topic Re: Amex financial review and account closures in Credit Cards

Amex financial review and account closures

xenon3030 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 20:18:09 GMT

The Amex financial review froze all my personal/business credit card accounts. They were quite inflexible and aggressive on the phone (possibly calling from Indian-based call centers). They gave a hard two-week deadline to provide external personal and business statements.

I personally advice to avoid providing such documents (personal or business), since it is none of their business. Here is my profile: Fico8~750, no missed payment, I have balance on a few cards that I plan to pay in a few days. I was their customer for over 10 years while they would miss me for a period of time. The only thing that I lost was 30k of personal credit line. I had financial review by other lenders in the past while none was freezing the accounts first, requesting such external documents, and they were giving 60 days of time to call back.

I have 0/24 inquiry and, in a week, or two, I will pay all my balances to bump up my Fico8 to 840. I would be in the market soon to shop some non-Amex cards. I may go for a few cards with high SUB and also high credit line to restore my net credit line (Chase, Elan Max, credit unions in the eBay area).

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

pizzadude — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 21:36:01 GMT

@xenon3030 wrote:
The Amex financial review froze all my personal/business credit card accounts. They were quite inflexible and aggressive on the phone (possibly calling from Indian-based call centers). They gave a hard two-week deadline to provide external personal and business statements.

I personally advice to avoid providing such documents (personal or business), since it is none of their business. Here is my profile: Fico8~750, no missed payment, I have balance on a few cards that I plan to pay in a few days. I was their customer for over 10 years while they would miss me for a period of time. The only thing that I lost was 30k of personal credit line. I had financial review by other lenders in the past while none was freezing the accounts first, requesting such external documents, and they were giving 60 days of time to call back.

I have 0/24 inquiry and, in a week, or two, I will pay all my balances to bump up my Fico8 to 840. I would be in the market soon to shop some non-Amex cards. I may go for a few cards with high SUB and also high credit line to restore my net credit line (Chase, Elan Max, credit unions in the eBay area).

What kind of balances were you carrying at the time, with AMEX and also your other creditors, when they FR'd you ?

You're planning to close your accounts rather than provide the requested documents to them ?

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

ElvisCaprice — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 22:29:50 GMT

@xenon3030 wrote:
The Amex financial review froze all my personal/business credit card accounts. They were quite inflexible and aggressive on the phone (possibly calling from Indian-based call centers). They gave a hard two-week deadline to provide external personal and business statements.

I personally advice to avoid providing such documents (personal or business), since it is none of their business. Here is my profile: Fico8~750, no missed payment, I have balance on a few cards that I plan to pay in a few days. I was their customer for over 10 years while they would miss me for a period of time. The only thing that I lost was 30k of personal credit line. I had financial review by other lenders in the past while none was freezing the accounts first, requesting such external documents, and they were giving 60 days of time to call back.

I have 0/24 inquiry and, in a week, or two, I will pay all my balances to bump up my Fico8 to 840. I would be in the market soon to shop some non-Amex cards. I may go for a few cards with high SUB and also high credit line to restore my net credit line (Chase, Elan Max, credit unions in the eBay area).

How do you get from a Fico8 score of 750 bump to 840??? What spooked AMEX to do a FR? Yeah, if your not going to do the review and don't need/use the AMEX accounts, close them. You must have some heavy utilization going on, currently?

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

xenon3030 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 22:39:33 GMT

The Fico8 sinking is purely due to the utilization ratio and it would recover to ~840 (zero inquity in the past year, 0/24, no missed payment).

I have currently 0% BT on several cards and the utilization ratio on a few went >70% for two months on them. The net utilization ratio is for the moment ~30%. "Coninuing to do the minimum payment for some credit cards" got flagged by the Amex financial review and they mentioned it in the call.

Interestinly, I was not carrying balance on Amex cards. Not interested to see further AA by the other lenders. So, I am paying down all cards in a few days.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

pizzadude — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 23:41:19 GMT

@xenon3030 wrote:
The Fico8 sinking is purely due to the utilization ratio and it would recover to ~840 (zero inquity in the past year, 0/24, no missed payment).

I have currently 0% BT on several cards and the utilization ratio on a few went >70% for two months on them. The net utilization ratio is for the moment ~30%. "Coninuing to do the minimum payment for some credit cards" got flagged by the Amex financial review and they mentioned it in the call.

