topic Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time? in Credit Cards

Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 01:44:36 GMT

lol shortly after being approved of my Amex Green, I decided to do some digging on the reviews from ppl owning the cards.

While there's some hardcore fans of Amex on this forum, I've also been reading a tons of posts from people whose accounts get frozen without so much of a phone call, an email, members have their cards being denied for no reason, only to call and find out they're doing a financial review on it.

To me, that's almost the opposite of a great customer service! I'm a little hestiated now as to how I should use the amex card even though I will probably only charge at most 1k a month for its backdating and to get into the door of Amex. But from all the comments from people who have been "wronged" for no reason, I can't help but wonder what Amex is thinking with this policy! when most of the stories i hear from people who got FR'd are people who been playing their card off month after month, sometimes never late once for 1 year, 5 years, 30 years for one person.

Anyone can shred some light to this Amex practice as of 2013? Do they still do things like that say first week of activiation, a month in or something?

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 01:45:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
lol shortly after being approved of my Amex Green, I decided to do some digging on the reviews from ppl owning the cards.
While there's some hardcore fans of Amex on this forum, I've also been reading a tons of posts from people whose accounts get frozen without so much of a phone call, an email, members have their cards being denied for no reason, only to call and find out they're doing a financial review on it.

To me, that's almost the opposite of a great customer service! I'm a little hestiated now as to how I should use the amex card even though I will probably only charge at most 1k a month for its backdating and to get into the door of Amex. But from all the comments from people who have been "wronged" for no reason, I can't help but wonder what Amex is thinking with this policy! when most of the stories i hear from people who got FR'd are people who been playing their card off month after month, sometimes never late once for 1 year, 5 years, 30 years for one person.

Anyone can shred some light to this Amex practice as of 2013? Do they still do things like that say first week of activiation, a month in or something?

member since 2001 never had ANYTHING happen. Just use it daily, even when my spending jumped from $1,000 a month to over $20,000k a month never a hiccup.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 02:09:49 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
lol shortly after being approved of my Amex Green, I decided to do some digging on the reviews from ppl owning the cards.
While there's some hardcore fans of Amex on this forum, I've also been reading a tons of posts from people whose accounts get frozen without so much of a phone call, an email, members have their cards being denied for no reason, only to call and find out they're doing a financial review on it.

To me, that's almost the opposite of a great customer service! I'm a little hestiated now as to how I should use the amex card even though I will probably only charge at most 1k a month for its backdating and to get into the door of Amex. But from all the comments from people who have been "wronged" for no reason, I can't help but wonder what Amex is thinking with this policy! when most of the stories i hear from people who got FR'd are people who been playing their card off month after month, sometimes never late once for 1 year, 5 years, 30 years for one person.

Anyone can shred some light to this Amex practice as of 2013? Do they still do things like that say first week of activiation, a month in or something?
member since 2001 never had ANYTHING happen. Just use it daily, even when my spending jumped from $1,000 a month to over $20,000k a month never a hiccup.

Yeah.. I think I'm gonna try to start out in small purchases and go from there.. it just seems kind of odd to learn that financial reviews on people at random since no other banks/creditors do such things. Though i see most of the posts on this kind of practice happen frequently during the financial meltdown peroid and recovery period from 08 to 11. not sure what it's like as of today.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

E150GT — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 02:23:07 GMT

No reason to worry. I was a marginally approved customer and I started using my card for everything. Granted I dont spend 20k a month but this moment I have 2k on it and no problems.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 02:26:43 GMT

I really doubt it's random as you think, many people online play innocent while they're playing with fire. Once they get burned they cry out. Remember there's always two parts of a story, and many aren't as honest.

They probably requested over 25k in CLI or applied for too many cards at once. Amex or other cards. If you open 9 cards at once and get approval for ALL (there's a thread about it recently...) Amex might be like **bleep** is going on????

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

RyVision — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 02:31:18 GMT

kchui;

You might be a bit relieved to know AMEX never did do FRs on people "all the time" and they still don't. It's a very small percentage that actually gets FR'd and sometimes I think they ALL post on forums

If you avoid the major red flags and your income is in line with your source of income, you should have little reason to worry. And if they do request the FR tax form, it's up to you if you want to supply it or not. You would still have that AMEX account on your CRs for 10 years if you let it go, and possibly be accepted again with your original member since date if you supplied the FR form for tax info later.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 02:52:38 GMT

very little people get FR'ed, like the other posters have said.

People who get FR'ed are usually caught abusing rewards, exploiting loopholes, or owed high balances on one or more of their cards (may not necessarily be amex) for extended periods of time and paid only minimum or close to minimum payment required.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 06:14:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
very little people get FR'ed, like the other posters have said.

People who get FR'ed are usually caught abusing rewards, exploiting loopholes, or owed high balances on one or more of their cards (may not necessarily be amex) for extended periods of time and paid only minimum or close to minimum payment required.

Interesting.. I guess I will have to wait and see for myself as a first-time AMEX member and first-time Charge card user in a week time.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 06:19:57 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
very little people get FR'ed, like the other posters have said.

