How To Reallocate Your Credit Limits With American Express

Previously we’ve shown you how to get a 3x credit limit increase with American Express (which is useful for increasing your total available credit, which in turn should decrease your credit utilization which in turn should improve your FICO score). Today we thought we’d show you how to reallocate your credit limits between different American Express credit cards (obviously it’s not possible to do this with charge cards as they have no pre-set spending limit).

Restrictions In Reallocating Your Credit Limits

Update: One reader reallocate from a card that has been open for two months to a card open for two days so doesn’t look like these rules are enforced anymore.

Some of these rules might not be enforced any longer.

• A credit card must have been opened for a minimum of 13 months before it’s possible to transfer the credit limit from that card. (not enforced according to this data point)
• A credit card should be at least 60 days old to transfer to that card.
• Upgrading/downgrading cards has no effect on the clocks mentioned above.
• Credit limits cannot be transferred from business to consumer cards. It is possible to transfer from consumer to business, business to business and consumer to consumer. It’s also not possible to transfer limits to or from charge cards as they have no preset spending limit.
• You cannot reallocate your credit limits more than once every thirty days

How To Reallocate Your Credit Limit Online

• Log in to your American Express account
• Click the following link: https://online.americanexpress.com/myca/linereallocation/us/ssr.do?request_type=authreg_LineReallocation&Face=en_US&intLink=us_ap_transfr_avlbl_crdt_other_card
• Follow the prompts

F.A.Q’s

Does this result in a hard credit pull?

No, it’s only a soft pull to reallocate your credit limit with American Express. If your credit limit exceeds $25,000  before or after the reallocation on any one card then you might be hit with a hard pull. There are also reports of increased scrutiny/financial reviews on people with limits higher than $25,000.

I don’t see the option to transfer from a specific card, what gives?

How old is your card? If it’s not at least twelve months old it’s not possible to transfer from this card and that’s why the website won’t give you option.

How long does it take for it to process?

Almost instantly in most cases, although you should allow a minimum of 15-30 minutes before worrying

I received a “request being processed” message and that they would get back to me within 7 to 10 business days. Why did this happen?

There are two main reasons as to why this might have happened, they are:

• The card you’re trying to transfer from is less than 13 months old or the card your trying to transfer to is less than 60 days old
• When you entered your income information, it didn’t match what American Express has on file

If it’s the second reason, it’s worth calling up American Express to get your income information update and mentioning the failed credit limit request.

How long do I have to wait between transfers?

Currently unsure on exact dates, if you have any data points then please share them in the comments.

Hopefully you find this information useful, we will be adding similar information for all other major credit card issuers in the future. If there is a topic you’d like us to cover, make sure you contact us.

Hat tip to Frequentflyerbook who found the information in this FlyerTalk thread