Interestinly, I was not carrying balance on Amex cards. Not interested to see further AA by the other lenders. So, I am paying down all cards in a few days.

Guessing they saw you as nearly maxed out for having several ( 3 or more?? ) of your non-AMEX cards hitting north of 70% utilization ?

How much $$ were your balances on those BT / 0% cards with other lenders ?

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

xenon3030 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 23:51:02 GMT

@pizzadude wrote:
You're planning to close your accounts rather than provide the requested documents to them ?

I initially wanted to provide documents while I needed a few more days. On the phone, they said that the deadline cannot be extended and everything must be sent by the end of the day, otherwise all accounts would get closed. Not sure why they are so restricted and not sure why they freeze/shut down both personal and business accounts.

Anyway, it was a great learning for me and it was my first experience on these matters. From now, I would not provide any "excess external financial document" to any lender or institution. There are pleny of lenders in the town that would be happy to do business with customers.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

crystal626 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:16:17 GMT

Pretty crazy that they did an FR with your situation but I guess we can all expect more scrutiny as things continue to go south for those in the middle and lower classes. The banks want to make sure they're not going to get caught holding the bag.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

xenon3030 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:30:23 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
Pretty crazy that they did an FR with your situation but I guess we can all expect more scrutiny as things continue to go south for those in the middle and lower classes. The banks want to make sure they're not going to get caught holding the bag.

My guess is that they identify the mid-risk profiles early (e.g. Fico8 threshold of ~730, or high utilization for >2 months on a few cards). Then, they shut down the accounts, which results increasing the net utilization ratio of the user and it would result sinking the Fico8 easily below 700. Then, if the person would be in a difficult financial situation, more lenders would do AA (CLD or closure), and the person would be in the dog house for a while...

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

crystal626 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 01:32:28 GMT

@xenon3030 wrote:
@crystal626 wrote:
Pretty crazy that they did an FR with your situation but I guess we can all expect more scrutiny as things continue to go south for those in the middle and lower classes. The banks want to make sure they're not going to get caught holding the bag.
My guess is that they identify the mid-risk profiles early (e.g. Fico8 threshold of ~730, or high utilization for >2 months on a few cards). Then, they shut down the accounts, which results increasing the net utilization ratio of the user and it would result sinking the Fico8 easily below 700. Then, if the person would be in a difficult financial situation, more lenders would do AA (CLD or closure), and the person would be in the dog house for a while...

Yeah cascading AA was what happened during the 2008 meltdown too. One bank got stressed and then they all did and people were completely shut out of credit.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

Janneman — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 22:38:56 GMT

Account closure, Account review, credit limit decreased and demand of POI and bank statements can happen at any time and by all lenders and without giving any notice/warning to account holders. Its their money, thus they have the LEGAL right to ask whatever documents they seem relevant to their credit extending practice or to minimize their risk of losing money. One can not say that I will not provide this and that document because if you don't then you are not gonna get any loan/credit. Its the same that when you need a mortgage or car loan then you must need to provide every document/information to lenders if you do want the mortgage or car loan or personal loan; otherwise you will not get.

Keep it in mind that ALL lenders reserve the right to demand those documentations AT ANY TIME. However, not all lenders ask to provide any or all documents, though, but that doesn't mean that they can not ask. As we all know that most credit unions do ask for POI compared to big banks. And when we are talking about POI, then some lenders ask only for paystubs, while others do ask for tax returns....and some ask for W-2s....and some ask for bank statements......Further, some ask for two weeks paystubs, while other ask for 4 weeks' paystubs and some even ask for 3 months' paystubs.....Same goes to tax returns as some ask for last year's tax returns only; while some lenders ask for last 2 or 3 years tax returns...Same goes to W-2s and bank statments. Bottom line is- lenders can ask all the financial documents from you to decide their risk of lending the money to you. If you would choose not to provide anything they ask for then you should know that you will not get the money/loan/credit. Period.

