@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the feedback all. I'm primarily frustrated with the customer service experience of AMEX, not the actual decline because I do agree, my credit isn't astounding by any means. What upset me is that their system gave me reasons for a decline and I couldn't even actually address them with a real person who could review my report and application and make a decision. Instead, I spoke to someone who could only "push it along" and clearly didn't even write down or take notes regarding what I was saying or the points I was making about my application. And this was a world of difference compared to my quite pleasant experience with Chase. Decline or not, it really sucked not being able to talk to a person who could look at my report and allow me to make justifications, etc.
Some banks just don't have a lot of leeway with overriding computer decisions. Amex is one of them. While there have been reports of succesful recons, it's rare. Generally they stick to the computer decision, similar to Comenity, Capital One, etc.
As discussed in another thread, banks are generally moving away from the "talk to someone and recon/make justifications" type of model. Many banks are setting guidelines for approval and if you don't meet them, it cannot be overridden. It sucks, but the human element is definitely being removed from many situations. So I would say get used to it; it's not going anywhere, and likely to get more common.
