@Anonymous wrote:I don't want to be a stickler but everyone should know what might prompt a Financial Review. I'm going to warn you, this might be a little lengthy. I'm going to try and not to go to much into detail. I'm going to still try to make this comment as understandable as possible so just bear with me.
Everyone should keep in mind the countries economic stance. Right now inflation is rising and rising, for those who don't know this means that we are paying more and more for the same item or basket of goods. I'm not going to give you a lesson in macro/micro econ but i will get to my point why I am saying this. Given our current situation with American stocks/currencies becoming more strong increases inflation. The Fed will eventually have to slow inflation by slowing down the economy by raising interest rates. Raising interest rates makes the cost of getting loans more expensive which lessons the amount of people willing to apply for credit. This is why interest rates are a very crucial part of the economy, because interest rates can help control consumer spending. You freeze credit in a country then you've just doomed that country from a econ stand point and have started a domino affect that's disastrous.
Anyways because I can go all day about econ, when consumer spending stops/slows mainly but not limited from the decisions made by The Fed companies like AmEx become more risk adverse. Meaning they become more concerned about the credit customers are allowed to pull from them at any given moment. AmEx becomes risk adverse because when spending slows down then revenue for corporations slows down and when revenue for corporations slow down then corporations (Walmart, K-Mart, etc) start to slash employment to compensate for the change in revenue. Some people don't understand the domino effect, they may believe because they don't work at places like Walmart then they shouldn't be affected by consumer spending because they don't work in retail. Well here's just a very very very small taste of the domino effect if consumer spending slows down. Consumers slow spending, Walmart has to cut employment (layoffs), Walmart sells GE light bulbs, since no one is spending those GE light bulbs remain on the shelves. Walmart doesn't request more GE Light bulbs which slows down production of GE Light bulbs at GE. Since production of light bulbs have slowed down GE must cut (layoff) some employees in their Light bulb division but it doesn't stop there. GE will also slash employment with drivers that package and deliver light bulbs, and so on and so on. That's just light bulbs what if it's Light bulbs and Televisions? Now Samsung is involved you see the domino effect slowing consumer spending down has? i guess I should have said, when people stop spending at retailers the retailers stop requesting goods, when retailers stop requesting goods manufactures stop making goods, when goods are not purchased, requested, nor made then corporations start laying off employees to make up for lost revenue which furthermore slows down the economy because it lowers the employment rate. Do I have to tell you that Credit card companies such as AMEX are also part of the domino effect because consumers slowing down spending also means they're slowing down spending on their credit cards!
Anyway the point is AmEx knows that most employment will be cut and AmEx is going to become more risk adverse to limit consumer spending from those that may not be able to pay back their debts
How you might ask? AmEx will more then likely first weight more heavy on your credit to debt ratio in your credit profile to make sure you are not over extending yourself. Not only that, AmEx may look at how many companies you have debt with. So your credit to debt ratio may be under 20% but when you have a debt with every credit card you own this may become a negative in AmEx and many other lenders book. Under normal circumstances spreading out your debt amongst credit cards is actually smart, but when the economy starts to slow down then it becomes lets say frowned upon to hold debt with every lender you have a account with, even if it's under 20%. One thing you will learn with economics is normal rules don't apply when things slow down or speed up faster then anticipated! so don't rely heavily on the way things suppose to go according to XYZ. That's a tip for all you traders out there.
The second thing AmEx is more then likely going to do and in my opinion will be the most critical will be targeting consumers that have been allowed credit lines over the "invisible" $25k or more FR limit. Remember since profits have slowed because consumer spending has slowed companies like AmEx are now more risk adverse and are now more concerned with trying to limit the exposure/risk they have on their books. So you guessed it, chances of those accounts getting Financial Reviewed will be high. AmEx wants to be assured that the CL they have offered you is well within your means of paying back. Rather you can pay them back or can't pay them back isn't my business, I'm not here to judge, but prepare for a FR from AmEx.
