My Amex Credit Card Limit was Increased by Rs.1000

By | February 3, 2017

Yes, you read that correctly, i was approved for just Rs.1000 extra credit limit. American Express is one of the well known companies that can double your credit limit on decent spend. In fact, even my credit limit was doubled on my previous request, which was after 6 months of card setup date. However, I wasn’t so lucky this time and I know why.

American Express Credit Card Limit Enhancement

How to Increase Credit limit on your American Express Credit Card:

Earlier, to increase the credit limit, you need to call support and take a request to review your account “based on spend”. Your limit will be raised within 2 weeks and you’ll receive an SMS once the new limit is approved.

Now, all you need to do is call their support and they can increase the limit right away, almost instantly and the new limit will reflect within a day. So you might ask, how are they able to increase the limit without looking into the CIBIL score.

Recently I found that Amex has your UPDATED cibil score with them and they no longer need to put a hard enquiry.I found this when one of my friendΒ  tried for limit enhancement and was denied over call in seconds stating that his CIBIL score is less and his report has some issues which he then found out to be right. So i asked my friend to read the article on how to increase CIBIL score to 800+ πŸ˜€

But interestingly, his report has no inquiry from Amex. Looks like CIBIL maybe providing the score details with latest status of the user’s CIBIL account when companies report the user data to CIBIL system.

My Experience with Amex Credit Limit Enhancement:

So coming to my story, i recently closed my Sbi elite card which means overall utilization ratio may go up. That being said and also to see how much more limit Amex can offer me in short span of 3 months, i went with limit enhancement on my Amex platinum travel card. It goes like this,

Day 1: I called up Amex support, but as credit team was busy, he said he took a request to review the ac in 48 hrs and revert back. But I declined saying that I wish to know the possible limit over call to decide, so I’ll call later sometime. He agreed and I disconnected

Day 2: I called up again and requested the credit team to look into my ac for enhancement. This time I’m connected to credits team and now the person said, “your credit limit has already been increased by “Rs.1000″ and next request can happen only after 3 months” even if I wish to submit IT docs. WTH?! I was also said I can’t revoke this enhancement, well, who needs 1k limit ?!

So finally, the first guy ruined the process! The reason why Amex system approved for such a tiny limit is because I did not use this card at all except for some ~Rs.10,000 expense in past 3 months. On that too, I received couple of refunds/cashback.

So basically the effective usage is only 5k or so and it’s obvious that their automated system approved a very small limit based on the spend.

I know this already which is why I want to first check with them before I go with the new limit. But bad things happen and I din escalate this issue as I’m neither desperate on the limit, nor have time.

Lessons learned with Amex Credits Team:

  1. First limit enhancement can happen after 6 months of card setup date
  2. Subsequent limit enhancement can happen every 3 months
  3. Amex don’t need IT returns for limit enhancement. Your spends are considered, which is good.
  4. Your spends post the last LE is only considered
  5. High spend = 2x limit.
  6. Maximum limit you can avail is 2X of current limit on each review.
  7. Be careful with support guys as they take requests proactively to help customers, which doesn’t help at times tough.
  8. Send ITR copy for LE if spends are low.

So that’s my experience with American Express credit limit enhancement. I still love them and will continue to, for the kind of offers they provide and for the level of service they deliver, except this time. I regularly use their Amex Makemytrip Offer and others like Amex Ezeego1 Offer which does save a lot of money, about 10k in savings in weeks time as DIRECT cashback.

What’s your experience with Amex credit limit enhancement? How much did you spend and how much limit more did they offer? And did anyone received more than 2X limit in one shot? Your comments are valuable to many. Please share them below.

43 thoughts on “My Amex Credit Card Limit was Increased by Rs.1000

  1. Prashant Gupta

    my experience has been good. I had closed 2 cards and after 2 months i placed a request to reactivate 1 card. They delivered the card in 5 days, but with only Rs.75000 limit. I asked them to enhance it to Rs.4 Lakh. What they did then was they combined my other closed card limit of Rs.3 lakh and Rs. 75 K from this card to make it Rs.3.75L and that too in 1-2 days as i told them that I will be swiping it to make large payments because of marriage in family. Amex is really fast and understands customer problems.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      That’s an interesting information. Good to see that clubbing of limits is happening even in India.

