HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE WITH MY DREAM CARD (AMEX)

[Morphyyy]

Honestly this is just ridiculous. As I've said a bunch of time AMEX has always been my dream card and I've worked years to get on with them.

A couple days ago I was approved for the BCE and GOLD card and had to call to verify address.. ok normal stuff been there before.

I now have my gold card and I activated it, checked spending power all that good stuff. 

Made a $50 purchae at walmart - no problme

Make a $350 purchase at gucci - declined 

Try to check spending power says unavailable need to call in to verify information

Call in and told I have a fraud alert blah blah so I scan my ID for the 3rd time so far and they say ok you're good to go

Make #350 purchase again at gucci DECLINED 

call back in and say I'm on a higher level of fraud alert now and have to call back in the morning when they are open

Get ahold of somebody, they say I need to scan ID and submit selfie this time... call disconnected great....

Call back in and I'm told the verification failed now i need to upload front and back of ID to notarycam.com and wait

submit information was told should only take a few minutes and I'm now on 30 minutes waiting to hear something

Told if I dont submit within 15 days account could be closed

this is just ridiculous for how excited I was to get this card and finally get it and I'm treated like this when I've proven myself over and over again makes me want to just close the card why pay AF if i can't even use it and get flagged for fraud for such a small purchase

They really killed the vibe for me that I had for this card

[Horseshoez]

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@Morphyyy wrote:

Honestly this is just ridiculous. As I've said a bunch of time AMEX has always been my dream card and I've worked years to get on with them.

A couple days ago I was approved for the BCE and GOLD card and had to call to verify address.. ok normal stuff been there before.

I now have my gold card and I activated it, checked spending power all that good stuff. 

Made a $50 purchae at walmart - no problme

Make a $350 purchase at gucci - declined 

Try to check spending power says unavailable need to call in to verify information

Call in and told I have a fraud alert blah blah so I scan my ID for the 3rd time so far and they say ok you're good to go

Make #350 purchase again at gucci DECLINED 

call back in and say I'm on a higher level of fraud alert now and have to call back in the morning when they are open

Get ahold of somebody, they say I need to scan ID and submit selfie this time... call disconnected great....

Call back in and I'm told the verification failed now i need to upload front and back of ID to notarycam.com and wait

submit information was told should only take a few minutes and I'm now on 30 minutes waiting to hear something

Told if I dont submit within 15 days account could be closed

this is just ridiculous for how excited I was to get this card and finally get it and I'm treated like this when I've proven myself over and over again makes me want to just close the card why pay AF if i can't even use it and get flagged for fraud for such a small purchase

They really killed the vibe for me that I had for this card

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Sorry about your experience, but I am not even remotely surprised.  Why?  First an incedental Walmart purchase and then a hit at Gucci?  That has "Fraud" and "Red-Flag" written all over it.  Here's the thing, credit card issuers in general, and in my experience, AMEX in particular, has very good fraud algorithms, and have had for many decades.

True story, back in 1982 I went to buy a fairly nice Sony TV with my AMEX card (now called the Green Card); the charge was declined and the store was asked to call AMEX.  When the manager got on the phone with them they asked if I was still in the store, I was, and he handed the phone to me.  The AMEX CSR asked me to identify three foriegn countries I'd made charges in during the previous few months.  I was stunned and then realized what was happening, I replied, "France, Holland, and Italy."  The CSR thanked me and told me to try the charge again; it went through the second time.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but actual phone calls were normal back in 82. lol

Today it would be a text prompt where you could validate said charge.  While I personally don't get this very often, it does happen from time to time with online purchases who've had known data breach issues.  I don't think I've ever been in store and had an issue, though I've yet to go on shopping spree mere days of having said card.   And yes, that type of spending pattern is a typical fraud indicator. Especailly if you have a known address issues i would imagine it get complicated. 

As annoying as this can be i think, as others have posted, it's better that Amex is proactive with potential fraud issues rather than wait and see approach. And it's certainly better to get this sorted before any kind of travel is attempted. 

[Mr_Mojo_Risin]

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@Morphyyy wrote:

Honestly this is just ridiculous. As I've said a bunch of time AMEX has always been my dream card and I've worked years to get on with them.

A couple days ago I was approved for the BCE and GOLD card and had to call to verify address.. ok normal stuff been there before.

I now have my gold card and I activated it, checked spending power all that good stuff. 

Made a $50 purchae at walmart - no problme

Make a $350 purchase at gucci - declined 

Try to check spending power says unavailable need to call in to verify information

Call in and told I have a fraud alert blah blah so I scan my ID for the 3rd time so far and they say ok you're good to go

Make #350 purchase again at gucci DECLINED 

call back in and say I'm on a higher level of fraud alert now and have to call back in the morning when they are open

Get ahold of somebody, they say I need to scan ID and submit selfie this time... call disconnected great....

Call back in and I'm told the verification failed now i need to upload front and back of ID to notarycam.com and wait

submit information was told should only take a few minutes and I'm now on 30 minutes waiting to hear something

Told if I dont submit within 15 days account could be closed

this is just ridiculous for how excited I was to get this card and finally get it and I'm treated like this when I've proven myself over and over again makes me want to just close the card why pay AF if i can't even use it and get flagged for fraud for such a small purchase

They really killed the vibe for me that I had for this card

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I'm sorry to hear this for you.

I remember your recent post about how excited you were, hopefully it's worked out very soon. 

Seems a little overkill...

[FinStar]

@Morphyyy- definitely a very frustrating experience for sure.  Hopefully, it'll all get resolved and your card will be good to go.

Btw, my bday is not for another couple months, may I ask what the surprise gift you were getting from Gucci? j/k

[Anonymous]

Wow. That's a lot of drama for a credit card. 

[Anonymous]

Using an Amex charge card is just like driving on the highway.  You first use the on ramp to get up to highway speed then you merge with the rest of the traffic.  You don't just start out driving at 70 mph or above.

OP sorry to hear about your experience but you've probably set off all sorts of alarms with Amex.  First you had to have your address verified.  It happens but it's not "normal stuff" as you claim.  Then you activated a charge card and immediately checked spending power (Its well known in these forums that you don't mess with the spending power button unless you intend to make a purchase in the amount you checked).  Then made a purchase at Walmart and tried to make one at Gucci.  There's a phrase for that pattern of spending that is occasionally thrown around in these forums but I'd hestitate to use it here; but be assured that sort of immediate spending at two literally polar opposite types of businesses would trigger fraud warnings for almost any lender.

[Jnbmom]

It does seem a little bit of overkill but just like other banks AMEX takes fraud seriously if they think that might be the case which it isn't of course.

If you don't want to go through verifying yet again you can just close it . I sometimes don't understand why people think  AMEX is all that , plenty of other banks out there .

[Morphyyy]

I agree it has basically messed up my whole day tbh.

Update as of now:
I did the notary interview and got ID notarized and called back
Was told I now need to submit front and back of ID and SS card to a secured message center
Waited a hour for the link to the encrypted message center but never got it
Called back in waited 45 minutes for me to be told to type in the link instead so I did and made a account
I submitted documents and checked send me a copy ... received no copy
I'm now on hold again while the agent tries to see if my documents came through and if they did its a 72 hour process to approve or deny verification

wow definitely not worth it

[Morphyyy]

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@FinStar wrote:

@Morphyyy- definitely a very frustrating experience for sure.  Hopefully, it'll all get resolved and your card will be good to go.

Btw, my bday is not for another couple months, may I ask what the surprise gift you were getting from Gucci? j/k

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Thank you lol and if they ever get it fixed I'll get you a surprise haha