Amex card suspended and then cancelled

[tbtb31]

@sh-uk Making accusations of racism against an individual, or a corporation such as Amex, is about as heavy handed as it gets and does a huge disservice to eliminating the scurge of racism from our sociiety if being presented as a pure hypothesis with no solid proof. Being frustrated, disappointed, grumpy or whatever does not nearly justify such behaviour.
It’s a shame that editing a post doesn’t seem to be possible here, else you may have wanted to consider doing so.

This is a first-generation immigrant to the UK writing.

[mkdoc]

Same happened to me. Have been with Amex since 2002, and I under declared my income last year so when I applied this year I uplifted it a bit (still less than my actual income). What’s more annoying is that my cards stopped working and they didn’t even inform me. They probably don’t care but I’ve cancelled all my cards with them but upset about how I’ve been treated. When I called in for another reason they still didn’t tell me my cards wouldn’t work!

[Peter K]

mkdoc wrote:

Same happened to me. Have been with Amex since 2002, and I under declared my income last year so when I applied this year I uplifted it a bit (still less than my actual income). What’s more annoying is that my cards stopped working and they didn’t even inform me. They probably don’t care but I’ve cancelled all my cards with them but upset about how I’ve been treated. When I called in for another reason they still didn’t tell me my cards wouldn’t work!

So you lied to them once and they gave you the benefit of the doubt (it’s possible to make a mistake on a form and they had history of you since 2002). You then lied to them again, showing a pattern of dishonest behaviour, and are upset that they didn’t like it?

[sloth]

mkdoc wrote:

Same happened to me. Have been with Amex since 2002, and I under declared my income last year so when I applied this year I uplifted it a bit (still less than my actual income). What’s more annoying is that my cards stopped working and they didn’t even inform me. They probably don’t care but I’ve cancelled all my cards with them but upset about how I’ve been treated. When I called in for another reason they still didn’t tell me my cards wouldn’t work!

Why would you under declare your income? Twice?

[mkdoc]

My income is variable and I get a dividend every 6 months which is decided a few weeks before payment. I thought I was being cautious and didn’t realise that under declaring by 2k would be an issue. Just naive I guess

[sloth]

mkdoc wrote:

My income is variable and I get a dividend every 6 months which is decided a few weeks before payment. I thought I was being cautious and didn’t realise that under declaring by 2k would be an issue. Just naive I guess

So you are self employed? I would say that is more the issue than under declaring your income by 2k ( I assume p.a not per month?) which if so is pretty negligible

[mkdoc]

Yes it was 2k per year. I am self employed yes. But have never missed a payment and no flag on my credit report. I could send them the last 2 months bank statements but there is no large dividend payment there. Not sure if they would accept a copy of my last tax return

[Reximus]

After 6 days and 3 requests, I finally got a call back from a Serior Manager at AMEX.
After opening this post and discussing the issue here with you I came to the conclusion that the issue must have come about due to my income. When I sent through my payslips I did advise that dividends also made a proportion of my income and that if they should need information regarding this to contact me (they did not).
When talking to the Senior manager I basically stated that I believe that this was the reason for the issue, she did not confirm that it was but after speaking with a colleague she advised me to send through my dividend payments and they would do a re-review of my account, but could not promise anything.
This all happened last Thursday, so still waiting for the result.

I am not holding my breath though as after reading all the posts here it seems this could have happened for any reason and could just be down to sheer bad luck!

I am sure I have used the Amex card as anyone would, a friend of mine made me aware of the deal regarding the 70k Avios points and when I got the card I used it to pay for everything I could (personal use only and no transfers to friends). I was set on getting the 70K Avios points and the companion voucher all this year so as to plan a trip Down Under next year. I would easily spend between £1K & £2K on the card per month.

As I have previously mentioned I have the highest credit score and an excellent credit report, never missed a payment on anything in my life and have not tried to scam the system just tried to make the most of the card after all you are paying £250 a year membership fee for the privilege.

