New to Amex and Already Dont Like Them

[Anonymous]

Approved for the Green & BCE in Nov. Recently called to get info on the PRG since they have nice welcome rewards available. Of course the rep on the phone gushed over the benefits and heavily suggested that I app for the card. I told her that I already had the Green and asked what to expect because of that. She suggested closing it to app for the PRG since getting the rewards would be a new app, not an upgrade. Also told her there was a security freeze on my file and asked if she needed the pin or if I should wait to remove it. She insisted to app first and the pin would be used later, so we did.

I was declined. Just received the denial letter. It says my score is 698. This is a 2 month old score. My score has been 750+ since early Dec. Im assuming they took the old score because they couldnt access the new one. It also says I have too many Inquiries. The only inquiries I have are 2 from Amex and 1 from Synchrony. She gave me a number to call to explain the issue, and each person I spoke with gave me another dept to speak with and the problem as not been resolved. Each rep was either clueless of how credit scoring works or I had to repeat info several times in 1 call because they couldnt comprehend what the security freeze does. They were all clearly from overseas.

Im beginning to think I made a mistake choosing Amex. If this is a foreshadowing of what's to come, I'd hate to think of how they'd handle a situation that was legitimately serious. It would seem like a simple thing to correct considering the first rep said the freeze would not be an issue, but Ive gotten nowhere.

Has anyone else had this sort of goose chase problem with Amex? I'm considering closing this BCE card in fear that if the s**t ever hits the fan, Amex will be just as unreliable in their customer service.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the board and sorry to hear.  It is OK to vent but in the future, don't take the word of a CSR as they are sometimes full of misinformation.  Amex is a very good company.. what happened to you seemed to be out of the norm and the employee shouldn't have made that suggestion to you thus, closing the other card.

Amex relies on old pulls when approving new accounts when you already a customer.  The good news in all this is you didn't incur a hardpull. Don't close your other Amex card just because of the experience.

Every lender / company you will deal with have incompetent people.  So leave that account open and give it a few months....

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Approved for the Green & BCE in Nov. Recently called to get info on the PRG since they have nice welcome rewards available. Of course the rep on the phone gushed over the benefits and heavily suggested that I app for the card. I told her that I already had the Green and asked what to expect because of that. She suggested closing it to app for the PRG since getting the rewards would be a new app, not an upgrade. Also told her there was a security freeze on my file and asked if she needed the pin or if I should wait to remove it. She insisted to app first and the pin would be used later, so we did.

I was declined. Just received the denial letter. It says my score is 698. This is a 2 month old score. My score has been 750+ since early Dec. Im assuming they took the old score because they couldnt access the new one. It also says I have too many Inquiries. The only inquiries I have are 2 from Amex and 1 from Synchrony. She gave me a number to call to explain the issue, and each person I spoke with gave me another dept to speak with and the problem as not been resolved. Each rep was either clueless of how credit scoring works or I had to repeat info several times in 1 call because they couldnt comprehend what the security freeze does. They were all clearly from overseas.

Im beginning to think I made a mistake choosing Amex. If this is a foreshadowing of what's to come, I'd hate to think of how they'd handle a situation that was legitimately serious. It would seem like a simple thing to correct considering the first rep said the freeze would not be an issue, but Ive gotten nowhere.

Has anyone else had this sort of goose chase problem with Amex? I'm considering closing this BCE card in fear that if the s**t ever hits the fan, Amex will be just as unreliable in their customer service.

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Well the green doesnt really make sense anyway.... you can have charge card feature on your BCE above its limit....and really the PRG 50k offer is what you want from online browser anyway.

So unless you have super high inquiries, I would just wait a month and reapply.  And when you do apply why not grab the delta gold 50k bonus as well.

Too many inquiries is a generic excuse, something else triggered the denial. am shocked they didnt just offer you 25k points as an upgrade to the gold.

I mean really though...u just got the green and bce less than 2 months ago...most folks wouldnt apply for another charge card that quickly.  Now in my case, in may I got the ED at 5k, then in june the prg and delta.....Its a tossup but I'd hate to see you lose out on 25k points.....

[myjourney]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Welcome to the board and sorry to hear.  It is OK to vent but in the future, don't take the word of a CSR as they are sometimes full of misinformation.  Amex is a very good company.. what happened to you seemed to be out of the norm and the employee shouldn't have made that suggestion to you thus, closing the other card.

Amex relies on old pulls when approving new accounts when you already a customer.  The good news in all this is you didn't incur a hardpull. Don't close your other Amex card just because of the experience.

Every lender / company you will deal with have incompetent people.  So leave that account open and give it a few months....

