closed it out! “Yea sucks to be me”, my credit had pretty much been destroyed from the mortgage fall out as I had been working in the industry for years and I was caught right in the middle working out of S. Florida, so Amex comes along and offers me their Optima card which is pretty much their bare bones credit card, small credit limit ($500) no reward points, but nonetheless it gets your foot in the door with in my opinion the best card issuer around, so I happily accepted of course I’m not looking for miracles but my financial situation is night and day from where it was a couple of years ago when my credit got destroyed and my score is even up about 30 pts from where it was when Amex issued me this Optima Card, my question is does anyone have any experience with this card or could tell me how long I should wait before asking for an increase or applying for a Amex Blue or Amex Delta rewards card, which card would be the easiest to obtain coming from the Amex Optima?
MiamiJ,
I’ve never owned an Optima before. But I’d like to know how soon I’d be able to try this credit increase feature out. Maybe someone can give answers.
Thanks for sharing your story. Sorry to hear about all your struggles.
I don’t have the credit line update option on my online banking website. I called Amex and the the tech there was saying that the option was no longer avaible on the website anywhere. Sad… I only got 2000 credit line and want it to be at least 5000
Does anyone have the same issue?
Am I the only one who has this problem?
If you just opened up an Amex account you will have to wait a minimum of two months before you can request a credit line increase. The option did not appear for me online but I have only had the card for 2 months so that would make sense. I dialed in over the phone and got an increase from 2K to 5K approved immediately. My credit score is 780.
I tried an increase about 2 years ago, about 2 months after I’d gotten my Blue for Students, because I had gotten a job since applying and hoped that would qualify me to raise the limit, but they said I couldn’t request an increase for THREE YEARS! Any experience with this? I know it was years ago, but it still hasn’t been 3 years, so I haven’t tried again, but has anyone had any luck or gotten a similar response?
Amex rejected an increase on my $1,000 Blue card about 4 or 5 months back. I was annoyed because I’d never been late with a payment or over the limit. I’d assumed they turned me down because I was generally hovering around 75% of the limit. What I did find weird was I was in macy’s and on a whim I applied for their store card which they accepted me for; when I got home I called and asked how big the limit was and they told me $600. Not bad for a store card, I thought. Then I got a Macy’s branded amex credit card in the mail with a limit of 2,000 that apparently is separate from the Store account. Wanted to know if this is standard policy for stores now. I’m trying to raise my credit score (currently 716) so that we can buy a house next year so this extra amex card will help, as I dont intend to use it much.
Also, it’s always worth calling AmEx…I’m from the UK originally and when I first applied for the card the said no, (“little credit history”) but I called them to ask how I could establish a credit history when I’m being refused credit. They changed their minds over the phone and I got the card the week after.
As DenverGal mentioned above, I also could not find the option for credit line increase. So I called Amex customer service (1-800-528-4800) and got approved the increase from 4200 -> 10000. My credit score is in 730 – 740 range.
Just tried this and was declined. Called to inquire why, as I have two Amex cards and pay both balances off each month (only use 4% of credit line). I was told that you can only request credit every 6 months and since I received a new card (Starwood) 5 months ago, I was not eligible. Thought it was worth noting here for anyone like me who is new to the process.
I just increase my line of credit thanks alot.
Click “Cardmember Agreements” and then click “account managment” you will see increase line of credit. it is very easy process. I just wanted to add this I have requested about six months ago over the phone and I was declined. Though, when i used the online it took about a minute to increase. So I appreciate for the tip.
Click “Customer Services” tab and then select “Account Management” . After this Select “Credit Management” and then choose “Increase your Line of Credit” .
It took a minute for me ,I requested 2000 increase from 3000 . Within a minute AMEX approved it and now the limit is 5000 . I need to pull my report after some time and confirm AMEX didn’t made hard enquiry.
Any idea if you can do this for multiple cards in one day? I have two Amex cards and just increased the limit for one, but didn’t want to try the second if they’re going to do a hard pull.
Do you all generally asked for a specific amount or let the computer tell you what you qualify for?
Currently, I have a FICO score of exactly 650.
I just applied and was approved for a credit limit increase from 6K to 10K using the American Express automated telephone service. This was for my American Express Clear card which I have owned since November 2009 with an opening credit limit of 2K.
I wonder, though, if I had applied for a 15K limit and was denied, would I get no credit limit increase at all, then have to wait for six months to reapply?
I tried this over the weekend and got the announcement that my application would be processed in a few days. First thing Monday morning it was approved. My credit limit increased from 5k to 9k.
I just doubled the limit on my Amex Blue card from 3k to 6k. I’ve only had the card for four months and my Fico score is 770.
CAN SOME ONE TELL ME WERE DO I HAVE TO GO TO INCRESE MY BALANCE LIMIT OR SHOULD I CALL THEM PERSONAL.