topic Re: AMEX Flagged for FR in Credit Cards

AMEX Flagged for FR

msheresy — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:03:15 GMT

So I just got my card in the mail on thursday and I have spent right @ $100. I try today to view my account and I see that it says it is suspended. I call and am notified that I am having a review done to verify income...blah blah blah. Heres the thing, I put that I made $32000 but I actually only make right @ $30000. Is this going to affect things? Will 2000 actually cause them to cancel my account? I'm really worried now because I was sooooo freaking happy that I got this card!

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:07:36 GMT

bear in mind even if you comply w/the request for docs they could still shut you down and you will have a big fat closed by grantor reporting.

at one time i would have complied, but now that i know they may still close the account and since they cut my limit i have a new view. i told the rep i will never ask for anything more out of them, i expect the same courtesy.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

unknown_entity — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:14:12 GMT

I wouldn't worry about it. Honestly, if it were me and they gave me a FR, I would flag them for being poop butts and close the account immediately. That's some real crappy way to do business there. Makes me want to close my account just hearing about that kind of B/S. They gave you the card on your word, why has anything changed since then?

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:18:17 GMT

msheresy wrote:
So I just got my card in the mail on thursday and I have spent right @ $100. I try today to view my account and I see that it says it is suspended. I call and am notified that I am having a review done to verify income...blah blah blah. Heres the thing, I put that I made $32000 but I actually only make right @ $30000. Is this going to affect things? Will 2000 actually cause them to cancel my account? I'm really worried now because I was sooooo freaking happy that I got this card!

Multiply what you make per week by 52, and tell them that's how you came up with your number. Should give you an extra little push. 30,000/12= 2,500 2,500/4= 625 625x52=32,500 I used to do that when I worked in auto finance. You aren't lying, and it gives you just a bit more. I doubt they will freak out over $2k anyway.

Message Edited by Carrot1 on 06-14-2008 04:18 PM

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

smallfry — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:16:30 GMT

@msheresy wrote:
@Anonymous I just got my card in the mail on thursday and I have spent right @ $100. I try today to view my account and I see that it says it is suspended. I call and am notified that I am having a review done to verify income...blah blah blah. Heres the thing, I put that I made $32000 but I actually only make right @ $30000. Is this going to affect things? Will 2000 actually cause them to cancel my account? I'm really worried now because I was sooooo freaking happy that I got this card!

I would close the card. No guarantee they won't do this in the future again. The 2K isn't the issue. I mean for Pete's sake you just got the card.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:25:56 GMT

I got my Amex right after I received a big promotion at work. I put that I made $62,000 on the application, which wasn't a lie at all. However, in 2008 they pulled my taxes from 2006 which listed $46,000.

They had no issues and unlocked my account. You should be fine.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

msheresy — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:32:20 GMT

This is so upsetting. I have been working diligently on my credit, spending hours a day on this forum reading all the great advice and now I dont know what to do. I really DO NOT was a closed by credit grantor but i just got the darn card! I've only been at my job for a year and a half and prior to that I was on unemployment for like 3 mths and then I made even less before that because I was in college. So my 06 returns are even less than my 07 returns.....what to do....what to do. :-(

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:46:07 GMT

@msheresy wrote:
This is so upsetting. I have been working diligently on my credit, spending hours a day on this forum reading all the great advice and now I dont know what to do. I really DO NOT was a closed by credit grantor but i just got the darn card! I've only been at my job for a year and a half and prior to that I was on unemployment for like 3 mths and then I made even less before that because I was in college. So my 06 returns are even less than my 07 returns.....what to do....what to do. :-(

If you sign the form and return it to them they take care of everything. It's actually quite painless.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

SonorityGenius — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:46:09 GMT

I don't know if you have forgotten to include something in this post..

You got an Amex, you charge $100 on it, and FR?

What about your other cards, did you open any new ones? Did you have new lates reporting, any changes at all on your CR after getting an AMex?

They soft your CR EVERY 10-15 days when you're new and heck I have had it for 2 yrs and see 2 softs every month from them lol So any and ALL changes to your CR will set them off.. they also utilize "universal debt" and take adverse action..

So what has changed on your CR that you arent disclosing here?

