Amex The Check Spending Power tool

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Hi All-

I currently have Amex Platinum and Amex Rose Gold charge cards. Both open less than a year. This morning, I used the Amex The Check Spending Power tool. When I entered the amount, I was denied. The amount was only $2,000. I did this on both cards. I have used this tool before just to verify that a charge will go through with no issues.

Now, I’m wondering if a Financial Review will occur? Has anyone experienced this issue?

Should I call Amex and see what happened? If I call, will that trigger the financial review?

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OP, have you used the Spending Power button for specific charges with these cards, gotten approvals, and then used the card for the charge amount?

What are those amounts you checked Spending Power?

[Anonymous]

"Do not play with it."

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
"Do not play with it."

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I know that you have said this before and I certainly appreciate your expertise but I still don’t see any evidence that any kind of adverse action has taken place because an Amex card holder uses the check spending power link frequently.  Are you saying that Amex will do so for using the feature?  Seems ridiculous that they would put an easily accessible link to check without any kind of warning about over using and then take some kind of AA.  Despite all these warnings about doing so I still don’t think an FR will arise by using the feature.  

[Loquat]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I take it S***y is like the Voldemort of myFICO?

I did notice that there were multiple results that went there in my first Google search so I did a myFICO site search to remove them. 

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I wouldn't say that... he's just really mistaken on some things.

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+1 I agree with UncleB...but I think he's mistaken on a lot of things.  

[RicHowe]

I may be mistaken, but it seems two things are getting conflated.

@Pooka89 is saying not to "play" with it.
@Pooka89 did NOT say to avoid "using" it.

From what I've heard, and @Pooka89 can correct me, but "playing" with the button means checking your spending power multiple times and with ever increasing amounts in a short period of time to see what your "high limit" might be. While doing so might help your curiosity, the tool is meant for you to forecast a large pending purchase (within the next week) and also alerts AMEX fraud department to expect that purchase to occur.

Unfortunately, playing with the tool is also a way for those who intend to "bust out" with the account, so it does trigger the fraud department which might incur a financial review to see if you really can afford the large purchases you've been signalling.

By all means, use the tool, but it's best to use it when you legitimately need to know if a large purchase will be approved.

[longtimelurker]

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@RicHowe wrote:

I may be mistaken, but it seems two things are getting conflated.

@Pooka89 is saying not to "play" with it.

@Pooka89 did not say not to "use" it.

From what I've heard, and @Pooka89 can correct me, but "playing" with the button means checking your spending power multiple times and with ever increasing amounts in a short period of time to see what your "high limit" might be. While doing so might help your curiosity, the tool is meant for you to forecast a large pending purchase (within the next week) and also alerts AMEX fraud department to expect that purchase to occur.

Unfortunately, playing with the tool is also a way for those who expect to "bust out" with the account, so it does trigger the fraud department which might incur a financial review to see if you really can afford the large purchases you've been signalling.

By all means, use the tool, but it's best to use it when you legitimately need to know if a large purchase will be approved.

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OK, so I then retract my "It's a myth" comment.    My free of charge suggestion to Amex would be improve the interface to prevent innocents causing concern, e.g. require a date when you plan to make the purchase and limit the use per day or something (ETA, I see they do this).  While it's clear to Amex how they meant it to be used ("Is it likely that this purchase will be approved?") and they expect users to understand that, in the current state many users (most of MyFico) view it as a tool to answer the question: "Oh, how much will they allow me to spend?" with no intention of spending anything like the max amount.

Basically, change the name "Check Spending Power" which really invokes the second interpretation.  "Will my purchase be approved?" would be a better label!

Actually, not free of charge.  $200.

[FinStar]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@Remedios wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

From what I’ve read, FR will get triggered if you put in increasing amounts to try to find out what your max is

Pretty sure that is a myth, as are many others in the list of things that trigger an FR.   What would be the point of that logic? FRs cost time and money for Amex.

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The DPs that I have read that suggested it say otherwise, I don’t have personal experience with it. 

https://www.google.com/search?q=amex+check+spending+power+financial+review+site:ficoforums.myfico.com

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It's a myth. I think Pooka was summoned on a few occasions to shed some light on it. 

However, there has to be an expectation on their end that you're at least planning a purchase vs * Oh lookie, a button, I wonder what it does*

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+1

Yeah, there is at least one video blogger spreading erroneous info about that. 

The folks here are quite familiar with how this works and generally give good advice on it.

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I've played with it quite a bit

[FinStar]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@RicHowe wrote:

I may be mistaken, but it seems two things are getting conflated.

@Pooka89 is saying not to "play" with it.

@Pooka89 did not say not to "use" it.

From what I've heard, and @Pooka89 can correct me, but "playing" with the button means checking your spending power multiple times and with ever increasing amounts in a short period of time to see what your "high limit" might be. While doing so might help your curiosity, the tool is meant for you to forecast a large pending purchase (within the next week) and also alerts AMEX fraud department to expect that purchase to occur.

Unfortunately, playing with the tool is also a way for those who expect to "bust out" with the account, so it does trigger the fraud department which might incur a financial review to see if you really can afford the large purchases you've been signalling.

By all means, use the tool, but it's best to use it when you legitimately need to know if a large purchase will be approved.

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OK, so I then retract my "It's a myth" comment.    My free of charge suggestion to Amex would be improve the interface to prevent innocents causing concern, e.g. require a date when you plan to make the purchase and limit the use per day or something (ETA, I see they do this).  While it's clear to Amex how they meant it to be used ("Is it likely that this purchase will be approved?") and they expect users to understand that, in the current state many users (most of MyFico) view it as a tool to answer the question: "Oh, how much will they allow me to spend?" with no intention of spending anything like the max amount.

Basically, change the name "Check Spending Power" which really invokes the second interpretation.  "Will my purchase be approved?" would be a better label!

Actually, not free of charge.  $200.

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Whoops.  I'm sorry.  I'll have to use a different CC.  My "Check Your Spending Power" for $200 was declined

[Remedios]

Give me your login, I'll check for you

[Anonymous]

Sorry I didn't mean to imply that using the tool will flag your account for a financial review by any means. What I meant was, I have seen many people who did "play" with it, as in consecutively request amounts until the system locked them out. Each time I saw an account in that status, the authorization system flagged their account, which was always subsequently acknowledged by a representative in the responsible lending group (the group that initiates FR's). While it's not a surefire way to trigger one, you are, so to say "raising your hand" when using it like a toy.

Hope this clarifies