Hopefully, anyone who has applied for an AMEX card and was unfortunate enough to get diverted into the seventh circle of Hell aka " We will need a bank letterhead to verify your address, the bank hours of operation, a signature of the preparer of the document and their extension...."blah...blah...blah... can take SOME comfort that this process might one day have a happy ending. I won't dwell on every tweak and detail of this loathsome ordeal, but sufficed to say that I had my doubts there was actually going to be anything positive from this..much less any kind of approval.
While traveling recently, I submitted an app for a Surpass card on January 6th and got the 14 day message. I didn't think too much of it since about a month before I was instanly approved for a Chase FU as well as a NFCU Cashback, both with very healthy limits, and I thought they just wanted a few extra days to look things over and then give me a call. So, in my mind all good. I went on about my business for a little over a week and then decided to app again for a Cash Magnet. In retrospect I should've app'ed for the BCP, but that's another story. Same response. Now my eyebrows raised a bit.
After the second time this happened, I jumped on the home desktop and started snooping my reports, zeroing in on my experian. Sure enough, for some reason (of which I'm still unsure) an initial 12 month security alert had been placed on my file. SHIYUT! (the alert has since been removed). I immediately got on the phone with AMEX on the 0237 line and got the "bank letterhead" directive... Not sure if anyone can relate to this but my primary bank is Bank of America. This bank and it's culture is NOT suited to this kind of intense personal customer service. Even the branch managers can't scratch their ass without a say-so from the legal department at BofA home office. I have to give my local guy kudo's however for helping me see this through. He had heard of AMEX doing this before and actually got home office to write the **bleep** letter. We sent it off with his info attached on the second page. AMEX gave me NO love on this. The letter had to be redone as a 1 page rig. I actually had him sign his business card, and I scanned it into a copy and sent faxed that off. Oh yeah, I almost forgot...DO NOT put ANY faith in their fax system. The fax reception department handles faxes for several departments and the person YOU NEED TO HAVE IT most likely will NOT receive it. Just mail it in. Anyways, after assuring that AMEX had the document in their hot little hands...I physically went to the bank, sat in front of the AVP whose name was on this letter and called AMEX on the 0237 line. The CSR put me on hold, dialed the AVP's #. I watched him answer their call and on speaker they asked him if he prepped the document and if he could verify my address. He replied "yes" and the call was done. Within 10 minutes I had approval emails on BOTH apps. It took me over A MONTH to get this done.
During all this, my DW app'ed for a Gold Delta SkyMiles. We were married last year. Anyone care to guess what response she got on her online app? LOL... (People who are married and change their name should not assume that there is anything efficient about that process relative to original creditors and CRA's and the reporting times and methods involved.) She got the same song and dance. Since I had learned my lesson about the faxing fiasco, I had mailed the VERY SAME LETTER about 3 days ago.
She called them today on her own and talked to the SAME department as me, and they indicated they had recieved the document. THEY DIDN'T EVEN CALL THE GUY WHO SIGNED THE LETTER. She was instantly approved after the AMEX CSR just looking at the document and she got her email about 10 minutes later. I have to laugh at this whole thing and ask out loud why they couldn't have done that for me insted of gutting me for a month over this crap? LOL... Anyways, all is well in WhoVille with this and for anyone that is going through this...just don't give up. Keep doing as they ask and it'll all work out. Remember, If they were going to deny you it will happen long before they make this request of you. Thanks for letting me vent a bit! I'm SOOO thankful to all those hear from whoim I've learned so much! I hope this has helped someone who might be going through this.
