Has American Express Started Limiting Some Customers To 4 Lending Products? (More Datapoints Needed)

[Update 5/19/20: The 4 credit card limit has been confirmed by Amex, as well as a 10 charge card limit.]

Over the last 24 hours there have been a number of datapoints of consumers applying for an American Express card and being denied, upon reconsideration they were told that American Express now has a limit of four ‘lending products’ per customer. Previously American Express allowed consumers to have five (or more) credit cards and recently there has been reports of a 10 charge card limit added.

Let’s talk a look at some of the datapoints we’ve seen:

• Approvals:
  • Approved for Morgan Stanley plat on 5/14, already had 4 personal, 1 biz and 4 charge cards
  • Approved for Morgan Stanley plat on 5/14 with 2 open biz charge, 4 open personal biz charge, 3 open personal credit, 2 open personal biz
  • Approved for Charles Schwab with 5 credit cards and six charge cards
  • Approved for Bonvoy Brilliant, currently holds Aspire, Surpass, Bonvoy, BCE, as well as 6 charge cards (first time going from 4 to 5)
  • Approved for Hilton Surpass, currently holds delta gold, delta business plat, hilton business, hilton aspire
•  Denials:
  • Denied Business Hilton (credit card) with open persona gold, green, blue cash everyday and EveryDay. Told about 4 max limit.
  • Denied Hilton Surpass (credit card) 4 with credit cards, but last card was closed two weeks ago
  • Denied Blue Business Plus (credit card) with 4 credit cards, 1 charge card

At this stage it looks inconclusive at best. The worrying thing is customer service representatives citing a four card limit.

Hat tip to Walter Credit