amex - their approach to non payment

maybe they will agree to xfer it to one of their credit cards? Then get a 0% interest card and pay it off from there. (or even if they just agree a schedule with interest it will be punitive so do that anyway)Then pay the 0% card off over time, then cut the cards up since you obviously cant be trusted.

My brother went through a "debt consolidation" process which ended up with him agreeing specific lower monthly repayments on all sorts of debts from Electricity to credit/charge cards. As I recall Amex were the one card issuer which steadfastly refused to agree to freeze his debt interest and allow an extended repayment period. Fortunately he was able to repay the account in full a few months later and close it.

)Then pay the 0%

Thanks for the assumption, however I have been trusted, and trustworthy, for years. However, a severe and sudden reduction in income leaves me able to pay my other debts at minimum payment level for a whil. Amex minimum payment is the full amount...if it were a creit card I wouldnt be posting this.

At the moment, I wouldnt get a card from anyone, because I have level of borrowing appropriate to a 45 k salary which I also had untill recently....now I dont :-(

If you built up your credit/charge debt to the level that you cant repay it if you lose your job, then my comment still applies. Even at worst you could have got redundancy insurance if you were getting in too deep which by definition you were.

That assumption on credit card criteriamay well be wrong, nothing to lose by trying, I know people on v low income including student loans only, who have been given cards.

I would just accept that your credit rating could get dented for a while and priorotise any mortgage payments before considering keeping amex "happy".