topic Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement? in Credit Cards

AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 16:03:35 GMT

Hi All,

I have/had two American Express cards, the Delta Reserve and Bonvoy Brilliant. I received a call stating that both of my cards have been canceled because a payment was returned. I switched checking accounts and stupidly made the payment out of the wrong one. I can’t believe they would cancel for this!

I have spent over 40K this pst year across both cards. They stated that once I paid off the balances ($700 and $6500 respectively) I could apply for reinstatement.

What does this process look like? Do they pull your credit again for this? I’m beyond frustrated! Thanks!

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 16:24:06 GMT

In remembering several different postings across the MyFico Forum for the last year ... it seems like lenders are less understanding, flexible or forgiving on payments not made in conformance to their payment standards and requirements.

Don't know if it is a sign of the times such as a slowing economy or higher rate of consumer debt? Really seems like there is more tightening up in the credit market place! Or, at least in my readings of the forum.

Wish you every success as it can happen to any of us!

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

Meanmchine — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 16:27:42 GMT

Good luck OP

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 18:03:07 GMT

AMEX will try to pull a payment three times, a day or two apart, before marking a payment returned.

Your bank should have notified you in some way of those three attempts -- and after the first one, you can usually ACH a payment into the proper account, and not get bounce fees from your bank, or a returned concern, on the AMEX side.

I had this same problem, called AMEX, and that's when they told me about the three try process and I was able to heal -- so by actually getting a returned payment may suggest to AMEX there was no attempt at a quick remedy after the first bank notification of the bounced payment.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 18:49:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
In remembering several different postings across the MyFico Forum for the last year ... it seems like lenders are less understanding, flexible or forgiving on payments not made in conformance to their payment standards and requirements.

Don't know if it is a sign of the times such as a slowing economy or higher rate of consumer debt? Really seems like there is more tightening up in the credit market place! Or, at least in my readings of the forum.

Wish you every success as it can happen to any of us!

I think that returned payments have been a trigger for closure for a long time, worse than a late. I would guess it's experience based, for every honest mistake like this, there are many more examples where it goes into default.

A while back I had a counter-example from Amex. I had used a VERY old bank account, so old that it apparently no longer existed in the banking system after a set of acquisitions, and so Amex didn't view it as a returned payment, just something that they couldn't use. They told me to fix it or lose online PAYMENT ability (not charging!) But this seems tougher.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

VPExecutive — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 19:01:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
In remembering several different postings across the MyFico Forum for the last year ... it seems like lenders are less understanding, flexible or forgiving on payments not made in conformance to their payment standards and requirements.

Don't know if it is a sign of the times such as a slowing economy or higher rate of consumer debt? Really seems like there is more tightening up in the credit market place! Or, at least in my readings of the forum.

Wish you every success as it can happen to any of us!

The economy is doing just fine, the Dow is still at 28,500. AMEX just doesn't like returned payments. I've read people with the same issue on Flyertalk.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 19:33:10 GMT

Were you in good standing with Amex before this happened?

I had one occurrence of a returned payment (I submitted my payment a day early, before the direct deposit dropped into my account) with Amex maybe a month after I opened the account.

Fortunately, that's been my only issue with them and they didn't pursue any adverse actions against me.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

Remedios — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 19:34:51 GMT

No lender likes a returned payment. It could be an honest mistake or insufficient funds.
Bigger issue with this is that your available balance with Amex is restored immediately, so you could in theory do even more damage if fraud was the intent.

With that said, at least with them there is a possibility of restoring accounts. I would not have them wait for their money too long.

My dyslexia primarily manifests with transposing numbers. I'm capable of transposing a single digit 😐
I hit a snag once because of it, my account was not closed by the lender, but I was certainly put in a naughty chair for a while.

I've never manually entered account numbers since (copy and paste from banking website only), and being as absent minded as I am, I only keep one payment account per card.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

Loquat — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 00:23:31 GMT

@Remedios I used to have the same paranoid feeling when entering my bank info into a lenders system. Finally made the decision to just use bill pay from my bank and push all of my payments as to not have to worry about a payment being returned. I have auto pay set up with all of my cards just in case there is a chance that I forget to push a payment.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 01:06:32 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
My dyslexia primarily manifests with transposing numbers. I'm capable of transposing a single digit 😐
I hit a snag once because of it, my account was not closed by the lender, but I was certainly put in a naughty chair for a while.

I've never manually entered account numbers since (copy and paste from banking website only), and being as absent minded as I am, I only keep one payment account per card.

That's me sometimes. I don't have it as bad as some, but it does cause issues from time to time. Which is why I always confirm the numbers 2-3 times. If I'm unable to utilize copy & paste method.

Fortunately I haven't ever had any issues, well until recently with cap 1. But I don't count that Blank, I couldn't care less if they closed my Walmart card. But if I ever did have in instance like OP, over simple mistake and couldn't get a satisfactory resolution. I'll simply go back to mailing them checks and see how they like that! Because I know those will go through every time, nothing to screw up.

