AmEx Frustrations, Just Needed to Vent

[MarkintheHV]

Everything from amex I have,  except for bcp is on the chopping block. I know I will never use then for travel again

[BuckyB]

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@JR_TX wrote:

On the side note, have you had your Amex cards for over a year? From what I'm seeing and based as well on DW's past experience with Amex, their fraud and security algo takes at least a year to stabilize after it has established a more predictive spend pattern.

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Props to you for this data point but.. honestly??  Customers get screwed by the Amex fraud department for the first 12 months they use the card?  And that's normal?  How is that a good user experience?  What a disaster.

[BuckyB]

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@MarkintheHV wrote:

At this point, I am getting very angry because to me a credit card decline is an embarassment.

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I have an Amex gold card and my motto is: "Never leave home without an alternative card," because it can be declined anywhere, at any time.

If I have to make a large purchase in front of a bunch of people, it's not going to be on an Amex card.  Been there.

[redpat]

Could the issue be from you past w/ Amex having you on a short leash?

Sometimes it may come back to haunt you.

[longtimelurker]

Personally, when I design a world-class algorithm, I at least consider allowing optional user inputs.   So if there was a mechanism for a user to say "I will be in country X from date A-B" a sophisticated algorithm could use it as one of the inputs or, if that requires too much modification, a less sophisticated one could have a wrapper "If I am about to decline a charge based partly on an unexpected location, then check to see if there is an active travel notification"  (In neither case is it an automatic approval, just an additional factor to consider)

Basically, if you remove the ability for the user to provide the info, make sure the algorithm is sufficiently robust to work without it!

About to try with SoFI who doesn't take them either.

[Lou-natic]

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@BuckyB wrote:

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@JR_TX wrote:

On the side note, have you had your Amex cards for over a year? From what I'm seeing and based as well on DW's past experience with Amex, their fraud and security algo takes at least a year to stabilize after it has established a more predictive spend pattern.

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Props to you for this data point but.. honestly??  Customers get screwed by the Amex fraud department for the first 12 months they use the card?  And that's normal?  How is that a good user experience?  What a disaster.

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Haven't had any issues with the AMEX fraud department. Just saying "Customers get screwed by the Amex fraud department for the first 12 months they use the card?" out loud makes it sound so ridiculous I don't even know where to start. Of course that's not how it works.

[NAVYCHOP]

I've had an AMEX card for nearly 40 yrs.  They have a very robust fraud system that is built over time with them.  The charges turned down on my account have all been real fraud with one exception.  About fifteen years ago when I lived in Eastern Europe I flew back to the East Coast for a friends birthday with a one day turnaround.  The first attempted charge was for rental car gas at a pump in New Jersey which was turned down for potential fraud.  I found that quite reasonable at the time as my spend pattern was all in Europe and we know gas stations are prevalent with fraud.

Regarding comments on cards to impress-- surprisingly many years ago the one card where I received a consistent comment from merchants and waiters was the White House Federal Credit Union debit card which was all white and had an etched view of the White House on the card.  I didn't use it much as I don't like debit cards and the WHFCU has since merged with the Department of Commerce credit union so the card is no more but it brought back a chuckle thinking about that debit card..

[isik]

I try to use my card at the airport when traveling, usually just buying a bottle of water. I feel like a transaction at an airport might signal to the algorithm that I'm traveling.

[Creditwiser]

I have the opposite dealings with my Amex Delta Gold. Never been declined for possible fraud stateside or when out of the country. I do have alerts set up on the account so perhaps that makes a difference?  I don't know. From time to time I would get a text asking if I made the purchase.This over and above the text for the actual purchase.

[BuckyB]

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@redpat wrote:

Could the issue be from you past w/ Amex having you on a short leash?

Sometimes it may come back to haunt you.

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I generally believe what posters say.   I don't really understand the mentality of responses that blame the poster for some unseen transgression. 

Poster: I have a problem with X bank because they did Y to me.

Response: Well YOU must be the problem (implying that banks are perfect) and you're not telling us about it (implying the poster is a liar).