We all know American Express is known for catering to the well-to-do, and in turn, giving out high credit limits. However since “the great recession” happened, they’ve gotten more conservative which sometimes leaves cardmembers disappointed. Well if that’s you, have no fear… it IS possible to get an American Express credit limit increase!

Method #1: Request a Credit Line Increase

This is the most conventional way to go about increasing your credit card’s limit.

It used to be that you could request a credit limit increase from the AmEx website quite easily when you were logged into your account. However you’ve probably noticed that option is no where to be found over the last few years, not even on the account services page (seen above).

There used to be a tab for “LINE OF CREDIT” and when you clicked on it, a drop down option would appear for “INCREASE YOUR LINE OF CREDIT”

Unfortunately it is no longer possible to do this through their website. In order to try, you have to call up customer service and make a formal request.You can give it a try, but many people on our American Express forum complain that they haven’t had good luck that way; either their request is denied altogether or they are only granted a very small increase.

The worst part is that they still get a “hard pull” credit inquiry that will now show up on their credit report. And if you’re going to do a hard pull, you might as well do it for something worthwhile, which brings us to the next technique…

Method #2: Combine Credit Limits
When the credit limit increase method described above doesn’t float your boat, there is sometimes another option.

Often times, American Express will let you re-allocate credit limits on your cards. So if you have two different cards each with $10k limits, for example, you may be able to move $5k from one and add it to another (leaving you with a $15k limit on one card and a $5k limit on the other). Personally speaking, I had success using this technique – I had an unused Blue Card with a $16k limit and I transferred $15k of its limit to another AmEx credit card.

But what happens if you don’t have any other AmEx accounts – OR – you do and you don’t want to decrease their limits? Well, many people reportedly have had luck by opening a brand new account and eventually re-allocating its credit limit to the actual card you want to have a higher limit on. Because both this method and the other method involve a hard credit pull, many people conclude this second method is the preferred way to go since it will give you another account to have.

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