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It’s an interesting insight into the things that trigger Amex. Thanks for sharing and sorry for your experience.
You can’t pay off Amex directly with another credit card, but I’m wondering if they thought doing a balance transfer meant you were struggling to pay off debts?
A switched-on regulator would not permit this. Shedding customers who shop around for the best rates is unconscionable, and a risk engine that considers this is broken.
I doubt a balance transfer triggered the closure. Didnt JDB or someone mention that such closures are escalated internally and needs approvals? Doesnt closing them on the date of balance transfer shows the BT didnt actually trigger closure?
I’m wondering if they thought doing a balance transfer meant you were struggling to pay off debts?
Incidentally, does the MBNA 0% not also have a transfer fee?
Yes the bal xfr may have sparked a review and yes there was a 1.9%? MBNA fee; rather than deal with IFA to get cash or withdraw from NS&I sometimes just easier to pay the £100 fee to release instant cash. This isn’t great financial logic when on the other hand saving a few £ stockpiling Nectar offers, but….
So to summarise, Amex could see that you had run up a large balance which you were unable to pay. And you transferred this to another lender, paying fees to a competitor instead of paying interest to Amex.
I’m not surprised they decided they didn’t want you as a customer.
You can’t pay off Amex directly with another credit card, but I’m wondering if they thought doing a balance transfer meant you were struggling to pay off debts?
A switched-on regulator would not permit this. Shedding customers who shop around for the best rates is unconscionable, and a risk engine that considers this is broken.
The regulator relies on the FOS to examine these sorts of cases and Amex was found to have acted correctly.
A business must be allowed to choose who it takes on or keeps as a client.
As @Alex-G points out what you call “customers who shop around for the best rates” just looks to Amex as though you are more indebted than they realised or feel comfortable with.
And just to add, my post was not intended to be rude or unfriendly. Just showing you how Amex may have viewed the situation.
A lot of us on here “take advantage” of Amex’s “generosity”, and push things to the limit. It’s a game that we win most of the time, but when you play a game you have to be prepared to lose.
The regulator relies on the FOS to examine these sorts of cases and Amex was found to have acted correctly.
A business must be allowed to choose who it takes on or keeps as a client.
As @Alex-G points out what you call “customers who shop around for the best rates” just looks to Amex as though you are more indebted than they realised or feel comfortable with.
1. I would have thought FOS’s job is to see if an individual case was handled lawfully and fairly, not if a lender was abusing its position in the market (the latter being FCA/CMA’s role). I stand to be corrected on that, perhaps FOS is all over that sort of thing, and is looking at macro market level things when adjudicating individual complaints.
2. agreed in general, but the FCA has rules that potentially cut across that in the Consumer Duty, specifically to enable and support customers to pursue their financial objectives — I’d have thought being free to move debt around would be entirely within the scope of that
3. “just looks to Amex as though you are more indebted than they realised” or “more switched on to other lenders rates than they would like” … ?
So to summarise, Amex could see that you had run up a large balance which you were unable to pay. And you transferred this to another lender, paying fees to a competitor instead of paying interest to Amex.
I’m not surprised they decided they didn’t want you as a customer.
@Alex G thank you 😀Apols for sustaining the thread beyond its shelf life but as people may refer to it in future for their own decisions it should not include red herrings.
I’ve recently spoken to someone at Amex Brighton regarding a refund to a cancelled card and it transpires that the bal xfr was made after the account cancellation, to clear the balance. So a balance transfer was not the causal factor for the cancellation.
I doubt a balance transfer triggered the closure. Didnt JDB or someone mention that such closures are escalated internally and needs approvals? Doesnt closing them on the date of balance transfer shows the BT didnt actually trigger closure?
Ahem…
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