Uh Oh...Getting' nervous

[ArisGreek]

So...AMEX has left me alone for the most part. I pulled an Experian report today from annualcreditreport.com and the day I had applied for my Chase Continental Airlines OnePass Plus card I got "American Express Account Review" posted. BTW, they pulled Experian for this. I do not know if Chase pulled Transunion because when I pull my Transunion report from MyFico it just says "No inquiries are affecting your score" so I have no clue if it got pulled or not on Transunion either.

Anyways, I'm a little nervous. I haven't heard anything from them. AMEX softer me in October too when I got my Banana Republic card on the same day and then according to Experian hadn't pulled me since March 2008 for softs.  Hmm...I'm sorta nervous! I hope nothing happens. My current utilization is only 3%...

Zoinks! *crosses fingers* But, I doubt they'd wait a week to call me. They pulled it on 11/29 when I applied for that Chase Continental Airlines card...Ugh.

[JM-AM]

For what its worth I do not know if it is anything to worry about since I only received my AMEX a few months ago and I used the pre-approval from AMEX site then applied was instantly approved. I forget which CR had a soft from AMEX saying the same thing American Express Account Review, but I didn't even have a card as I was just applying and haven't applied for anything since. 

[ArisGreek]

Oh good call. I did not even think of that either That could be true, too.

[dizzier]

I wouldn't worry about it. Just continue to use your cards as you normally would.

AMEX is constantly monitoring our accounts for risky behavior. I've been credit shopping for the last month or so (auto refi, joined CU, new CC) AMEX has been softing me consistently, but have not FRed me.

If they do, I'm not too concerned. I have all my tax info ready to fax off to them if need be. I haven't lied on my app or CLI requests, and I haven't changed my charging behavior.

[haulingthescoreup]

By now, I'm pretty well convinced that the reason that AmEx rewards aren't that hot and their fees are so high is to pay for all the soft pulls that they do.

Anyway, they soft me at least monthly, and it often says Account Review, and nothing has happened. (yet)

[wollepopolle]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Anyway, they soft me at least monthly, and it often says Account Review, and nothing has happened. (yet)

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Well, that is surprising, given your lousy scores, isn't it?

But on a more serious note, it seems to me that mostly people have become subjects of financial reviews by Amex who have had a lot of new accounts/inquiries (and by that I mean more than just "a few") and/or who have had their utilization change for the worse.

I think the original poster is probably safe with his/her low utilization and exhibiting responsible behavior. I've seen lots of soft inquiries from Amex on my Experian report, too. Never had anything happen. Never gave them any reason, either. But then, others have reported such financial reviews initiated without rhyme or reason. One could just be that person that is randomly picked by the computer.

I agree that Amex probably spends a lot of money on these soft pulls. I wonder if their credit extending behavior is thus any safer / less riskier than that of other credit card companies. I somehow doubt it.

[larinoriani]

I see regular "AR" softs from all of my creditors across all the agencies, some once a year, some twice a year. This is a common practice and would not trigger  any AA unless your asking for it. If your application was accurate I wouldn't worry about it.