Amex Frustration

[Anonymous]

So I'm more posting this to vent - and as sort of a PSA - than anything else.  Went to the Amex site last night and started to add my wife as an AA on my card.  Was told to enter her details and submit, so I did.  I got a message that they needed 14 days to make a decision 'on my application'.  I found that last part weird.  I knew there would be some security issues as I have a fraud alert on my account due to previous fraud.  Anyway, was going to call them this AM to get it all cleared up and have them send her a card.

I wake up this morning to a notice from Experian that there was an inquiry on my report and that my score dropped by 4 points!  **bleep**??  I know with Amex when you have a fraud alert and apply for a new card it's a HP, not a SP as it usually is.  But I didn't apply for anything!  And nowhere was it told that my credit would be pulled.  I was pissed.  I've spent the better part of the past 3 hours with various people on the line and they all told me some variation of the same line:  We can't take off the inquiry as it's not fraud.  if I didn't have the fraud alert, nothing would have happened and they would have sent the card.  But since I have the fraud alert, they are REQUIRED to pull my report, even for an AA.  

I asked if I could cancel the AA card instead and they said that I could, but the inquiry would remain.  Sooooo frustrating.

[Physh1]

It's 1 inquiry. Sounds like you knew that the fraud alert would be reason for concern...in situations where you know something may be an issue I'd always call in & talk to a supervisor who may be able to answer your concerns. Overall, it's one inquiry that will impact you for a few months...

[Anonymous]

That sounds more like a problem with FICO than AMEX.  That seems to be a reasonable business practice that did what it was supposed to do - alert you when something potentially fraudulent was happening.

It would seem to me that FICO should take into account fraud alert status when scoring, as people like you will have more inquiries.  You shouldn't be punished for it, and you shouldn't be wary of using the few tools that are provided to protect yourself.

The scoring models put us in buckets for the most part - anything above X score lets you qualify for Y program, any score between another two numbers, you qualify for a different program.  I would think that most people don't sit on the borders, and a few points in one direction or the other really has little effect on their normal use of credit.

Having said that, sometimes those few points make enormous differences in people's lives, so I get the frustration.  Since FICO isn't going to do anything and AMEX isn't going to do anything and other companies probably have the same policies....

I wonder how reasonable it would be to turn off the fraud alert before doing any account management, then turn it back on again.

Would that incur days or weeks of losing protection?  Or is it something that is more realtime?

In other words, could someone log onto the three credit bureaus, disable fraud protection, log onto amex, add an authorized user, then log onto the three credit bureaus and enable fraud protection?  I mean... that's 7 logins for 1 account action.  Absurd, but at least its a process that gives you control.

Or would you have to log onto the three credit bureaus, disable fraud protection, wait a few days or maybe a month for AMEX to get the notification, then log onto AMEX, add an authorized user, then log onto the three credit bureaus and enable fraud protection?

Or is this just AMEX fraud protection rather than credit bureau based fraud protection?