Amex "total assets" help

Anonymous · ‎07-19-2016

Question for Amex card holders!

I can't really find an answer to this one. So if you go under account services/income profile/your income information there are two fields to fill in. "Total Annual Income" and "Total Assets." Income is pretty straight forward and I've seen a thousand discussions on this forum regarding income, but never any discussing the assets side of it.

When you click on the "info" icon next to where it asks for Total Assets, it says "Include all financial assets available to you. If under age 21, include only your assets. Assets include savings accounts, checking accounts, retirement accounts and other investments (stocks, bonds, brokerage accounts etc)."

This seems pretty vague to me. Assets to me means either cash or anything you can liquidate for cash. So if you own a $250k home that's 100% paid off (ie you can sell it and walk away with $250k) would you include that $250k as part of your assets? I would think so. Just curious how all of you filled in this field, what you considered when doing it, etc.

While income can certainly be verified fairly easily, I would think verifying total assets for someone like Amex would be next to impossible as I have trouble myself even coming up with a number based on what I choose to include.

I would also think that compared to "Total Annual Income" that the "Total Assets" category is less significant to Amex when using that information to determine potential CLIs and such, but I'd like to hear your opinions on that as well.

DrZoidberg · ‎07-19-2016

Total financial assets does not include your home or (assets - liabilities) it's strictly liuiqdable assets. Like stocks, bonds, retirement, savings, cash, etc..

Anonymous · ‎07-19-2016

Interesting how a paid off home wouldn't be included. But, if you sold it and put the money in the bank it then is included. That's kind of odd.

What about the part where it says if you are under 21 only include your own assets? That implies if you are OVER 21 that you could include yours and possibly others? Not really sure what that's getting at there.

Anonymous · ‎07-19-2016

I have one car that is paid for and was told by another creditor that I could include it in their total liquid assets line. Just a data point.

DrZoidberg · ‎07-19-2016

You can count whatever you want. It's your profile. In the financial industry cars, property and commodities are not considered financial assets. Could you Count your car? Sure, you would have to deduct depreciation. Could you count your house? Sure, but what is the value? How fast can you liquidate?

sccredit · ‎07-19-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
Interesting how a paid off home wouldn't be included. But, if you sold it and put the money in the bank it then is included. That's kind of odd.

What about the part where it says if you are under 21 only include your own assets? That implies if you are OVER 21 that you could include yours and possibly others? Not really sure what that's getting at there.

This is basically telling anyone under 21 that they cannot use mommy and daddy's assets.

kdm31091 · ‎07-19-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
Question for Amex card holders!

I can't really find an answer to this one. So if you go under account services/income profile/your income information there are two fields to fill in. "Total Annual Income" and "Total Assets." Income is pretty straight forward and I've seen a thousand discussions on this forum regarding income, but never any discussing the assets side of it.

When you click on the "info" icon next to where it asks for Total Assets, it says "Include all financial assets available to you. If under age 21, include only your assets. Assets include savings accounts, checking accounts, retirement accounts and other investments (stocks, bonds, brokerage accounts etc)."

This seems pretty vague to me. Assets to me means either cash or anything you can liquidate for cash. So if you own a $250k home that's 100% paid off (ie you can sell it and walk away with $250k) would you include that $250k as part of your assets? I would think so. Just curious how all of you filled in this field, what you considered when doing it, etc.

While income can certainly be verified fairly easily, I would think verifying total assets for someone like Amex would be next to impossible as I have trouble myself even coming up with a number based on what I choose to include.

I would also think that compared to "Total Annual Income" that the "Total Assets" category is less significant to Amex when using that information to determine potential CLIs and such, but I'd like to hear your opinions on that as well.

A home is not so much a liquid asset. Yes you can sell it and potentially make the money but it's not guaranteed for any specific amount and it could take months to sell.

Don't overthink this. Liquid assets are simply monies that you have ready access to and can quickly produce. Savings, checking, investments (albeit may have to take a fee to withdraw them), etc. Homes and cars are assets in a sense, but they are not really the kind of liquid assets a credit card company would take into consideration.

You are free to put down whatever you want, but I wouldn't recommend it. Amex may not be able to verify your claims one way or another, but since most people probably aren't putting "250k" under assets, you will be standing out and probably not in a good sense.

Anonymous · ‎07-19-2016

@kdm31091 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Question for Amex card holders!

I can't really find an answer to this one. So if you go under account services/income profile/your income information there are two fields to fill in. "Total Annual Income" and "Total Assets." Income is pretty straight forward and I've seen a thousand discussions on this forum regarding income, but never any discussing the assets side of it.

When you click on the "info" icon next to where it asks for Total Assets, it says "Include all financial assets available to you. If under age 21, include only your assets. Assets include savings accounts, checking accounts, retirement accounts and other investments (stocks, bonds, brokerage accounts etc)."

This seems pretty vague to me. Assets to me means either cash or anything you can liquidate for cash. So if you own a $250k home that's 100% paid off (ie you can sell it and walk away with $250k) would you include that $250k as part of your assets? I would think so. Just curious how all of you filled in this field, what you considered when doing it, etc.

While income can certainly be verified fairly easily, I would think verifying total assets for someone like Amex would be next to impossible as I have trouble myself even coming up with a number based on what I choose to include.

I would also think that compared to "Total Annual Income" that the "Total Assets" category is less significant to Amex when using that information to determine potential CLIs and such, but I'd like to hear your opinions on that as well.
A home is not so much a liquid asset. Yes you can sell it and potentially make the money but it's not guaranteed for any specific amount and it could take months to sell.

Don't overthink this. Liquid assets are simply monies that you have ready access to and can quickly produce. Savings, checking, investments (albeit may have to take a fee to withdraw them), etc. Homes and cars are assets in a sense, but they are not really the kind of liquid assets a credit card company would take into consideration.

You are free to put down whatever you want, but I wouldn't recommend it. Amex may not be able to verify your claims one way or another, but since most people probably aren't putting "250k" under assets, you will be standing out and probably not in a good sense.

I seriously doubt Amex takes note of $250K in assets as standing out. That isn't that high and a lot of people have considerably more than that. Maybe if you put $2.5 million they might notice if you put $35Kas your income but who knows.

Anonymous · ‎07-19-2016

I assume they want to know your assets because they want to know what your chances are of being able to pay your bill should you lose your income? Is that a fair assessment? Someone with no assets if they lose their income can't really do much, but if they have assets they can use them to still pay their bill(s), at least temporarily.

That said, I would think something like a paid off car or paid off house that can be sold (even if it takes weeks or months) would be worthwhile in the sense that it could provide necessary funds to still pay bills if it ever came down to that. I know one of the first things I would do is sell my car if I ever found myself in a situation like that, and would do the same with my house if it ever got really bad.

While one perhaps shouldn't include actual market value of paid off real estate a liquid asset, including 2/3 of the amount or whatever number you're very confident you could quickly acquire I don't think would be a "wrong" move.

I think of an extreme example... like a guy that literally has all of his money tied up in real estate... multiple houses, apartment buildings, maybe some commercial sites etc. but if he has essentially nothing in savings, bonds and such his "total assets" would be viewed as very small which just doesn't seem to make sense to me.

Anonymous · ‎07-19-2016

@sccredit wrote:
This is basically telling anyone under 21 that they cannot use mommy and daddy's assets.

Gotcha. I wasn't sure if it was like income where some adults will disclose only their own income where others include their income plus their spouses. I didn't know if this rule was true when considering "total assets" as well.

Nice replies and feedback from those that have contributed above... I appreciate the insight and different perspectives.