AMEX Paying Customers to Pay off Balances

American Express, in a move to lessen their liability load, is offering select customers $300 to pay off their remaining balance and close their card accounts. This is not surprising, considering the extreme moves AMEX took in 2008 to scale back borrowers' credit lines.

A number of small business card holders reported that AMEX dramatically reduced their lines of credit in 2008. One small business owner reported his credit line being reduced from $165,000 to $5,000 in one month, in spite of the fact that he never had any delinquencies and had been in good standing for the entirety of his account.

AMEX is running scared in these days of financial turmoil. And ironically, they are punishing small business owners, whom the Federal government desperately needs to keep injecting capital into the economy.

One of the major problems resulting from the collapse of the credit markets is that both small and large businesses are being forced to scale back their operations and fire employees. This creates a domino effect of people losing jobs and not being able to spend money, which creates even worse economic conditions. Rather than indiscriminately punish card holders who have been responsible and paid their debts on time, creditors like AMEX should be thinking of ways to reward small business owners that have historically been good customers.

Do you have an American Express card? Have your lines of credit been reduced? Leave us a comment.