For those others on this post that have also had the same problem as me, I am really sorry to hear it, this has been an incredibly distressing time for me as I am sure it has been for you. There is nothing worse than being left in the dark about why this has happened, and I know some of you here on the post have tried to be helpful (thank you so much!!), but others not so much, this issue is happening to good people too not just yobs. After reading all the posts I am appealed at Amex’s behavior.

[BuildBackBetter]

mkdoc wrote:

Yes it was 2k per year. I am self employed yes. But have never missed a payment and no flag on my credit report. I could send them the last 2 months bank statements but there is no large dividend payment there. Not sure if they would accept a copy of my last tax return

Did you put business spend on your personal Amex?

[shaya]

You are lucky to get to speak to someone! I was stonewalled by Amex. They promised to call me and update me. They promised to get a manager to call me explain. No one ever did. I only found out that my card was suspended because it stopped working. I only found out that they wanted paperwork because I called. I only found out my account was cancelled because I received a the ‘default letter’ (I didn’t have an outstanding balance).

[Colin MacKinnon]

Other half just off online chat with Amex to get a refund of around £1k on a cancelled card.

They asked for the details of the last payment made, which was mid-January. It turns out that, just about to go on holiday, I paid off both my and her Amex cards from my account. Wouldn’t have thought it mattered, we both have financial power of attorney over each other. We like to pay off all our cards before holidays, rather than wait for the DD.

But Amex sent her a form to fill in with her and my details, wanted a copy of the bank statement and proof of my ID.

After that, they seem happy – hopefully!

Next time, I’ll make sure we are logged into the appropriate accounts. Anti-money laundering seems to be flagging up all sorts of things that it never used to bother about.

[jj]

@ColinMacKinnon, partner impersonation is, sadly, one of the most common forms of financial fraud. I have seen many cases where applicants use a relative or lover to impersonate their spouse in an attempt to borrow money in their name shortly before a relationship breaks up. The world has many scumbags in it, and Amex was doing the right thing to protect your wife.

Parent impersonation is another big problem. I have seen many attempts to fraudulently borrow by dishonest adult children where their parents have substantial assets to offer as security.

The problem from a lender’s perspective is that few people keep identity documents secure within a family, and most people can answer security questions on behalf of a family member without missing a beat. Many even know online passwords and can easily access the account of the person they are defrauding.

[Colin MacKinnon]

@jj Thanks for those insights – and your previous ones about efforts to eradicate racial profiling. I had never even thought about partner/parent impersonation.

We are fortunate as a family to have always been open about money and, in my 60s, about to give major assets over to the next generation – so they won’t be tempted!

Security questions and passwords are an issue people are still finding their way around. A very good friend has just died suddenly, and his wife didn’t know how to unlock his phone so she could tell his friends the awful news. That’s a downside for too much security.

[jj]

The most unpleasant I case that I remember was a man who borrowed £50,000 jointly with his wife to fund an extension to help house their growing family. The day the money hit the bank, he transferred the entire amount to a private overseas account and jumped onto the next flight to Spain with his mistress where, to the best of my knowledge, he still lives. Not an impersonation as such, but a very cruel deceit.

Horrible man.

[NorthernLass]

The downside of joint property! Conversely, a man tried to report his wife to me once for doing something very similar with their joint account balance and was not happy at all when I had to tell him that she hadn’t committed a criminal offence and that he would have to pursue her through the divorce courts to get any of it back. She hadn’t made any dubious loan applications, just cleared out the joint accounts and done a runner!

I know of lawyers who specialise in tracing marital assets which one party may have squirreled away but I imagine your average person wouldn’t be able to afford their fees.

[sh-uk]

Thank you, @Reximus for the update. This offers some light at the end of the tunnel. If you are successful, I will follow suit in pursuing Amex about this. Your understanding about how upsetting this is was also helpful – you’re right, this has been surprisingly distressful for me.

Likewise, @NorthernLass, the airport situation you spoke of is something I can relate to. Thank you for sharing that.

@jj, thank you for explaining about the measures to combat profiling. That was very helpful.

