AMEX Cards Canceled - Reinstatement?

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I have/had two American Express cards, the Delta Reserve and Bonvoy Brilliant. I received a call stating that both of my cards have been canceled because a payment was returned. I switched checking accounts and stupidly made the payment out of the wrong one. I can’t believe they would cancel for this!

I have spent over 40K this pst year across both cards. They stated that once I paid off the balances ($700 and $6500 respectively) I could apply for reinstatement.

What does this process look like? Do they pull your credit again for this? I’m beyond frustrated! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

In remembering several different postings across the MyFico Forum for the last year ... it seems like lenders are less understanding, flexible or forgiving on payments not made in conformance to their payment standards and requirements.

Don't know if it is a sign of the times such as a slowing economy or higher rate of consumer debt? Really seems like there is more tightening up in the credit market place! Or, at least in my readings of the forum.

Wish you every success as it can happen to any of us!

[Meanmchine]

Good luck OP

[Anonymous]

AMEX will try to pull a payment three times, a day or two apart, before marking a payment returned.

Your bank should have notified you in some way of those three attempts -- and after the first one, you can usually ACH a payment into the proper account, and not get bounce fees from your bank, or a returned concern, on the AMEX side.

I had this same problem, called AMEX, and that's when they told me about the three try process and I was able to heal -- so by actually getting a returned payment may suggest to AMEX there was no attempt at a quick remedy after the first bank notification of the bounced payment. 

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In remembering several different postings across the MyFico Forum for the last year ... it seems like lenders are less understanding, flexible or forgiving on payments not made in conformance to their payment standards and requirements.

Don't know if it is a sign of the times such as a slowing economy or higher rate of consumer debt? Really seems like there is more tightening up in the credit market place! Or, at least in my readings of the forum.

Wish you every success as it can happen to any of us!

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I think that returned payments have been a trigger for closure for a long time, worse than a late.   I would guess it's experience based, for every honest mistake like this, there are many more examples where it goes into default.

A while back I had a counter-example from Amex.   I had used a VERY old bank account, so old that it apparently no longer existed in the banking system after a set of acquisitions, and so Amex didn't view it as a returned payment, just something that they couldn't use.   They told me to fix it or lose online PAYMENT ability (not charging!)  But this seems tougher.

[VPExecutive]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In remembering several different postings across the MyFico Forum for the last year ... it seems like lenders are less understanding, flexible or forgiving on payments not made in conformance to their payment standards and requirements.

Don't know if it is a sign of the times such as a slowing economy or higher rate of consumer debt? Really seems like there is more tightening up in the credit market place! Or, at least in my readings of the forum.

Wish you every success as it can happen to any of us!

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The economy is doing just fine, the Dow is still at 28,500. AMEX just doesn't like returned payments. I've read people with the same issue on Flyertalk. 

[Anonymous]

Were you in good standing with Amex before this happened?

I had one occurrence of a returned payment (I submitted my payment a day early, before the direct deposit dropped into my account) with Amex maybe a month after I opened the account.

Fortunately, that's been my only issue with them and they didn't pursue any adverse actions against me.

[Remedios]

No lender likes a returned payment. It could be an honest mistake or insufficient funds.
Bigger issue with this is that your available balance with Amex is restored immediately, so you could in theory do even more damage if fraud was the intent.

With that said, at least with them there is a possibility of restoring accounts. I would not have them wait for their money too long.

My dyslexia primarily manifests with transposing numbers. I'm capable of transposing a single digit 😐
I hit a snag once because of it, my account was not closed by the lender, but I was certainly put in a naughty chair for a while.

I've never manually entered account numbers since (copy and paste from banking website only), and being as absent minded as I am, I only keep one payment account per card.

[Loquat]

@Remedios I used to have the same paranoid feeling when entering my bank info into a lenders system.  Finally made the decision to just use bill pay from my bank and push all of my payments as to not have to worry about a payment being returned.  I have auto pay set up with all of my cards just in case there is a chance that I forget to push a payment.

[Anonymous]

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@Remedios wrote:
My dyslexia primarily manifests with transposing numbers. I'm capable of transposing a single digit 😐
I hit a snag once because of it, my account was not closed by the lender, but I was certainly put in a naughty chair for a while.

I've never manually entered account numbers since (copy and paste from banking website only), and being as absent minded as I am, I only keep one payment account per card.

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That's me sometimes. I don't have it as bad as some,  but it does cause issues from time to time. Which is why I always confirm the numbers 2-3 times. If I'm unable to utilize copy & paste method.

Fortunately I haven't ever had any issues, well until recently with cap 1. But I don't count that Blank, I couldn't care less if they closed my Walmart card. But if I ever did have in instance like OP, over simple mistake and couldn't get a satisfactory resolution. I'll simply go back to mailing them checks and see how they like that! Because I know those will go through every time, nothing to screw up. 

I can understand AA for someone who consistently pays late or has multiple returned payments. But for those who've never had a problem for the life of the account? Just like they dont need my business, I dont need their CC. So we can part ways anytime. 

That said, I would miss the points etc.