AMEX FR Explained

Tuscani · ‎06-08-2007

With all the recent dicussions about AMEX.. I figured I would quickly touch on what Amex FR is and why you should be aware of it.

FR - F/R = financial review. This is when AMEX flags your account(s) with their internal system. When they do a financial review they generally freeze or close you accounts and can request anything from simple address, phone number, and employment verification, IRS transcripts, to a full blown CPA audit.

It has nothing to do with how good of a customer you have been, they do financial reviews to make sure that you will be able to pay them back the money you borrowed.

IMO, the people that fear the FR are people that didn't exactly tell the truth on their application. What information do they find out about you that they dont already have...Your income.

fused · ‎06-08-2007

Tuscani wrote:
With all the recent dicussions about AMEX.. I figured I would quickly touch on what Amex FR is and why you should be aware of it.

FR - F/R = financial review. This is when AMEX flags your account(s) with their internal system. When they do a financial review they generally freeze or close you accounts and can request anything from simple address, phone number, and employment verification, IRS transcripts, to a full blown CPA audit.

It has nothing to do with how good of a customer you have been, they do financial reviews to make sure that you will be able to pay them back the money you borrowed.

IMO, the people that fear the FR are people that didn't exactly tell the truth on their application. What information do they find out about you that they dont already have...Your income.

I'm very glad you made this thread. You win thread of the day! I have read a lot about this topic here and other forums. I guess my questions are this:

1.) Are there certain behaviors which might raise red flags?

2.) If Amex just freezes your accounts but does not close them, what might the effect be on your FICO scores.

3.) What if someone refuses to the FR, are there other ramifications.

I am not concerned with them doing this to me. I have made large timely payments on my revolving Blue card and the last two months PIF my Gold Charge card with payments in the several thousands. With the gold charge card Amex allows you to use a flex account, allowing a member to revolve some or all of the balance. Do you think PIF every month on this card and not using their flex account might be a way to avoid an FR? TY

Anonymous · ‎06-09-2007

Why would ANYONE lie about income on a credit card application??? I say they get what they deserve if it is discovered as a result of FR...

Take Care.

Rob

Anonymous · ‎06-09-2007

I would imagine a FR is doing someone a favor if they lie about income. Just imagine if they were unable to pay a debt back to a lender where they lied about income. What if the lender investigates income after a failed payment? Could they be held criminally liable to pay back debt. A dangerous path one might walk on. However. I have had FRs from other banks. I did show financial statements to release my accounts back to me. It was a very big annoyance. The reason they did that was too many minimum payments across the board. IDK, the banks offered me 0% to encourage me to spend more money and help motivate me to pay it back sooner. lol. Anyway, too many minimum payments triggered multiple FRs.

fused · ‎06-09-2007

ilovepizza wrote:
I would imagine a FR is doing someone a favor if they lie about income. Just imagine if they were unable to pay a debt back to a lender where they lied about income. What if the lender investigates income after a failed payment? Could they be held criminally liable to pay back debt. A dangerous path one might walk on. However. I have had FRs from other banks. I did show financial statements to release my accounts back to me. It was a very big annoyance. The reason they did that was too many minimum payments across the board. IDK, the banks offered me 0% to encourage me to spend more money and help motivate me to pay it back sooner. lol. Anyway, too many minimum payments triggered multiple FRs.

I understand what you are saying here. But it just would seem odd for a ccc to do an FR on a member who makes large payments and revolves low balances. I would not continue doing business with a company that mistreats well established responsible carholders. There must be more to this that we do not know about.

SoulSmilen · ‎06-09-2007

I think the very simple and direct point is... it's not mistreating if verifiable information is given to begin with. It's the financial world - numbers and accounting - why wouldn't a customer EXPECT information to be verified?

As earlier posts have said, if the information given to them regarding income is correct and verifiable, there's no reason to fear the FR.

Tuscani · ‎06-09-2007

SoulSmilen wrote:
I think the very simple and direct point is... it's not mistreating if verifiable information is given to begin with. It's the financial world - numbers and accounting - why wouldn't a customer EXPECT information to be verified?

As earlier posts have said, if the information given to them regarding income is correct and verifiable, there's no reason to fear the FR.

Exactly... But, its the whole process that sucks.. there is an entire forum on the net dedicated to the horror stories involved with Amex FRs.

Anonymous · ‎06-09-2007

1. I have heard that if you refuse a FR, they will close your account, but a month later they will ask you to come back. Any truth to this?

2. As I said on another thread, when I went from Green to Blue, I refused to provide household income amount. They told me they had to list my income as 0. Does this mean I am pretty well insulated from a FR? There's nothing to verify. It was their decision to give me the card based on no income. If they demand a FR, I'll surely refuse that as well!

Anonymous · ‎06-09-2007

From my understanding, if they close your account due to a failure to comply with their F/R requests, it says "closed by lender" on your reports and looks worse on a manual review...

Message Edited by Jay1987 on 06-09-2007 03:00 PM

Anonymous · ‎06-09-2007

Jay1987 wrote:
if they close your account due to a failure to comply with their F/R requests, it says "closed by lender" on your reports and looks worse on a manual review...

"Closed by lender" looks only marginally worse than "Closed by consumer".