topic Re: Amex blatantly lied to me? in Credit Cards

Amex blatantly lied to me?

PokemonMaster — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:00:18 GMT

I called about a denial to see if they would do anything about my hard inquiry and was told outright several times by the rep that if you're denied there is no hard inquiry. I then asked to be transfered to an American rep and so she transfered me to another woman that spoke better english but was clearly indian who was in the recon department. This women in the recon department reiterated what the ground level rep said and when I told her that was a lie she "looked into it" and realized their mistake. Why would a rep outright lie like that? Do they not study the American credit system before hiring these reps? They are going to review my BCE app so hopefully I get in but I am not hopeful.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Red1Blue — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:15:17 GMT

If you are an existing card member there will be no hard inq when they deny your application. If you are a new customer to Amex there might be a hard inq. I am not sure how it works if you are new to amex.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:23:31 GMT

For a new member I don't see how they could deny you without a hard pull.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Red1Blue — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:27:06 GMT

Have you checked your credit report to see if there is a hard inq? If you apply for a card approved or not they can pull hard inq. What is your problem? Why are you upset if they do pull hard inq?

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

flyingmd — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:16:37 GMT

How can there not be a pull? If you applied (new or existing member) they are gonna pull your cedit report. So whether you are approved or denied the CR was already pulled. Just curious why you would even think it was otherwise and ask that question? Did you ask them to retract the CR pull? Edited to remove an unnecessary comment.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Guava — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:35:31 GMT

I understand you're upset, you feel you were lied to, but you gotta be a little realistic. Applying for credit card (approved or not) without a hard pull is unheard of, for me at least.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:37:42 GMT

@ Concorduser..

What do you mean, if you're an existing cardmember there wil be no hard inq when an application is denied? Don't they have to pull the inq before they even decide to approve or deny you? I'm a little confused.

Thanks!

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

PokemonMaster — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:46:18 GMT

@Red1Blue wrote:
Have you checked your credit report to see if there is a hard inq? If you apply for a card approved or not they can pull hard inq. What is your problem? Why are you upset if they do pull hard inq?

I am not upset if there's a hard inquiry (I honestly called hoping to get my Zync reconsidered figuring it was too late on the BCE). I am realistic and I know how the credit system works. I am upset that they cannot answer a simple question without getting it wrong. I understand that credit systems are different in India than in America but they should still know what they're talking about.. I was not disputing the hard inquiry but the woman on the phone kept insisting (almost to the point of arguing) that Amex did not do a hard pull, when they clearly did, and that when you get declined there is no hard pull which we all know there is.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

jason86423 — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:46:13 GMT

I app'd for the BCP when it first came out with out a hard pull on any of the CRA's a few months ago. Received the cardmember risk message and a few other standard response reasons.

They used a soft pull from 6/13/11 on the denial.

I think if you are an existing cardmember the system checks for approvals internally and if it doesn't pass muster then it stops, if it passes the internal process it goes out and pulls your CR. Just my thoughts so YMMV.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Red1Blue — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:18:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@ Concorduser..

What do you mean, if you're an existing cardmember there wil be no hard inq when an application is denied? Don't they have to pull the inq before they even decide to approve or deny you? I'm a little confused.

Thanks!

If you are an existing member they will do a soft inq. If the application is denied then there is no hard inq. If the Application is approved they will list a hard inq. I applied for so many cards so many times and they denied and no hard inq.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Red1Blue — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:25:22 GMT

@jason86423 wrote:

I think if you are an existing cardmember the system checks for approvals internally and if it doesn't pass muster then it stops, if it passes the internal process it goes out and pulls your CR. Just my thoughts so YMMV.

Yep. You are right.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:30:39 GMT

@Red1Blue wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@ Concorduser..

What do you mean, if you're an existing cardmember there wil be no hard inq when an application is denied? Don't they have to pull the inq before they even decide to approve or deny you? I'm a little confused.

Thanks!
If you are an existing member they will do a soft inq. If the application is denied then there is no hard inq. If the Application is approved they will list a hard inq. I applied for so many cards so many times and they denied and no hard inq.

That's nice on amex part. I apped for their revolving products many times and got denied with no hard inq too. At least they don't push score further down if you don't get something in return.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Red1Blue — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:33:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
That's nice on amex part. I apped for their revolving products many times and got denied with no hard inq too. At least they don't push score further down if you don't get something in return.
Amex is the only one company that does it. All other companies, they do hard inq and then deny your app and bring your score down. Every time I have an itch to app for a card, I goto amex website and apply for some thing, knowing it wont be approved and does not cost hard inq for me.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Iincognito — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:47:04 GMT

@Red1Blue wrote:
Amex is the only one company that does it. All other companies, they do hard inq and then deny your app and bring your score down. Every time I have an itch to app for a card, I goto amex website and apply for some thing, knowing it wont be approved and does not cost hard inq for me.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:05:10 GMT

Yeah I noticed when I app'd for a BCE I never got an inq and wondered about it. Now I know.. another reason to love amex

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 05:22:50 GMT

OP, you have to realize that customer service training varies in quality and doesn't always "stick." I'm surprised to hear that you got this from an AmEx rep (even an overseas one), but it doesn't mean that they were lying to you, as in lies = deliberate. It means that somewhere along the line, someone screwed up that section of the training.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

clocktick — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:09:07 GMT

Lied = intentional. It doesn't matter where the person is from.

I was thinking of joining the Disney Vacation Club and the guy, in person, told me it was definitely a soft pull on TU and EQ. Well, it was a HP on EX (who knows, I didn't even check the other two yet to see if there were HPs on there as well)! Although I wasn't happy, I don't feel he lied. This is what they "know" so they pass it on when we ask; they just happen to be wrong. I don't think it matters where they're from and do not think it's necessary to guess their background. It is dicussed several times on this board that many, many CSRs do not know the difference, or are not trained properly to know, between a HP or SP. One should assume it's a HP either way so as not to be surprised when it is. Heck, be surprised if it isn't!

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

smc733 — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:42:25 GMT

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
OP, you have to realize that customer service training varies in quality and doesn't always "stick."

This is so true. I work in IT support for my university, and we have so many odd things to support, no one, after years of work, always can answer something. However, the right thing to do is research the proper answer before giving a client false information.

In general, you should have understood the risk of a hard pull anyway the moment you clicked "submit application".

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

flyingmd — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:40:26 GMT

I have been a Amex cardholder since early 1980's. I had personal and business centurions for 5 or 6 years till i PC back to platinum. Every single time i have applied for a new card with Amex it has been a hard pull. Maybe they dont like me but i average over a 100K per month with them. I dont see how a new credit card with them under any circumstance isnt a hard pull.

Re: Amex blatantly lied to me?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:53:09 GMT

Maybe this just started to be their common practice recently. Did you applied for any products this year and get denied with hard pull?