topic Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam? in Credit Cards

AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

bangkokkid — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 03:50:27 GMT

Hi all,

Long-time lurker and first-time poster here.

Had a falling out with a business partner a few years ago which left me with some signficant business debt that I had charged to my personal cards. I have been able to pay down all my revolving cards but I never was able to pay off my AMEX Platinum in one shot and it has since slipped into a charge-off status.

My relationship with AMEX was pretty signficant with high spend on a Gold card and then a PC change to Platinum. I never missed a payment and having read on the forums after the fact that AMEX frowns upon using personal cards for business I elected not to call them up and give them the run down as to why I wasn't able to pay. While nothing is guaranteed and having prioritized my revolving cards, I anticipated eventually receiving an Optima offer which would allow me to pay the balance off in 12 or 18 months and reestablish my relationship with AMEX.

This past week I received the Optima offer via email and called them up. The conversation went pretty much the same as other accounts on this forum have documented except the proposed limit on the Optima was actually pretty decent due to the balance owed. Out of left field, the AMEX rep then said he wanted to make me a seperate offer that would see me skip the Optima. He said if I could pay the balance off in full by the end of the month, AMEX would guarantee my Platinum would be reinstanted meaning the account would return to a paid status with the original date the account was opened intact. The caveat besides having to pay the account off in one shot is that the card would have a limit of $3700 as also documented elsewhere here and NBD as I don't need the credit. As a small business owner, I wasn't expecting having to pull that kind of cash together by the end of the month but I think I can do it. I was also able to get the rep to commit to a worse case scenario that would allow me to pay 60-70% of the balance this month and the rest by the end of September.

I write this to first document my experience here but also ask if this is legit. Email correspondence has come from services@credit.americanexpress.com and the enrollment confirmation email I received has a couple of typos in it. The number I spoke with AMEX on is (866) 577-4218 and the one listed on the latest email is (866) 205-4559. The rep sounded foreign and he patched a manager in at one point who sounded foreign as well.

While I of course hope this is legit, I could also see this being a sophisticated scam. They asked for tons of personal information (social, mailing address, and bank account) over the phone.

Thanks in advance for reading and any input!

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 03:57:31 GMT

Sounds legit

You can call Amex from their customer service number listed on the site, as well, if you don't trust the info provided

They do let people skip Optima/Oasis at their discretion, reinstating old accounts

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 04:25:32 GMT

If you Google that second number, it brings up posts about AMEX Optima cards. Definitely seems legit.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

sxa001 — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 04:25:32 GMT

Outside of the typos in the original email it does sound legit. AMEX doesn't use all on-shore CSRs like Discover and a few others, so having a "foreign sounding" rep doesn't mean fraud; however, when dealing with that kind of money I would probably call and verify. See https://www.americanexpress.com/us/security-center/types-of-fraud/.

It is a good deal, if it is completely legit and you can get the money together, getting back with AMEX would be a good thing for sure.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

NRB525 — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 08:11:31 GMT

Congrats on your offers to get your Platinum card back.
Kudos for paying back the charged-off amounts.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

bangkokkid — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 19:30:00 GMT

Thanks everyone for the input, I will be moving forward with this offer full steam ahead.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

randomguy1 — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 23:51:45 GMT

I would get your verbal offer in writing. My friend received a verbal offer like this on his Platinum he was behind on and they have not reinstated his card despite paying him back. It's a very close friend so I trust him without a doubt.

It never hurts to get this in writing. Good luck.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

bangkokkid — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 01:30:02 GMT

Hi there, I received an email confimirming the offer a couple days after the phone call. The email (link here) doesn't really have any specifics regarding the "deal" and is missing the pay-by-date despite referencing it twice. I guess an oversight.

It's not as good as a letter in the mail, but it came from the same address as the Optima offer. I was told that it would take 4 to 8 weeks from payment received to reinstatement. Why it takes that long, not sure.

Will document everything from beginning to end, I'm looking to make the payment this week well before the end of the month.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 01:30:32 GMT

I was in a similar situation about 10 years ago with a Platinum card. They sent me an offer to repay the balance over 12 months and then reinstate the account. They did exactly that but I did end up with a Platinum card with a $500 spending limit for a while. Eventually that limit was removed, I think it was based on credit scoring.

I wasn't exactly on top of the exact credit reporting details at that time, but looking back it seems like they removed all the negative history associated with that account. I can pull old reports from Credit Karma and can't seem to find so much as a late payment.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

bangkokkid — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 01:37:52 GMT

I pushed for a 6 or 12 month payment period like they were offering with the Optima but the rep insisted on it being resolved by the end of this month or a signficant payment occuring before the end of August with the balance paid in September. Good negotiating on their part I suppose!