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

msheresy — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:56:54 GMT

No new lates. 1 new inquiry from Macys which resulted in a new account but that isnt posting to my crs. I only got the macys to improve my credit mix. Other than that, I have 2 other cards both are relatively new but I had them before I was approved for the AMEX. I also have a good amount of inquiries but they were also before I was approved. With my two other cards, I have always paid on time and I currently have a 50 balance on both. One has a cl of 500 the other has a cl of 600.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:18:36 GMT

there's no real pattern to waking the amex fr beast. i personally think they are looking at the following;

do you breath?

do you live on this planet?

do you even have an amex issued amex?

if yes to the above, then you fit the profile for an fr.

they cut my limit. i called and was told it was due to lates on my mortgage. well that was flat wrong, so i challenged them on that. finally i reached someone who apologized for that allegation and explained that i have obtained or refi'd a mortgage in the last 7-10 years and i opened up a bunch of new accounts. neither i could argue against. she then explained that with all the new credit they got nervous, but i could request a credit line adjustment in 6 months. that's when i said i'll keep the account open, but don't expect me to call i'll never rqst anything from amex again

bottom line, i did just about everything that could trigger an fr (mort refi, opened up about 65k in new credit, refi'd cars several times in a year (to get sweet rates!), and tapped the luv button on amex's site at every opportunity), and the only aa i got was a cld from 4k to 500.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

fused — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:31:15 GMT

msheresy wrote:
So I just got my card in the mail on thursday and I have spent right @ $100. I try today to view my account and I see that it says it is suspended. I call and am notified that I am having a review done to verify income...blah blah blah. Heres the thing, I put that I made $32000 but I actually only make right @ $30000. Is this going to affect things? Will 2000 actually cause them to cancel my account? I'm really worried now because I was sooooo freaking happy that I got this card!

Ordinarily you will hear me raving about Amex but not this time. Since you have not been an Amex card holder more than a week, you have NO leverage. You can either acquiesce or kick Amex to the curb. So long as you don't screw-up your overall util, I would choose the latter. If it was me (however), I would comply and then turn around and write them a nasty FOAD or ESAD letter.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

haulingthescoreup — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:42:13 GMT

Ouch! Sorry to hear this. More of the AmEx giveth and the AmEx taketh away crap.

For everyone else applying to AmEx (or really, to anyone else), be sure that you can back up your claimed income with pay stubs, tax records, etc.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:04:39 GMT

Honestly, I've never been flagged to have my income confirmed by a CC issuer. What exactly do they allow for income verification? The reason I ask, is because I receive income from investments, the profits and base salary for being a CEO with a majority share, and my father's corporation pays me for being an advisor. Would they expect me to provide proof for all forms of income or just my tax return filings?

It hasn't happened to me yet, but would be good to know if it ever did....

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:09:22 GMT

Tovya wrote:
Honestly, I've never been flagged to have my income confirmed by a CC issuer. What exactly do they allow for income verification? The reason I ask, is because I receive income from investments, the profits and base salary for being a CEO with a majority share, and my father's corporation pays me for being an advisor. Would they expect me to provide proof for all forms of income or just my tax return filings?

It hasn't happened to me yet, but would be good to know if it ever did....

They will require you to sign a form allowing them to pull your last two years of tax returns directly from the IRS. This is the only income verification they will accept. They will not look at your W2s or paystubs even if you beg them to.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:10:35 GMT

amex fr's are very intrusive. they ask for acess to your irs return, they have you sign a form that grants them autorization to get it directly from the irs.

this means not only do they see your information, they get everyone else's that happen to be on your return.

some cu's just ask for pay stubs. one even asked me to fill out a finnacial disclosure, but i was asking for 24k unsecured and i was told they wanted this info as a condition of the app.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

fused — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:11:54 GMT

AmEx has asked card holders who undergo a financial review to file out IRS form 4506-T and fax it to them. This ensures no card holder hands over falsified W-2s or 1099s. Check it out

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506t.pdf

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:18:48 GMT

Wow, that's pretty nuts. My dad has been an Amex card holder for about 25 years, and holds the Black now, but they've never asked for anything from him as far as I know (but then again he has a perfect track record with them as well).

If they ever did, he'd probablly tell them just to cancel the card as he is a pretty private person. He really doesn't need the credit anyway, he just likes whipping it out mostly ;-)

We bought a $1.5 million dollar crane with it just about a month ago, and he whipped the sucker out like he was a CIA agent whipping his badge out to a communist spy LOL.

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:24:31 GMT

Tovya wrote:
We bought a $1.5 million dollar crane with it just about a month ago,

now that's a no pre-set limit moment! just curious, how many points do you get for a 1.5 million dollar purchase?

oh, do they still double the manufacturers warranty for a crane as well?

Message Edited by imducky on 06-14-2008 09:24 PM

Re: AMEX Flagged for FR

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:24:25 GMT

Tovya wrote:

We bought a $1.5 million dollar crane with it just about a month ago,

Uhhh....

OK, all of a sudden my $2K Delta Skymiles doesn't seem so great.