I can understand AA for someone who consistently pays late or has multiple returned payments. But for those who've never had a problem for the life of the account? Just like they dont need my business, I dont need their CC. So we can part ways anytime.

That said, I would miss the points etc.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

sperrin — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 15:20:36 GMT

Same thing happened to me in 2018. Moved to another state and switched banks -- had autopay set up on my Delta Platinum and the payment was denied. Amex canceled my account and refused to reinstate it. Sent in countless documents showing funds being transferred from one checking account to the other and how one account was closed -- still refused. No call, no email. The only reason I found out was from an alert on my Apple Pay that a card had been removed.

I didn't receive any negative remarks on my CR, as my account never went 30 days late.. but it still shows "closed my creditor" on my report. Kind of crazy considering it was my go-to card at the time and I also hold a gold card. Never a late payment and always paid in full. Totally bizarre on their end.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

sjt — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:06:14 GMT

Call Amex and explain the situation.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

TheBoondocks — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 19:44:15 GMT

That's odd, I've been with AMEX for 4 years now and I've been doing a lot of refunds recently but never had they closed my account. Maybe cause I have the 3rd party issue me the refund but I know the lenders don't like refunds so I don't think it would help either way. But, I think maybe because of spend rate is too high, not sure.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

K-in-Boston — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 19:48:28 GMT

@TheBoondocks wrote:
That's odd, I've been with AMEX for 4 years now and I've been doing a lot of refunds recently but never had they closed my account. Maybe cause I have the 3rd party issue me the refund but I know the lenders don't like refunds so I don't think it would help either way. But, I think maybe because of spend rate is too high, not sure.

OP had payments returned because the bank account set up for autopay was either closed or had insufficient funds to cover the payments as they had changed banks. Merchant refunds won't typically be an issue unless they are excessive and rewards fraud or money laundering is suspected.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

TheBoondocks — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 19:55:12 GMT

Oh okay, yeah I heard like if you have a bounced check regardless of whether you know or not, they could close your account but this isn't about that either, that sucks tho. I usually do manual payments anyway.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

CreditobsessedinFL — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 13:27:47 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
No lender likes a returned payment. It could be an honest mistake or insufficient funds.
Bigger issue with this is that your available balance with Amex is restored immediately, so you could in theory do even more damage if fraud was the intent.

With that said, at least with them there is a possibility of restoring accounts. I would not have them wait for their money too long.

My dyslexia primarily manifests with transposing numbers. I'm capable of transposing a single digit 😐
I hit a snag once because of it, my account was not closed by the lender, but I was certainly put in a naughty chair for a while.

I've never manually entered account numbers since (copy and paste from banking website only), and being as absent minded as I am, I only keep one payment account per card.

@Remedios , thank you for your honesty and full disclosure above. I also read a response from @Gmood1 some time ago regarding a similar issue and it made me feel so much better. If it can happen to seasoned credit warriors, then it can happen to us newbies as well.
I accidentally transposed one of the numerals in my checking account number for my BB+T card payment a month or so ago and thankfully they didn't AA me for it (so far) AND they still allowed me to receive the second card I was approved for, just days before, in spite of it. Their system requires you to enter the account number EACH and every time, so I am never doing it again and I am not allowed to call in a payment for 90 days because of it as well. I have autopay set up, but I jumped the gun, at 1130pm and tried to enter the payment manually instead.
Lesson learned, I will push the payment or continue to pay cash at the drive thru; trying to just keep a VERY low profile for a long time.
I didn't even try to get the $27.00 late fee taken off, which occurred because even though I paid well in advance, it took their system that long to return the payment which then caused the late charge, for that same day, but I didn't want to draw any more attention to the issue by disputing it.
thank goodness for Truebill, it alerted me as soon as the late fee hit!

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

sperrin — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 16:30:40 GMT

Called amex and went through multiple channels. Sent over documentation about the closed bank account and the new account along with the transferring of funds. They still denied the reopening.

It's absolutely my fault for not realizing I hadn't changed my autopay over. Just unfortunate that after all the trouble, phone calls, documentation being faxed over from both banks with their letter head, etc that they wouldn't do something to resolve the issue and reinstate the account. Ended up just reapplying a month or so later for the same card -- new history, new tradeline.

Needless to say, like others have mentioned, American Express does not take lightly to returned or denied payments and won't email you or contact you if there are issues --No matter what your history or current standing with other accounts is.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

sperrin — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 16:31:15 GMT

The issue was never refunds.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

Trikoret — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 18:48:11 GMT

I'm surprised they closed your account from one bad payment especially if you had an excellent payment history. It's like closing someone's account for forgetting to make a payment. I remember my cousin payment bounced cause he forgot to update Amex with new bank account. One call to Amex and it got fixed. He's still using his business card. He puts anywhere between 200k-300k a month.

Re: AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

sperrin — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 19:02:39 GMT

Ha. Maybe it's because I'm not putting around $3.5M through my personal card annually 😂. But yes, it's unfortunate.