Denial of Credit - Costco TruEarnings / Blue Cash

By: sacbiobrewer

I've been a loyal customer with American Express for years now after first receiving a Costco TruEarnings card. I was so happy with my card (customer service, online management, rewards, credit limit, etc) that ACTUALLY closed my oldest credit cards because they had poor APRs and clunky internet interfaces.


Since my wife and I haven't stepped into Costco for nearly a year, I called AMEX and explained that I wanted to transfer my account to Blue Cash as my Costco membership had expired. I was told 'Great, no problem!", that I was a valuable customer, etc, etc. My credit limit was $8000 and usually charge a balance of between $200-1200, and I routinely make payments of between $200-400 per month, often twice a month (often paying the balance in full between the two payments).

Less than a week later, I received a letter in the mail telling me that my credit card was canceled (after already embarrasssingly discovering this earlier that day at a coffee shop). I chalked this up to the account transition process that I requested, and the letter clearly told me that I should expect my new Blue Cash card within a week or two. Yesterday, I called AMEX inquiring about why I had not yet received my new card (at this point a week late).

Was this a simply delay in post? Nope, not the case. Apparently after I spoke with the representative, they canceled my card because my Costco membership had expired, although the card had not. Furthermore, when I called back and had to go through the reapplication process, they denied me. I, like others on this forum, was told that my Experian report reflected poorly. I checked my report, which gives a credit score of 720 (not stellar, but pretty good). Admittedly I have several students loans, all of which are still in a deferment period except one; however, I've managed to pay off 30% of that loan in the past 6 months since it came out of deferment! My report shows very little 'revolving debt' and shows an excellent payment history on all but one (now closed) account (which only has a single late payment).

So here I am, left with essentially no revolving credit (because I closed my Citi and Discover accounts) just going into the 2-3 months when my wife's salary is temporarily reduced by ~60%. Fantastic. As far as I'm concerned, American Express just lost my family's business for life.