As for the limit, the rep said it would be $3700, better than $500 but not exactly stellar. I do recall that a month or two into originally PCing to the card AMEX put a hard $5500 limit on the account which was lifted exactly 6 months later to NPSL. Could see this being a similar thing.

Really, the reporting is why I'm doing it. Right now AMEX is posting no payment history whatsoever on the account, it's just blank and says the account is closed. If they bring it back and mark everything as current/on-time that would be incredible.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

Aallmo — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 11:15:37 GMT

I am actually on the backend of this reinstatement process. My business Amex went into their collections sometime last year. I starting paying on it slowly. They gave me the same option to reinstate the same platinum card instead of the optima once it was paid in full. I paid it off about 3 weeks later my new card came and the points were reinstated. Also after some time Amex started reporting my business card on my personal credit. I told them I would agree to the repayment plan if they agreed to remove the tradeline from my personal credit. I did not get it in writing but I made sure my collection rep conferences in the credit department and they told me on a recording call. I called about a week ago and told them it was still on my credit. I was informed it would one off this month when my statement closes. But to answer your original posts as far as my reinstatement they've done everything as they stated.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

bangkokkid — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 22:57:04 GMT

Good to know, thank you!

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 05:25:42 GMT

Definitely legit.

I went through the same process as Amex shut down my four Amex cards: Business Platinum, Personal Platinum, BCE and Delta Platinum, when a payment was returned unpaid by my bank due to an unforeseen hold on deposits in 09-2018. I had a combined balance at the time close to 40K. I could not pay that balance in full with no ability to charge back, especially on the Plat business card, and was making monthly payments when I received the offer. I finally paid off the balance on 07-27. A couple of weeks later, I called the reinstatement number on the posts, the representatives had no clue of the program, and stated the payment had to be completed within 90 days. I felt the offer might have been a gimmick from Amex to get all the monies due. However, out of the blue, I just received a call this week from an Amex rep. She introduced herself and stated she was calling regarding reinstatement of my platinum business card, with a 7800 limit. After verifying my info, dob, ssn, address, business info, she confirmed I will receive a replacement card within the next 7 to 10 days. Long details here but wanted to shed some light and my own experience. I am extatic for being back in!!!

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

K-in-Boston — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 11:34:40 GMT

@bangkokkid wrote:
I pushed for a 6 or 12 month payment period like they were offering with the Optima but the rep insisted on it being resolved by the end of this month or a signficant payment occuring before the end of August with the balance paid in September. Good negotiating on their part I suppose!

As for the limit, the rep said it would be $3700, better than $500 but not exactly stellar. I do recall that a month or two into originally PCing to the card AMEX put a hard $5500 limit on the account which was lifted exactly 6 months later to NPSL. Could see this being a similar thing.

Really, the reporting is why I'm doing it. Right now AMEX is posting no payment history whatsoever on the account, it's just blank and says the account is closed. If they bring it back and mark everything as current/on-time that would be incredible.

The $3700 makes sense for a hard limit as it's also the lowest approval amount for the Delta Reserve Card, which has the same annual fee as The Platinum Card.

Really would be great if everything reports as though it was never closed and it's nice to not have to do the Optima dance and wait, wait, wait. As for NPSL being reinstated, that's handled by a department that does not take requests. Could be as early as 6 months, or could be much longer to have the hard limit removed or at least increased.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 23:15:55 GMT

Hello

my American Express platinum,I fell behind on my payments so they closed account and it's on charge off, I have paid off the charge off already I don't know if I can reinstate the account? Pay the charge off right through American Express. If I can reinstate the account how can I?

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

sjt — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 20:31:23 GMT

It's legit. Take it!

Amex has recently been making these types of offers.

After a year of good payments and an increase in your overall credit profile, they will lift your spending limit to NPSL. When they re-open the charged off credit line, chances are they will remove the "charge off" and replace (if that) with 150 day late, which is much better than a charge off.

Re: AMEX Platinum Reinstatement Offer or Scam?

sjt — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 20:32:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello
my American Express platinum,I fell behind on my payments so they closed account and it's on charge off, I have paid off the charge off already I don't know if I can reinstate the account? Pay the charge off right through American Express. If I can reinstate the account how can I?

If you paid them back in full, call their Global Collection Department and see if you can get it reinstated.