However, I would point out that that part of my post was not a ‘claim’ in any way. The below is clearly someone thinking out loud and sharing uncertain thoughts, isnt’ it?

“I also wondered, I’m sad to say, if there isn’t some profiling going on…

Let’s just say that if shahidaemran’s username is based on a real first and last name, then my real name is from the same part of the world. I don’t know… I’d hope that’s inconsequential, but a part of me does wonder based on some experiences I’ve had when travelling to the USA”

So to your question “Are you really sure you were racially profiled? Or do you just feel resentful that Amex closed your account”… I think the answer is quite clear. I was never “sure” at any point and never claimed to be. And yes, this whole thing is very upsetting to me.

[Lawro]

There has definitely been a shift at Amex in the last couple of months. I have heard from 3 different people whose accounts have been placed under review in the last month. All of these accounts have been open for at least 18 months, or in a couple of cases, for more than 4 years. Spending patterns have remained more or less the same. No F&F transfers or other funny business.

It’s easy to dismiss the reports above and inevitably there are things that we are not being told, but I’ve been doing this long enough to know that these are not the few isolated incidents we have seen reported on HFP down the years. Whether this has been prompted by the 70k offer or something else is at play, Amex certainly appear to be taking a different approach to credit reviews.

As LL alludes to upthread, there were always certain types of Amex applications that would go through, only for further ID/bank statements to be requested once the card was activated. This is not that.

[BuildBackBetter]

Lawro wrote:

I have heard from 3 different people whose accounts have been placed under review in the last month.

How many of those are self employed or have been self employed in the past?

[Harrier25]

3 out of how many millions of cardholders? Not really enough people to come to that conclusion.

[JDB]

Harrier25 wrote:

3 out of how many millions of cardholders? Not really enough people to come to that conclusion.

Human nature stops most people advertising when they get caught out so account closures are very underreported. Complaints about companies are similarly over reported.

It’s not surprising given the cavalier attitude many show towards their cards and the things they (over) openly boast of doing to Amex and others that an increasing number of account reviews are being undertaken. So, mock the OP at your peril.

[Harrier25]

JDB wrote:

So, mock the OP at your peril.

I’m not mocking anyone, just merely making an observation.

[alig4th]

Harrier25 wrote:

JDB wrote:

So, mock the OP at your peril.

I’m not mocking anyone, just merely making an observation.

It does seem like there’s been a more recent spate of people self-reporting closures. So unless there’s been a sudden mentality-change and people are more willing to self-report, and (say) for every 1 reporter there’s 10 non-reporters, then that’s still an increase in number of closures recently.

And I’m still not convinced the referral-block over the past few months was an IT glitch; could it have been a hold put on a number of accounts while AMEX investigated what it considered “breaches” of T&C by some accounts?

[JDB]

Harrier25 wrote:

JDB wrote:

So, mock the OP at your peril.

I’m not mocking anyone, just merely making an observation.

I suspect that if you personally knew three people whose accounts had been closed, even out of millions of cards in issue, you would probably be taking it a bit more seriously. These things move at a glacial pace but they are moving.

[Lawro]

BuildBackBetter wrote:

Lawro wrote:

I have heard from 3 different people whose accounts have been placed under review in the last month.

How many of those are self employed or have been self employed in the past?

One.

Harrier25 wrote:

3 out of how many millions of cardholders? Not really enough people to come to that conclusion.

Those are the ones I know personally. Friends are now telling me the same stories re people they know. The HFP community, or at least those who post regularly, are also a small fraction of the ‘millions of Amex cardholders’, yet when people on here report an issue with referral links not appearing or transfer partners not working we are quickly able to suss out that there is a wider issue at play. When you hear of multiple people being placed under review (some having their cards closed without explanation) who are not related to each other and not getting up to the typical PP or similar shenanigans that we would have expected to trigger an Amex review in the past, I think it’s fair to suggest that Amex are tightening the screws, temporarily or otherwise, on things they have overlooked in the past.

[Navara]

Seems obvious to me any site/forum which promotes gaming of any system is going to have contributors falling foul of the rules.Stay lucky…