On May 5th, 2009 a letter arrived in my mailbox. It was from American Express informing me that they have canceled my American Express Blue card. I've had this card for several years now and for the past 2-3 years it had zero "owed" balanced on it. I haven't used it, but I kept it open. To my surprise the letter from AMEX signed by nobody in particular, said it was being canceled due to "serious delinquency on one or more of your accounts".



Again, as I recollected all of my accounts and  with Amex specifically, I had no such delinquency.
So I called the number listed in the letter (1-866-815-9595) to find out why my Blue card was canceled.

The Amex customer service associate named Samantha looked up my account and confirmed that yes, it is in fact has been canceled as of May 5, 2009 due to delinquency on my accounts. I interrupted her and said "I have zero balance on this account," noting that this is the only account I have with Amex.

Samantha said that this has to do with my "other accounts".

"What other accounts?"

"We received a copy of your credit report," she said "And your credit score has gone down."

"What???" I asked, "What does it have to do with my American Express account??"

"And why do you receive copies of my credit report?"

Samantha informed me that this is a regular practice and they review accounts periodically and close them based on the credit report score. She gave me the number of Experian, who sent them a copy of my report: 1-888-397-3742

I asked her to read to me my new "lowered" credit score.
She said she didn't have the actual report in front of her and couldn't do that.

"Great," I thought. I called Experian and requested a free copy of my credit report by mail, which by the way, takes 10 business days.

While I'm waiting for a copy of my credit report, an explanation from Experian why they send my credit report to Amex, a reply back from Amex Public Affairs Office on why they receive copies of my credit report and what right do they have to implement such practices, I have one other useful number for you.

1-888-567-5688 - This is a number to cancel the use of your credit report for marketing purposes.
It lets you to opt out for 5 years.

I have to say that even though my Amex Blue card was pretty (it really was), I will not miss it very much.
The interest rates have gone up to more than 13% and most stores do not accept this card anyway.

I was at H&M store in San Francisco just about a week ago and I asked them why they don't take this card.
The store cashier said it was because their fees were too high.

So go ahead, cancel away.
I really don't want it.

PS. I think it's funny that this is being done while the congress is reviewing the credit card bill of rights, protecting consumers from hikes in percentages and fees. I feel like my card holder rights have been violated.