It doesn't matter what your credit score is, or your payment history, income or whatever, because lenders can ask any info or document at any time. Another fact is FR sometimes happens randomly, but there are many factors which triggers FR such as very high utilization, opening many accounts at the same time....I mean most lenders especially bigger ones keep eyes on each and every account 24/7 like a Eagle. They have hired millions of people to keep close eyes on your credit reports 24/7. Many people who are having credit cards for the last few years have personally experienced all these like FR, CLD and closure of accounts.....We all been there, done that.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

dfwxjer — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 23:10:27 GMT

@xenon3030 wrote:
The Amex financial review froze all my personal/business credit card accounts. They were quite inflexible and aggressive on the phone (possibly calling from Indian-based call centers). They gave a hard two-week deadline to provide external personal and business statements.

I personally advice to avoid providing such documents (personal or business), since it is none of their business. Here is my profile: Fico8~750, no missed payment, I have balance on a few cards that I plan to pay in a few days. I was their customer for over 10 years while they would miss me for a period of time. The only thing that I lost was 30k of personal credit line. I had financial review by other lenders in the past while none was freezing the accounts first, requesting such external documents, and they were giving 60 days of time to call back.

I have 0/24 inquiry and, in a week, or two, I will pay all my balances to bump up my Fico8 to 840. I would be in the market soon to shop some non-Amex cards. I may go for a few cards with high SUB and also high credit line to restore my net credit line (Chase, Elan Max, credit unions in the eBay area).

Why the aversion to providing the requested documents? It's a pretty straight forward process unless you've overstated your income, or are facing financial issues that they're trying to catch.

Your financial situation is most certainly their business since they can see you have high utilization on other cards.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

xenon3030 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 23:43:45 GMT

@dfwxjer wrote:
Why the aversion to providing the requested documents?

We are absolutely not flexible to share the information of our customers (confidential and proprietary) to save a few Amex personal and business credit cards. So, they would miss us for a while.

I am looking for a few credit unions in the Bay area for both personal/business checking accounts and credit cards. There are plenty excellent ones such as Meriwest, StarOne, Patelco, Provident, etc.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

dfwxjer — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 01:34:47 GMT

Right... good luck.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

AndySoCal — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 01:53:51 GMT

@xenon3030 I looked at the credit unions you mentioned my two favorites are Star1 and Meriwest. Star1 decent savings rates and their Star 1 Signature Visa Credit Card has a 1.5% cash back this what caught my eye TSA Pre Check and Global Reentry for free. Meriwest has both Business and Personal accounts with average rates. Their credit cards are the Elan version of US Bank credit cards. Max Cash Preferred. Is the equivalent of Cash +. They also have a business credit card with rewards as well. I checked to see if I would eligible to join but both geofenced to northern California but I live in Southern California.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

xenon3030 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 02:37:20 GMT

@AndySoCal wrote:
@xenon3030 I looked at the credit unions you mentioned my two favorites are Star1 and Meriwest. Star1 decent savings rates and their Star 1 Signature Visa Credit Card has a 1.5% cash back this what caught my eye TSA Pre Check and Global Reentry for free. Meriwest has both Business and Personal accounts with average rates. Their credit cards are the Elan version of US Bank credit cards. Max Cash Preferred. Is the equivalent of Cash +. They also have a business credit card with rewards as well. I checked to see if I would eligible to join but both geofenced to northern California but I live in Southern California.

Thanks for double checking @AndySoCal. The 1.5% and 5% categories would make a large difference. Not sure why I did not find these gem stones earlier while all these credit unions were sitting within 2 miles from my home

Besides personal, I have two C Corp and LLC businesses and Amex would definitely miss me for a very long while

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

AndrewF — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 02:59:23 GMT

@xenon3030 wrote:
The Amex financial review froze all my personal/business credit card accounts. They were quite inflexible and aggressive on the phone (possibly calling from Indian-based call centers). They gave a hard two-week deadline to provide external personal and business statements.

I personally advice to avoid providing such documents (personal or business), since it is none of their business. Here is my profile: Fico8~750, no missed payment, I have balance on a few cards that I plan to pay in a few days. I was their customer for over 10 years while they would miss me for a period of time. The only thing that I lost was 30k of personal credit line. I had financial review by other lenders in the past while none was freezing the accounts first, requesting such external documents, and they were giving 60 days of time to call back.

I have 0/24 inquiry and, in a week, or two, I will pay all my balances to bump up my Fico8 to 840. I would be in the market soon to shop some non-Amex cards. I may go for a few cards with high SUB and also high credit line to restore my net credit line (Chase, Elan Max, credit unions in the eBay area).

