Amex declining charges

[longtimelurker]

In my extended fun with Amex saga:  using a new Blue Cash card and a few charges kept failing.  I was expecting fraud alerts or account locked indications somewhere but nothing.   I called and they told me that there was an alert on the account, and the basic member should call.  And "probably" no charge would go through.   Though in fact they did!  After calling, everything worked.

Is charges being declined without any indication normal?  I've never seen that before.

[Skye12329]

I wanna say i read on the comments of the amex card website it has happened. Dont remember which card i was reading about.

[Open123]

I've never seen this either, whether it's Amex or any other issuer.

[zarteycranford]

Amex seems to be getting a litlle strange these days.

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

In my extended fun with Amex saga:  using a new Blue Cash card and a few charges kept failing.  I was expecting fraud alerts or account locked indications somewhere but nothing.   I called and they told me that there was an alert on the account, and the basic member should call.  And "probably" no charge would go through.   Though in fact they did!  After calling, everything worked.

Is charges being declined without any indication normal?  I've never seen that before.

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That's right, keep playing with the piranha...

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

In my extended fun with Amex saga:  using a new Blue Cash card and a few charges kept failing.  I was expecting fraud alerts or account locked indications somewhere but nothing.   I called and they told me that there was an alert on the account, and the basic member should call.  And "probably" no charge would go through.   Though in fact they did!  After calling, everything worked.

Is charges being declined without any indication normal?  I've never seen that before.

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That's right, keep playing with the piranha...

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I'm actually being good.   Well, not good, but not too bad!   Being shutdown without further consequences is a bad learning experience....    They closed my $50K card, but since then Amex have given me $29K new credit, and NASA gave me $30K and I even got a 2K increase from Cap One so ahead of the game!

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

In my extended fun with Amex saga:  using a new Blue Cash card and a few charges kept failing.  I was expecting fraud alerts or account locked indications somewhere but nothing.   I called and they told me that there was an alert on the account, and the basic member should call.  And "probably" no charge would go through.   Though in fact they did!  After calling, everything worked.

Is charges being declined without any indication normal?  I've never seen that before.

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That's right, keep playing with the piranha...

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I'm actually being good.   Well, not good, but not too bad!   Being shutdown without further consequences is a bad learning experience....    They closed my $50K card, but since then Amex have given me $29K new credit, and NASA gave me $30K and I even got a 2K increase from Cap One so ahead of the game!

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Amex is finding out what history has proven before: those darn Brits are tough to kill...

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

In my extended fun with Amex saga:  using a new Blue Cash card and a few charges kept failing.  I was expecting fraud alerts or account locked indications somewhere but nothing.   I called and they told me that there was an alert on the account, and the basic member should call.  And "probably" no charge would go through.   Though in fact they did!  After calling, everything worked.

Is charges being declined without any indication normal?  I've never seen that before.

---

That's right, keep playing with the piranha...

---

I'm actually being good.   Well, not good, but not too bad!   Being shutdown without further consequences is a bad learning experience....    They closed my $50K card, but since then Amex have given me $29K new credit, and NASA gave me $30K and I even got a 2K increase from Cap One so ahead of the game!

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You apped a new BC card?!

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

In my extended fun with Amex saga:  using a new Blue Cash card and a few charges kept failing.  I was expecting fraud alerts or account locked indications somewhere but nothing.   I called and they told me that there was an alert on the account, and the basic member should call.  And "probably" no charge would go through.   Though in fact they did!  After calling, everything worked.

Is charges being declined without any indication normal?  I've never seen that before.

---

That's right, keep playing with the piranha...

---

I'm actually being good.   Well, not good, but not too bad!   Being shutdown without further consequences is a bad learning experience....    They closed my $50K card, but since then Amex have given me $29K new credit, and NASA gave me $30K and I even got a 2K increase from Cap One so ahead of the game!

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You apped a new BC card?!

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No, got a different Amex card.  Using my wife's BC though.

Must say, securiy is heavier than I remember.  When my wife had to call Account Security, they insisted on calling her back.  Fine, but since we can change the contact number easily enough, this is just feel-good security!

[NRB525]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

In my extended fun with Amex saga:  using a new Blue Cash card and a few charges kept failing.  I was expecting fraud alerts or account locked indications somewhere but nothing.   I called and they told me that there was an alert on the account, and the basic member should call.  And "probably" no charge would go through.   Though in fact they did!  After calling, everything worked.

Is charges being declined without any indication normal?  I've never seen that before.

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On the AMEX site, you can set up various fraud alerts for your card, and have them texted to your phone. Card Not Present, certain merchant situations, you get an instant text so that gives an indication when AMEX sees certain charges. It tells you to call the number on the card if it isn't appropriate, but it is a good feedback loop from AMEX. Usually these things build over time.

I also had set up another card with monitoring, and during a slew of small charges one day, got a text to confirm Y or N if the charges were mine. A Y reply was all that was needed.