American Express is Shutting Down Credit Card Accounts

American Express is Shutting Down Credit Card Accounts

American Express has quickly become one of the most stringent credit card issuers. They have been clawing back bonuses, shutting down referrals, clawing back credits for a variety of reasons etc. Now, in the last few days, there’s also been a big Amex shutdown wave hitting many cardholders.

There’s already a big thread on reddit about it. It’s not clear yet what the exact reason is for these shutdowns. It could be more than one. Any type of abuse could be a possible reason, since we have seen them getting really strict about enforcing everything. A list of data points has been collected in this spreadsheet, but from a quick look, it doesn’t points to anything specific. Many people have lost huge amounts of Membership Rewards points as well.

Some possible reasons could be buying gift cards for spending requirements, Amex Offers or credits. Self referrals have been a big issue so far, so that could be a reason as well. Doing multiple pay-over-time offers, previous financial reviews and more have been floated as triggers for the shut downs. But again, we do not know for sure yet.

Guru’s Wrap-up

Seems like a lot of people have been affected by this round of Amex shut downs. I strongly suggest that you do everything by the book when it comes to American Express credit cards from now on, if you are not already. The exact reason is not known. But we know for sure that American Express is on the lookout for any violation of terms, or maybe anything that they might consider as gaming their system.

Let me know if you have been shut down and if so, if you have engaged in any type of behavior that you might think as the cause of it. Also let me know how this affects you going forward.

Here’s a quick recap of some of the bad Amex news I have covered this year:

• People That Have Used Amex Self Referrals Can No Longer Generate Referral Links?
• American Express, More Clawbacks for Self Referral Bonuses
• Saks Fifth Avenue Gift Cards No Longer Work for Amex Platinum Credits?
• More Bad News for Amex Platinum Saks Fifth Avenue Credits
• American Express Clawing Back Self Referral Bonuses
• Amex Airline Fee Credits Not Working on Some Gift Card Purchases
• More Amex Clawbacks, Now for Dell Purchases

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