When AmEx does a FR, they also freeze your cashback and MR accounts so you can't redeem them. If they conclude the review by closing your account, then they take the cash or MR points, except if you live in New York where the law requires them to give you 90 days to redeem them.

I advise never leaving a significant amount in a cashback/MR account, especially AmEx. Also, when you get your welcome bonuses in MR points, get rid of it immediately because those are a potential loss of a thousand dollars if they FR you at some point.

We have a Rewards Checking so we get 0.8 cpp on MR points. We don't really travel and I don't like holding gift cards because it makes you an unsecured creditor if the place goes under.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

xenon3030 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 03:09:34 GMT

@AndrewF wrote:
When AmEx does a FR, they also freeze your cashback and MR accounts so you can't redeem them. If they conclude the review by closing your account, then they take the cash or MR points, except if you live in New York where the law requires them to give you 90 days to redeem them.

I advise never leaving a significant amount in a cashback/MR account, especially AmEx. Also, when you get your welcome bonuses in MR points, get rid of it immediately because those are a potential loss of a thousand dollars if they FR you at some point.

Wise recommendation. The Amex FR team was very aggressive in freezing ALL. In the last day of FR deadline, I redeemed all points as statement credit. For my BCE card, the statement balance became negative and I used chat and aksed them to send me a check ($30). The check will arrive in a few days and I assume that I can deposit it in a checking account, even the origin Amex account would be closed at that time.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

pip3man — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 11:58:06 GMT

So it's their business to lend you their money but none of their business to wanna know your financial standing to accurately assess their risk in lending you money? Your logic is dumb and flawed. You claim you don't want to "expose your customer information" but what sensitive customer information could u be possibly exposing on your tax form. Cos as far as I know your business tax form does not contain any personally identifiable information of clients so what your claiming is nonexistent. If anything you're a higher risk of mishandling CPI than a corporation like AMEX with all the necessary controls and security. Bottom line - it sounds to me like you either overstated your income and can't back it up or got something to hide. Hiding behind the veil of "protecting information" as a reason for non compliance is an old tale well played out.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

redpat — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 14:38:43 GMT

@pip3man wrote:
So it's their business to lend you their money but none of their business to wanna know your financial standing to accurately assess their risk in lending you money? Your logic is dumb and flawed. You claim you don't want to "expose your customer information" but what sensitive customer information could u be possibly exposing on your tax form. Cos as far as I know your business tax form does not contain any personally identifiable information of clients so what your claiming is nonexistent. If anything you're a higher risk of mishandling CPI than a corporation like AMEX with all the necessary controls and security. Bottom line - it sounds to me like you either overstated your income and can't back it up or got something to hide. Hiding behind the veil of "protecting information" as a reason for non compliance is an old tale well played out.

I would agree w/ OP here. It's just a credit card and to have them be this evasive is a little much. They are famous for those FR inquires, glad they didn't bother me because I would have done the same.

We have a $1 million business line a credit w/ BOA and I have to submit annual personal tax return, business tax return and reviewed financial statements, a long with an annual HP. That's for a million in credit, no thank you for that and bank statements for a credit card, they can have them back for that matter.

As for customer protection, the only thing that could be disclosed could be on business checking accouts for electronic payments and wires.

Re: Amex financial review and account closures

xenon3030 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 15:52:05 GMT

@pip3man wrote:
So it's their business to lend you their money but none of their business to wanna know your financial standing to accurately assess their risk in lending you money? Your logic is dumb and flawed. You claim you don't want to "expose your customer information" but what sensitive customer information could u be possibly exposing on your tax form. Cos as far as I know your business tax form does not contain any personally identifiable information of clients so what your claiming is nonexistent. If anything you're a higher risk of mishandling CPI than a corporation like AMEX with all the necessary controls and security. Bottom line - it sounds to me like you either overstated your income and can't back it up or got something to hide. Hiding behind the veil of "protecting information" as a reason for non compliance is an old tale well played out.

Cool down. You did not read the prior posts and generated lots of nonsense texts like AI, without understanding the basics of business regulatories

They did NOT ask tax documents. They asked financial documents from my other banks (both personal and business). The business financial documents would include the business transactions and under no circumtances we would provide confidential and proprietary information to save a few credit cards. We would do business with lenders as usual while we have to also protect our confidential and proprietary information.