In the best case scenario AmEx looks at the amount of credit you have utilized over time and AmEx simply lowers your CL automatically without doing a FR. This beats a FR "if you don't have the proper documentation" because over time when the economy starts to spend again and it will then you can simply just request a CLI all over again, but it's a double edged sword because your other cards see that another lender has reduced the amount allocated to you which is something frowned upon by other lenders. Basically if a lender sees that another lenders has reduced the amount of credit granted to you it can be looked upon as a indication that your finances has changed and since it is reduced then your finances must have reduced as well and that lender is just adjusting the credit allowed to the finances you now have.
Now without going to much into it the current economic stature of today which is 5/31/2015 is that we are currently in a bubble. Yes we are in another bubble. This bubble can continue to rise for X amount of time or it can pop tomorrow who knows. the only thing I can tell you is when the bubble does pop and spending slows down once more companies like AmEx will become more risk adverse but this doesn't mean you don't have to either.
Your risk is getting FR because nobody wants that unless they have the proper documents to back their income. So what you can do to decrease the probability of getting FR if the bubble does pop for those over the "invisible" $25k FR limit is reduce spending large amounts. You will need to be more conservative with the amounts you spend on your card. Companies like AmEx have automated software to flag consumer accounts that may be risky. The only way that software works is if your not being conservative with your spending. If normally out a of a month you spend $1k on your AmEx don't turn around and spend $4k next month when consumer spending has slowed down. That type of behavior will be flagged for review. One main reason it will be flagged is because before people file Bankruptcy they like to max out all of their credit cards and since the economy has shifted to slow down (layoffs) maybe that consumer can't pay their debts and will be filing bankruptcy. So this is AmEx way of limiting the amount of money your going to get from them before you write them off in bankruptcy.
The second thing that you can do which really should have been the first thing to do was continue spending normally or however you chose and simply just waited to see if you got FR from AMEX and if you didn't no big deal but if you did then just have the proper documentation they require ready for them when they request it. That approach is really for the ones who isn't worried about FR, once you pass the FR continue with your AmEx like nothing has ever happened.
The third thing you can do which will be the last resort is simply reducing your credit limit yourself as well as be more conservative with your spending. This may MAY i can't stress it enough MAY get you off the radar for having a FR because FR usually goes after people above the "invisible" $25K limit. So if you have a $30K Amex lowering the CL yourself to $24K while still remaining conservative with your spending. That's really all you can do.
Some may say they shouldn't be conservative with their spending and they're going to continue with the if they see something their buying it rule. The thing is being conservative when the economy is slow shows responsibility. It shows the you know things are slow right now and you need to save as much as you can. Now I'm not saying that not being conservative while the economy is slow is irresponsible either (if you can afford to) but not being conservative while the economy is slow & not having the proper documentation to financial back the credit given to you by lenders is irresponsible and demonstrates why you may lose that card. Rather you can afford it or not doesn't matter if you don't have the proper documentation to back that claim up. I make no judgments on whatever or however you want to spend your money, I'm only informing you the possibilities or outcomes.
The funny thing is, i really did try to not make my comment as lengthy, there were so many things I left out. Remember everything I said is IF AmEx becomes more Risk Adverse, right now the CURRENT economic bubble hasn't popped and who knows when it will. Excuse any grammatical errors and maybe the way my comment was worded. I didn't go back and check for any errors or better ways I should have said things. I know that's bad, but I just wanted everyone to get a very small portion of how some things may workout.
BTW I did the 3xCLI but i only did it once because currently I have the credit limit I'm super comfortable with. I'm eligible to do it again but it's OK, I have a really good credit score and I have a decent amount of credit so at this point it's really just a pride thing.
Good Luck Everyone.
This was a good read 
I actually agree with a few of the things you have mentioned. Thanks for putting this out there and taking the time to share your input.
@tobago_88, thanks and thanks for taking the time to read my comment. When I submitted the comment it was so long I thought to myself nobody was going to read this "Article" 
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@Desolatedata,
Thanks for the input. I think you should put this info. in a new thread since this tthread is old. Very nice read and stick around more to give us more info. on Amex if you know what I mean
@Yes_Its_Me, that may be a good idea 
I know exactly what you mean.
