Brand newbie here. But, have been perusing this thread and others re: AMEX FR, as I have just begun the FR process and thought my experience could be useful. (became aware of FR on 3/28/16)
I have 4 AMEX accounts; BCE/PRG/HHonors/Biz Plat with ages of 3 years/2 years/1 year/6 months respectively. CL's are $10k/NPSL/$30k/NPSL. On both the NPSL charge cards, I have peeked at the "check charge limit" button a time or two for giggles and have plugged in over $50k with an ok-to-go from AMEX. My spending habits are $100/$3500/$0/$6000-$10000 monthly on each respective card. And FWIW there were balances of $4500 and $5500 on the PRG and Biz Plat when the FR was initiated. Both payments where due in over ten days. I went ahead and paid them the day the FR started just cause I felt like it, but neither were near the due date. I have never had a late/incomplete payment. Ever, on any account, AMEX or otherwise.
As with nearly all experiences I have read about, I was NOT notified in advance of the FR, but instead became aware when my wife tried to make a purchase of about $1400 on the Biz Plat and it was denied. Actually, because most of our product comes from suppliers in Asia I assumed this was a fraud-flag initially as this happens about 1/3 of the time and is cleared up with a 2-3 minute phone call to authorize the charge....no biggie. Well, both of us sat on hold for over thirty minutes and when I finally got through it was to the FR Department and when my first complaint was the long hold time, they explained that was due to my call being flagged and routed to the FR Dept, and that this was a much smaller dept. w/longer hold times. Great! The gal I spoke with was nice enough...firm but not mean and told me she would email me the instructions to fill out a 4506T and that I had until 4/11/16 to do so.
This is important: SHE ACTUALLY TOLD ME THAT THE FR WAS DUE TO MY AUTH. USER (MY WIFE) MAKING THE BULK OF THE SPENDS ON THAT CREDIT LINE...AND NOT ME, THE PRIMARY CARDHOLDER. IT WAS NOT DUE TO TOTAL SPENDING, CHANGE IN HABITS, A PARTICULAR CHARGE, ETC. I JUST WANT TO EMPHASIZE THIS AS I HAVE NOT SEEN THIS POSTED AS A REASON FOR FR BEFORE.
Ok, no big deal on my end. The Biz Plat is for our sole-proprietorship business, which is online retail clothing boutique (children's clothing). Business is 5 years old, we file taxes (Schedule C on 1040), make good money doing it. Everything is totally legit in terms of; "should we have a biz card".
I will clarify this because I posted the same on another forum and this was commented;
“You describe your business as a Sole Proprietorship, but one person applied for the card while another person is reporting the income. I don't know if American Express will care about this if you are filing a joint tax return. (I don't know that they will even be able to see it on the transcript.)”
And my response;
I misspoke as we consider our biz a "joint venture"...essentially a sole proprietorship shared by two married people. We meet all of the requirements AND live in a community property state. (CA) In fact, I actually asked our family accountant before applying for the card which business designation I should select and she told me that based on the option given by AMEX that sole proprietorship was the most accurate.
Also just as an FYI, on the tax transcript that AMEX will be seeing there is no designation of who earned what $....meaning the transcript does not break down who made want amount of wages and tips and who made what amount of self employment income listed on the schedule c. I think this is specific to a joint filing.
So, AMEX may philosophically care if the biz income is attached to my wife's SSN but I applied for the card, but they would never be able to establish that as an issue from the transcript alone.
For reference, here is an IRS document which outlines the requirements for spouses to jointly operate a Sole Proprietorship:
https://www.irs.gov/Help-&-Resources...ities/Entities
I explain to the gal that my wife runs the day-to-day ops of the business, as I have a full-time job for another employer and that is why her card is attached to our suppliers for product, shipping, etc. I think this should clear this up right? Nope. The FR is in play so they need the tax transcript "or else". She actually gets nicer at this point and says that this is just to verify income which is never really done at the time of the app and that if it matches we are good to go. If it doesn't match, we will have issues with reduced CL's and or cancelled cards. But, she actually says that "The word cancel is not what I want to leave you with, and we just want to verify income and continue the partnership we have had the last few years." Ok, I like that.
What I don't like; that they freeze all your accounts. This is ridiculous and unwarranted IMHO if you have a good (perfect) payment history. I use my personal PRG basically as a debit card (Over $40k run through in 2015) always PIF in advance of the statement closing in most cases. And now she is telling me I can't use that to buy a sandwich and get my car washed at lunch. **bleep**?! That is ridiculous.
I sent in the 4506T within hours (uploaded digitally using their site). I could care less about sharing this info. You might not care either if you have ever seen what the Tax Transcript looks like. We recently had a look at ours due to taking out a new mortgage in Sept. of 2015 so there is nothing there but the facts of what you filed for income-wise. I actually feel like it is well within AMEX rights/interests to verify this as they are literally extending me anywhere from like $8k-$20k on a monthly basis. If it were one of my vendors, you can bet I would ask them for a credit app & references!
So, I sent that 4506T in Monday 3/28 around 2pm PST. I have called both yesterday morning and this morning to verify they have it but after waiting on hold and getting the message that they will "call me when the documents are in", I have given up both times on talking to a real person.
One other detail; I used an income of $115k when applying for the Biz Plat which is the card that triggered the FR and was the last card opened. That $115k is what is listed in my financial profile on the AMEX website as well so I am assuming that is the number they want to see on the tax transcript. The kicker here is that that actual AGI on my taxes is $173k. I was unaware of the new regulations allowing me to claim my wife's income as part of my "total household income" (all of our biz income goes through her SSN) when applying for a CC so I just used my REAL income from my day-job. Now in light of those new rules and the fact we file a joint 1040 with Schedule C, it appears to me like AMEX may be pleasantly surprised by my tax transcript. Will I get an apology? Wishful thinking I'm sure.
I will update when anything happens. As of now; 11:30am PST 3/30/16 there have been no updates from AMEX. I really wish they would get this done by Friday. We have already had to shift about $2500 in Biz expenses to another card which sucks but isn't nearly the PITA that it will be when I need to deal with all the auto payments I have set up on my personal PRG start dinging that card in the first week of the month (State Farm, DirecTV, Utilities, etc)
Also, FWIW I ran the numbers and the "bulk" of the charging being done by my AU (wife) that caused AMEX to start the FR was about 62% of the charges YTD vs my card doing 38%. This seems awful picky to me. Also given that is obvious that the AU is a relation based on our names.....
;
