AMEX FR Curiosity

[Anonymous]

One thing I've learned about Amex, history with them goes a long way. If its a positive history it can make up for a lot of things. I wouldn't over stress it just use the card and enjoy. I wouldn't recommend over spending on gift cards. That seems to spark it.

[longtimelurker]

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@purebulldogs500 wrote:
One thing I've learned about Amex, history with them goes a long way. If its a positive history it can make up for a lot of things. I wouldn't over stress it just use the card and enjoy. I wouldn't recommend over spending on gift cards. That seems to spark it.

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Again, YMMV on gift cards, depends on the Amex card too it seems.

[Anonymous]

Yeah a long time cardholder prob wouldn't have too much problem even with gift cards.

[red259]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@purebulldogs500 wrote:
One thing I've learned about Amex, history with them goes a long way. If its a positive history it can make up for a lot of things. I wouldn't over stress it just use the card and enjoy. I wouldn't recommend over spending on gift cards. That seems to spark it.

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Again, YMMV on gift cards, depends on the Amex card too it seems.

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I bought one $500 gc with my amex spg and I'd like to buy another one this cycle so I can use it towards my loan payments, but these forumns have made me paranoid about using the spg card in this way. 

[Anonymous]

If the 500 went through without issue you prob wont have much of a problem. New cardholders seem to be at more risk from what I've seen.

[longtimelurker]

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@red259 wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@purebulldogs500 wrote:
One thing I've learned about Amex, history with them goes a long way. If its a positive history it can make up for a lot of things. I wouldn't over stress it just use the card and enjoy. I wouldn't recommend over spending on gift cards. That seems to spark it.

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Again, YMMV on gift cards, depends on the Amex card too it seems.

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I bought one $500 gc with my amex spg and I'd like to buy another one this cycle so I can use it towards my loan payments, but these forumns have made me paranoid about using the spg card in this way. 

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Yes, people have specifically mentioned the SPG as being dangerous for this.  I don't have the card (and so haven't used it for this!)  I would expect $1000 to be way below the threshold, but I understand the induced paranoia!

[Open123]

Anecdotally, from all the boards I've frequented, it seems as if the SPG and Business Gold cards have the highest reported cases of FRs.  

However, this could simply be because most potential "perk abusers" tend to apply SPG and Business Gold cards given the high bonuses, 12 month churnability and first year fee waivers.  So, just by nature of demand for SPG and MR points in these particular cards, an expected higher number of FRs would ensue for these particular cards, given the spirit in which these cards were acquired.

[nmac]

The gift card paranoia with amex that gets repeated aground here is so over blown.  There was even a post recently where a forum member was paranoid about $.50 gift card purchases from amazon to make the required transactions for the everyday card.  IMHO this is insane. Amex doesn’t do FR for $.50 transactions.

My first amex was the PRG, at the time I opened it my income was 24K and my fico was in the mid 600’s. My first transaction was a $504.95 gift card purchase from a grocery store.  I’ve also purchased hundreds of dollars of gift cards from gas stations on it.  More recently I open the EDP card and I very regularly purchase 100-400 dollars of gift cards a month from grocery stores. I even bought a $600 TV from amazon using gift cards purchased from a grocery store.  I also use amazon payments quite a bit with my EDP as the funding source. I’m not even going to get into what I do with my serve account but let just say it gets plenty of use and amex is obviously aware of what takes place there.  

Moral of the story: Pay amex in full every month and they will let you get away with rewards murder.

Sorry if this if this sounds crass but the amount of FR paranoia around here is unwarranted. I’m also not suggesting that someone should do all of the things I mentioned above. I’m simply sharing experience in an attempt dissuade some of the FR paranoia around here. I’m also willing to bet that of the remarkably small number of people who have been through a FR, purchasing gift cards at the levels suggested by most of the people here is not the likely cause.

[Callandra]

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@nmac wrote:

Sorry if this if this sounds crass but the amount of FR paranoia around here is unwarranted. I’m also not suggesting that someone should do all of the things I mentioned above. I’m simply sharing experience in an attempt dissuade some of the FR paranoia around here. I’m also willing to bet that of the remarkably small number of people who have been through a FR, purchasing gift cards at the levels suggested by most of the people here is not the likely cause.

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How is the Amex FR paranoia any different than some of the other paranoia around here (ie- Barclays)? People freak out about being CLD'd or their accounts closed of Barclays and granted, I haven't read the whole 75+ page thread, but I doubt there are few if any cases of it. I opened my Freedom 5 months after Barclay and it's been 4 months since and NOTHING. I think half these stories don't tell the full story (ie- there's something else on their reports that spooked the bank, you know, like 90% util or newly appeared lates, etc) and the users on myFico cannot represent significant amount of credit card users in general in any way, shape, or form. 

I have a system for my credit cards. 

1. I buy stuff. 

2. I pay the bill in full.

3. Rinse and repeat every month. 

I do not forsee having any problem with any bank in the future. 

[nmac]

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@Callandra wrote:

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@nmac wrote:

Sorry if this if this sounds crass but the amount of FR paranoia around here is unwarranted. I’m also not suggesting that someone should do all of the things I mentioned above. I’m simply sharing experience in an attempt dissuade some of the FR paranoia around here. I’m also willing to bet that of the remarkably small number of people who have been through a FR, purchasing gift cards at the levels suggested by most of the people here is not the likely cause.

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How is the Amex FR paranoia any different than some of the other paranoia around here (ie- Barclays)? People freak out about being CLD'd or their accounts closed of Barclays and granted, I haven't read the whole 75+ page thread, but I doubt there are few if any cases of it. I opened my Freedom 5 months after Barclay and it's been 4 months since and NOTHING. I think half these stories don't tell the full story (ie- there's something else on their reports that spooked the bank, you know, like 90% util or newly appeared lates, etc) and the users on myFico cannot represent significant amount of credit card users in general in any way, shape, or form. 

I have a system for my credit cards. 

1. I buy stuff. 

2. I pay the bill in full.

3. Rinse and repeat every month. 

I do not forsee having any problem with any bank in the future. 

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 I agree the Barclaycard paranoia is also exaggerated. I don’t have a Barclaycard product so I guess it doesn’t irk me like the amex paranoia.