AMEX Financial Review - Total Credit Limit?

[LosAngelesTraveler]

Hey Everyone,

A data point often shared in these forums is that having more than $35,000 total credit with Amex can trigger a financial review.

I recently got approved for an Amex Gold Card, which is my fifth Amex Card. I have the Platinum, Green, Blue Cash Preferred and the vanilla Blue as my keeper card. When approved I noticed the Gold Card was given a small "Pay Over Time" limit of $1250. I thought this was strange as my lowest CL with AMEX is $5,000 and my highest PoT limit is $15,000 for my Platinum card.

However, I realized that this pay over time limit leaves me wtih a total Amex Credit of $34,750. Barely $250 under the $35,000 threshold that would trigger the financial review. I always thought that the total $35,000 credit limit applied only to credit cards and not charge cards but if I add up my credit limits and my pay over time limits in does add up to the $34,750 amount which makes me wonder if Amex takes into consideration all the accounts regardles of whether it's straightforward credit or PoT and I thought giving me such a small PoT on my Gold was intential to keep me under the $35k.

Any thoughts or data points on this?

Thank you!

[Remedios]

What you're discussing here is income verification not financial review.

Two completely different animals even though what's requested from consumer might be identical (tax documents). 

[cashorcharge]

The $35K threshold that "may" require docs is per account when exceeding that limit on an individual card.  While I'm sure there are others that may have been asked for docs around that limit in total or overall, typically on a revolver, you can ask up to $35K without receiving a request.  My AMEX accounts (both revolvers and POT limits) exceed $100,000 and while I've never had to provide anything, no individual account exceeds $35K

[cws-21]

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@cashorcharge wrote:

The $35K threshold that "may" require docs is per account when exceeding that limit on an individual card.  While I'm sure there are others that may have been asked for docs around that limit in total or overall, typically on a revolver, you can ask up to $35K without receiving a request.  My AMEX accounts (both revolvers and POT limits) exceed $100,000 and while I've never had to provide anything, no individual account exceeds $35K

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@cashorcharge may be correct about the possibility of being asked for income verification if one AMEX card exceeds $35K, but my BCP is at $43K and I have never been asked for anything.

[coldfusion]

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@cws-21 wrote:

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@cashorcharge wrote:

The $35K threshold that "may" require docs is per account when exceeding that limit on an individual card.  While I'm sure there are others that may have been asked for docs around that limit in total or overall, typically on a revolver, you can ask up to $35K without receiving a request.  My AMEX accounts (both revolvers and POT limits) exceed $100,000 and while I've never had to provide anything, no individual account exceeds $35K

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@cashorcharge may be correct about the possibility of being asked for income verification if one AMEX card exceeds $35K, but my BCP is at $43K and I have never been asked for anything.

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It's a YMMV. 

The $35K figure was emperically derived as a common threshold based upon multiple data points but isn't meant to be cast in stone nor has AMEX confirmed it.   AMEX may also ask for income verification via a 4506-C request if current total exposure across all AMEX-issued CC is already over a certain threshold (somewhere around $80K seems to be common) but that is also a YMMV.

One big difference between an AMEX financial review and CLI-request-driven income verification is that AMEX plays hardball when it comes to financial reviews and ones failure to comply pretty much guarantees they will close your accounts.      Not authorizing a 4506-C request based on a CLI request usually means a denial with no additional adverse action taken against your existing accounts.