You may have not lost all your MR points just yet. Do you fly Delta or are a member of a hotel loyalty program like Hilton? You may be able to transfer them to those places.
65k MR points would be sad to lose.
I am understanding that the card is suspended pending FR? If so, I think your options are:
1) Take the FR. They will look at past tax transcripts. So if 2011 doesn't match because of new business, then try to explain it. Worse case, they put limit on card I would think.
2) Close the card yourself and refuse the FR. In January (max backdating and time for late to age or GW off), app for AMEX charge card. FR flag isn't during the approval process. But expect an immediate FR upon card activation. This time your income will match your app's stated income so no problem. You'll end up better off than before as you can probably get a signup bonus and a card with max backdating.
LIMITS IN CARD DESCRIPTIONS
@llecs wrote:I saw it coming and I'm not surprised. Amex shut down my Green over the weekend.
I tried to settle a Sheraton bill and was declined (thankfully I ALWAYS carry cash to match any CC purchase). I called and the CSR hinted that it was a FR, though within a couple hours of the call their website said the CC was closed. Why? They didn't say yet, but a couple of months ago a 30-day late appeared on my CR. It's legit. But a new 30-day on a pristine report dropped my 2 FICOs 60-75 points. Aside from the late, my spending on the CC peaked around $10k-$12k/mo, with a stated income from the last FR at less than $120k. I had been using it for biz purchases which is a no-no with Amex. I bought a business this past year and cut my income to support that, so a FR would have been bad news anyway with 30% less showing on the 1040 for 2011.
I'll get everything back in order and maybe a couple of years down the road they'll let me back in the fray. BTW, I lost 65k in points.
Sorry to hear llecs....
Was the 30 day an accidnt? If it was I would GW it immediately.
@llecs wrote:I saw it coming and I'm not surprised. Amex shut down my Green over the weekend.
I tried to settle a Sheraton bill and was declined (thankfully I ALWAYS carry cash to match any CC purchase). I called and the CSR hinted that it was a FR, though within a couple hours of the call their website said the CC was closed. Why? They didn't say yet, but a couple of months ago a 30-day late appeared on my CR. It's legit. But a new 30-day on a pristine report dropped my 2 FICOs 60-75 points. Aside from the late, my spending on the CC peaked around $10k-$12k/mo, with a stated income from the last FR at less than $120k. I had been using it for biz purchases which is a no-no with Amex. I bought a business this past year and cut my income to support that, so a FR would have been bad news anyway with 30% less showing on the 1040 for 2011.
I'll get everything back in order and maybe a couple of years down the road they'll let me back in the fray. BTW, I lost 65k in points.
Sorry to hear that llcs.
I know that Amex's agreements with merchants requires that the merchants not use their Amex card to buy things from themselves. Your post suggests that they may not like people to use it to purchase products for use in a business. While there is no restriction in the cardholder agreement it certainly could be internally flagged as riskier. I don't know. I do know that my singularly large Amex charge was clearly equipment intended almost soley for B to B purchases. They didn't call or treat it any differently but that's just my experience.
Could those with experience buying or getting FRed from buying biz stuff chime in? This is new to me. A good percentage of my future large purchases will appear to be biz related even though I'm retired.
I don't think it is really a big deal to use personal CCs including Amex for business expenses. The danger comes when the amount spent overshadows the stated income because of business expenses. It is common for many companies to require employees to bill expenses on personal cards and get reimbursed later.
@Crashem wrote:I don't think it is really a big deal to use personal CCs including Amex for business expenses. The danger comes when the amount spent overshadows the stated income because of business expenses. It is common for many companies to require employees to bill expenses on personal cards and get reimbursed later.
T&E expenses are certainly their spend centric bread and butter but do they treat, say, purchases of biz hardware or software differently? I do a lot of that. Much more than T&E.
@cashnocredit wrote:
@Crashem wrote:I don't think it is really a big deal to use personal CCs including Amex for business expenses. The danger comes when the amount spent overshadows the stated income because of business expenses. It is common for many companies to require employees to bill expenses on personal cards and get reimbursed later.
T&E expenses are certainly their spend centric bread and butter but do they treat, say, purchases of biz hardware or software differently? I do a lot of that. Much more than T&E.
I doubt their computers are really paying attention to category of expenses but who knows. I have bought hardware/software/and other crap for work on AMEX before. Hell I pay 30k media bills frequently. I think it is all about your income to use of card that is the main trigger for FR. If you are charging 50k a month and have stated income of 120k a year, I would expect a FR at some point. Even if your income can support your spend level, I can see the AMEX computers getting nervous if you suddenly start spending a lot more on card. Like I said earlier or on another thread, the FR and AAs by Amex are the flip side of the aggressive ability to increase expenditures on the AMEX charge card. While they may quickly trust you with a lot more limit, the "other FR computer" may suddenly want to verify what you said earlier about how much you make is true.
@Crashem wrote:
@cashnocredit wrote:
@Crashem wrote:I don't think it is really a big deal to use personal CCs including Amex for business expenses. The danger comes when the amount spent overshadows the stated income because of business expenses. It is common for many companies to require employees to bill expenses on personal cards and get reimbursed later.
T&E expenses are certainly their spend centric bread and butter but do they treat, say, purchases of biz hardware or software differently? I do a lot of that. Much more than T&E.I doubt their computers are really paying attention to category of expenses but who knows. I have bought hardware/software/and other crap for work on AMEX before. Hell I pay 30k media bills frequently. I think it is all about your income to use of card that is the main trigger for FR. If you are charging 50k a month and have stated income of 120k a year, I would expect a FR at some point. Even if your income can support your spend level, I can see the AMEX computers getting nervous if you suddenly start spending a lot more on card. Like I said earlier or on another thread, the FR and AAs by Amex are the flip side of the aggressive ability to increase expenditures on the AMEX charge card. While they may quickly trust you with a lot more limit, the "other FR computer" may suddenly want to verify what you said earlier about how much you make is true.
Your reasoning makes a lot of sense. Since I'm retired, and have no prior employment listed on my CRs and my CRA files are relatively thin, Amex really has no way of knowing how much I make. Even so I have been able to make some pretty large charges (not quite 30k though) and haven't had the card a long time. I do suspect that the places I use my card are not associated with default risk and are more highly associated with discretionary income.
How's this for an possible risk flag? The amount (percentage) of tips one charges. Amex seperates these out. My other CCs don't. That seemingly innocent item could well be a part of their "secret sauce." It's likely far more complex than that. They have a huge database to cull stats from and an equally huge incentive to do so.
In the meantime, I love them and the fact I've run into zero issues charging whatever I need to. In the past, for some of the larger charges, I probably would have had to call the bank and have them wire money and that still can take 24 hours.