      Reply
  2. Vinod Kannan

    1 week back, i called Amex for Limit Enhancement. My call was immediately connected to the Credit Team and i was asked how much limit do i want and what is my annual income… I asked for 3x Limit enhancement, but i was told that im eligible for an increase in limit of 40k… I was asked to call back after 3 months for another LE… When i asked her how this works, she told me that i have to ‘Spend More and More and More’ on my Amex card.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      How much did you spend to avail this 40K limit enhancement?

      Reply
  3. Mukesh Taneja

    Thanks Sid,

    I called up Amex and they increased my limit to 8L (from 5.5) with a rider that limit would not be increased in future as this is the maximum limit for platinum travel card.

    Thanks for your inputs.

    Cheers,
    Mukesh

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Great. That’s an interesting information on the upper limit of the card.
      So its time to go for The Plat Charge card then or maybe centurion in future πŸ˜‰

      Reply
  4. Vinod kannan

    I use my Amex card only to load cash in my Paytm wallets … 40k every month …. so I can reach 4lakh milestone without spending even a single rupee…

    Reply
    1. Jay

      thanks for the idea, just did the same thing this month. Added 25k to PayTm and withdrew it back to my bank account.

      Reply
      1. Haris

        But when withdrawing back to bank account from Paytm wallet, they charge 4% of the amount.

        Can you please confirm, have you been charged extra or not ?

        Reply
      2. Balpreet Singh

        Dont you get charged a transaction fee for withdrawing money from Paytm to Bank account?

        Reply
          1. Balpreet Singh

            I was Just being inquisitive, so tried option to transfer back money from paytm to bank account. I had transferred some amount using Amex card yesterday.
            First message: you don’t have transaction which you can send to bank.
            However it allows you to go ahead and transfer at a fee (approx Rs. 3/- per 100/-) that’s 3%

            Is that experience of others too?

  5. Majumdar

    I received two communications from AMEX yesterday. Firstly, in the morning I got a courier delivering a brand new Platinum Reserve (PR) Card. In the afternoon, a letter regretting that my application for the PR card was being rejected because of inadequate documentation.

    Regards

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Anyways you got it. Congrats. Hope you’re able to use it.

      Reply
    2. Krishna R M

      A similar thing happened me with recently. I received two credit cards, one at my office address followed by a letter regretting the rejection of my application due to inadequate documentation followed by another card at my residential address. I called up Amex guys and they informed me to ignore the letter as it was sent to almost everyone who had applied for the card due to some technical glitch. Also, I was informewd to destroy the card which I received at my residential address.

      Reply
  6. Vinay Visen

    I have taken amex payback credit card in 2015. That time limit was 20K,but after one years I have request to waiver annual cahrges 1500+tax, they have pass waiver and also increased my limit 20 K to 93K, after 3 month my request they have increased 140K.😊
    Thanks to amex for fast service, pass the waiver of annual fee & for waiver of Finance charges previous + coming billing cycle and providing more time for payment

    Reply
  7. Vinay Visen

    Recently I have got amex membership card,but limit is 30k, when I was already using amex payback card and my annual package 6K and my cibil score is 820.
    So why limit is 30K. I m using only two credit card (amex payback + amex membership) plus one closed account of Capital first. I did pay due on time.
    Sidharth pls advise?

    Also advise how to remember all card benefits. My brother have more credit card

    Reply
  8. Captain Bishuddha Bharatiya

    Siddharth it has been more than 3 months since they incresed 1k limit on your amex card.
    1. So have they increased the limit after that?
    2. If yes than by how much ?

    Reply
      1. Captain Bishuddha Bharatiya

        Unbelievable.
        How much was your overall spends ?