People who get FR'ed are usually caught abusing rewards, exploiting loopholes, or owed high balances on one or more of their cards (may not necessarily be amex) for extended periods of time and paid only minimum or close to minimum payment required.
Interesting.. I guess I will have to wait and see for myself as a first-time AMEX member and first-time Charge card user in a week time.

it's really hard to get FR'ed when you have a charge card. If you are FR'ed with a charge card, you were most likely caught abusing rewards. Other than that, you should be fine, since you can't owe anything on the card anyways.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Ron1 — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 06:32:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
very little people get FR'ed, like the other posters have said.

People who get FR'ed are usually caught abusing rewards, exploiting loopholes, or owed high balances on one or more of their cards (may not necessarily be amex) for extended periods of time and paid only minimum or close to minimum payment required.
Interesting.. I guess I will have to wait and see for myself as a first-time AMEX member and first-time Charge card user in a week time.
it's really hard to get FR'ed when you have a charge card. If you are FR'ed with a charge card, you were most likely caught abusing rewards. Other than that, you should be fine, since you can't owe anything on the card anyways.

They will FR if you overspend on the charge card.

Ron.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Ron1 — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 06:35:06 GMT

I started out spending under $100. Don't over spend for the first three months. Use it like your debit card. You should be fine.

Ron.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 06:48:16 GMT

As most have said, nearly everyone DOESN'T get FR'd. It's not something Amex does for fun. During the time that the account is frozen, they are making no money from swipes, some percentage will end their relationship with Amex, and they need to maintain a staff to do the FRs.

So they only do them when they have some reason to suspect problems. Which is very different from saying everyone who is FR'd has done something wrong, just that their secret algorithms have detected suspicious behavior.

Hyperbole again, but this is somewhat like "Try not to go out because you might get hit by a crashing plane/meteor/volcanic eruption" Yes, these things do happen, but a normal person really shouldn't spend any time worrying about it. Remember "normal" Amex users don't frequent forums like this and carry on charging blissfully unaware that FR's exist, and nearly all of those are fine!

Amex is happy when you use the card to spend. Saying spend $100 for the first few months is way too cautious, may as well have a Cap One starter card! Just keep spending within a "reasonable" range depending on income and assets, and you will be fine. And, in the unlikely event that an FR happens, well, better than being hit by a plane, and you can say "No thanks".

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Repo-ed — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:24:42 GMT

I just got my FR notice - AMEX states they saw that I had "viewed" this thread.

Great...

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:27:33 GMT

Amex does not do FR's 'all the time'.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:40:36 GMT

@Repo-ed wrote:
I just got my FR notice - AMEX states they saw that I had "viewed" this thread.

Great...

Don't panic! You just need to give permission to your ISP to send Amex all the sites visited by you and your household members over the last two years.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

GoldenloveNY — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:55:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Amex does not do FR's 'all the time'.

Of course not! They do it 95% of the time.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

lg8302ch — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:02:47 GMT

@repo-ed
..so we all going to join you...well looking forward to get it over with..then it is done

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:05:41 GMT

@lg8302ch wrote:
@Repo-ed
..so we all going to join you...well looking forward to get it over with..then it is done

Just check your history is relatively clear of visits to sites like:

Payday loan sites

How to declare Bankruptcy

American Express [Ripoff,Sux, I hate....]

A Complete Idiots Guide to Money Laundering

and you should be OK.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

Open123 — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:24:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Hyperbole again, but this is somewhat like "Try not to go out because you might get hit by a crashing plane/meteor/volcanic eruption" Yes, these things do happen, but a normal person really shouldn't spend any time worrying about it. Remember "normal" Amex users don't frequent forums like this and carry on charging blissfully unaware that FR's exist, and nearly all of those are fine!

The normal person would continue using his card as intended and remain completely blissful to the intrusive procedure known as the Amex FR.

A small group of people passionately vociferous through modern social media can lend a loud voice to those rare events that affect *only* a very small number of people. While this is certainly not meant to discount or disparage minority opinion, we should put into perspective that--all things being equal--making decisions with data from "exceptions" or "outlier" behavior is counter productive.

For example, I'm going to make my choices on what constitutes a healthy eating regimen from the guidelines meant for "normal and healthy" people rather than consider those recommendations specifically for those with diabetes, celiac disease and/or otherwise "outlier" health conditions. From the perspective of an average healthy person (good Fico and not aberrant spending), whether or not an eating regimen is unhealthy for any in the aforementioned condition is completely irrelevant.

It's like the person with a peanut allergy, to what end would it serve me to waste time and effort to find and ensure all of my meals contain no choices of peanuts? Unlike to the very few who are allergic to peanuts, I should just go about my normal activities enjoying peanuts, peanut butter and all those restaurants that incorporate peanuts into their cuisine.

So, if you don't engage in many of the "rumored" FR triggers, just pay your bill, use the card as intended and enjoy your rewards.

Re: Does Amex still do Financial Reviews on people all the time?

shakalaka — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 16:13:16 GMT

Before joining this forum I haven´t even heard about a FR. But they are a lender and it is legit to protect their mony/business. I am from Germany and in most cases you cannot open an account before proving your incomone/finances (pay staubs etc.).

So if it ever will happen to me, the can have the information. I have nothing to hide. If they decide I am no longer worth their business, sad, but life will go one. I love Amexco a lot, they have always been very good to me, but there is life after/without Amexco and prime lenders also.