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She didn't leave me anything to say but +1000 pretty well covered it the way I would have stated it 

I will.... add power is knowledge and now you know to research here for more how to's and up to date info about cards 

Welcome to the forum

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Welcome to the board and sorry to hear.  It is OK to vent but in the future, don't take the word of a CSR as they are sometimes full of misinformation.  Amex is a very good company.. what happened to you seemed to be out of the norm and the employee shouldn't have made that suggestion to you thus, closing the other card.

Amex relies on old pulls when approving new accounts when you already a customer.  The good news in all this is you didn't incur a hardpull. Don't close your other Amex card just because of the experience.

Every lender / company you will deal with have incompetent people.  So leave that account open and give it a few months....

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This. Yes, it's frustrating that Amex uses old an SP to decide whether to approve you or not, but at least they don't damage your credit by luring you to apply with sweet tempting thingies then denying you with a hard pull. I actually prefer this practice, though I really do think they should SP at the time of app.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the welcome. It is indeed frustratiing, but Im more frustrated with the incompetence than the denial. That's a bit of a red flag to me that there is more likely than not more crap to come in the future because of said incompetence. Im well aware Amex doesnt need me. I'm also aware that I dont need them all the same. I can deal with screw ups, but I need a resolution at the end or else its just left a screw up and I avoid companies that do that like the plague. If I had read completely legitimate reasons for the denial in that letter, I would have owned it all and made changes to try again next time. But the goose chase and the misinformation... yuck.

Its like saying "Yeah. We messed up somewhere, but we dont have to care, so we wont. Now give us your money."

Man... I used to be a hot-head in my youth over this kind of thing. I suppose I should remind myself that Im still just a number.

Thanks for the valuable responses, guys. Gratitude.

[celticslegends]

 I concur with your experience dealing with Amex. I have had to call them for basic things and out of all the people I have spoken with, I would say only one was somewhat competent. They were all overseas. All yessing me to death. All blowing me smoke. I couldn't get a straight answer. I will be with them 6 months at the end of this month. 

I try not to have to call them. I just use the card and login to my account. I have barclays, synchrony,cap 1, chase, credit union, etc and by far Amex has the worst customer service I have come across. So far Cap 1 and Chase are the best. 

[Anonymous]

Ha. I was going to mention that I've had better customer service from the subprime lenders Ive had over the years. Chase being the best. I also dont understand the 30 day wait after making your first payment with Amex.

How do the cardmembers who have spending requirements ever meet them to obtain their bonus rewards if Amex locks you out of making multiple payments in the first month? $5k in 3 months is actually 2 months if they impose such a wait. If you have a lower credit limit, that seems nearly impossible to achieve if you wish to stay under 30% utl. Maybe this is their intention?

Rather sneaky.... but not at all surprising.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Approved for the Green & BCE in Nov. Recently called to get info on the PRG since they have nice welcome rewards available. Of course the rep on the phone gushed over the benefits and heavily suggested that I app for the card. I told her that I already had the Green and asked what to expect because of that. She suggested closing it to app for the PRG since getting the rewards would be a new app, not an upgrade. Also told her there was a security freeze on my file and asked if she needed the pin or if I should wait to remove it. She insisted to app first and the pin would be used later, so we did.

I was declined. Just received the denial letter. It says my score is 698. This is a 2 month old score. My score has been 750+ since early Dec. Im assuming they took the old score because they couldnt access the new one. It also says I have too many Inquiries. The only inquiries I have are 2 from Amex and 1 from Synchrony. She gave me a number to call to explain the issue, and each person I spoke with gave me another dept to speak with and the problem as not been resolved. Each rep was either clueless of how credit scoring works or I had to repeat info several times in 1 call because they couldnt comprehend what the security freeze does. They were all clearly from overseas.

Im beginning to think I made a mistake choosing Amex. If this is a foreshadowing of what's to come, I'd hate to think of how they'd handle a situation that was legitimately serious. It would seem like a simple thing to correct considering the first rep said the freeze would not be an issue, but Ive gotten nowhere.

Has anyone else had this sort of goose chase problem with Amex? I'm considering closing this BCE card in fear that if the s**t ever hits the fan, Amex will be just as unreliable in their customer service.

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I definitely feel I made a mistake getting involved with Amex. I don't have one good thing to say about them, other than that some of their cards have good travel perks if you travel a lot.

[elim]

Don't close your card, Just app for PRG every month until you get it.  As other poster said... Grab the 50k Delta at the same time. If your still not happy with amex, close everything with 100k points in your pocket.  May as well get yours.   :]