        Reply
        1. Siddharth Post author

          Will share the story in a separate article sometime soon.

          Reply
  9. Praveen Perumalla

    I recently got an increase of 75K (the system generated increase). I called the customer care and they increased it right on the call and the change reflectly instantly. A very smooth process.

    Reply
  10. Sateesh guptha

    I have spent around 47k within 6months usage of my mrcc card which has only 1.10lakhs limit. I have purchased icici Lombard health insurance also(tied up with amex. Amex representative only called me regarding this). After purchase of health insurance, i’ve called them and asked for CE. He just asked my gross salary and immediately CL increased to 3.01lakhs from 1.10lakhs.😏😏😏😁

    Reply
  11. DR.HARDIK PATEL

    Siddharth, i spent around 5.5-6 L , what do you think how much amex will increase my limit after completion of 6 months, my old limit was 75K with amex platinum travel card? Awaiting your reply…

    Reply
  12. DR.HARDIK PATEL

    Thank you for your sincere reply, i spent 5.5-6L in 6 months…lets see, what is my chance of fee waiver if i soenf 10-12L in one year?

    Reply
  13. AJ

    @ DR.HARDIK PATEL

    May i know how much Limit enhancement you got by spending 5 -6 lacs in 6 months.

    Reply
  14. Praveen Perumalla

    I recently swiped 2.5 L in one day and within a couple of days, I got an email from Amex offering a credit limit increase by 1.3 L. I accepted using the email link and the increase was instantaneous. Felt very happy.

    Reply
  15. DR.HARDIK PATEL

    @AJ
    I got limit enhancement automatically 1.2L from 75K …I accepted it…but it was low according to my expectations…

    Reply
  16. Rahul

    I just finished 6 months with my Membership Rewards card so called the customer care to check for limit increase. My new limit reflected right after the call.

    Reply
  17. AJ

    my limit was increased on jan 2018 from 55k to 83k with 6 lacs spending in 6 months which was low and stopped using the card as infact we are making money for amex by chasing for CLI. Again in the month of may i have renewed my car insurance policy directly from bharti Axa by making payment thru amex it took 2 days for settlement of transaction and on the same day i got an email for credit limit increase to 1.49 Lac. When i called the customer care they said that it was system generated. For CLI again i need to wait for 6 months i.e., nov 18.

    Reply
    1. Hardik

      Aj, i can’t get how can you spend 6lacs in 6 months with 55k limit, when total of 6 months is max you can spend 3.30 if you utilize 55k every month, and due to such high spends on low limit amex didn’t gave you much LE! KEEP YOUR UTILIZATION TO 30% RATIO!

      Reply
  18. Hardik

    Got 4X limit enhancement from amex today as i completed 6 months with them so gave them a call, initially they were offering 2X i said okay and asked them reason for low limit and gave them insight of limit of others card i hold,so the agent from another side said as a valuable customer and as I gave them good bussines,they are giving me 4x limit enhancement from Such a low limit, happy with amexπŸ˜€

    Reply
  19. Captain Bishuddha Bharatiya

    Siddharth how often you get limit enhancement in Amex cards and by what percentage ?

    Reply
    1. Kiran

      Hi captain,

      Every six months you can request for LE, they can give you 2X the existing limit based on your past usage for the card.

      Cheers,
      Kiran

      Reply
    2. AJ

      Every six months if spends are good they would be increasing the limit 50% like if you have 1lac LE would be 50k for more limit they offer based on your income.

      Reply
  20. Hardik

    Hey sid,
    I think you should update article about your limit increase journey with amex ,as it’s been 2 years this article hasn’t been updated,it would be useful and maybe tricks to get limit enhancement on other cards and journey through it!πŸ™‚

    Reply
    1. Captain Bishuddha Bharatiya

      I couldn’t agree more with Hardik. It will be highly interesting.

      Reply
  21. Amrit

    I recently got my membership rewards credit card, the CE was 1.8L. Happy customer πŸ™‚

    Reply

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