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This is a familiar story on this forum, so I wanted to share my story to balance the books a little.
I woke up bright and early Saturday morning to a message from Apple Pay that the use of my Amex card has been disabled.
Contacting customer support on a weekend was fruitless and I had to wait patiently until Monday to call the dedicated team handling my account. Roughly 10am on Saturday I received an email asking for 2 months bank statements, which I sent across within minutes.I frantically searched online to find numerous worrying stories of cards being suspended, months in limbo, awful customer service and an innocent customer at the end of all of it. So I feared the worst and resided myself to the fate I was no longer part of the club..
Monday at 9am on the dot, I called the number provided and was greeted by a customer service rep who said he was handling my case. He explained that he had all the files requested and will review them and get back to me the same day with his decision.
I received a call at 16:30 today with the good news that my card was re-activated.So within less than 3 days, my account was flagged for review, suspended and re-activated. Not bad at all and I write this post in the hope it puts other peoples mind at rest when in/if in the same situation.
So far as a customer of American Express, I’ve been blown away by their amazing customer service. It’s seriously the best customer experience I’ve ever had.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for sharing. Do you know what triggered the extra checks?
Thanks for sharing. Useful reading!
prothos08
@prothos08 Glad your issues got resolved. Amex like all financial institutions is under pressure to review customers and the processes seem random and triggered by automated systems. The real crooks are sailing through just fine!Hannah, is that you?!
You got a simple KYC check.
A pity they don’t have the courtesy to simply ask rather than shoot and ask questions later
I’m fine with a rare and occasional security or KYC block. But it does highlight how ‘good’ we have it travelling with wallets full of cards – compared to much of the public who are screwed if their primary card isn’t working. I think I go everywhere with 4+ cards minimum… usually 5 or 6… and the true debit cards never go anywhere!
I’m fine with a rare and occasional security or KYC block. But it does highlight how ‘good’ we have it travelling with wallets full of cards – compared to much of the public who are screwed if their primary card isn’t working. I think I go everywhere with 4+ cards minimum… usually 5 or 6… and the true debit cards never go anywhere!
It’s worth considering why such a suspension/check took place. Amex is constantly carrying out KYC/AML and credit checks in the background, drawing data from lots of sources, but it’s extremely rare for them to need to approach the customer for more information or for the cardholder to be aware. It means there is something that looks unusual that requires manual assessment and additional evidence.
As @JDB says, suspension first then KYC check is not the usual order of things. There must have been something odd about your transactions/profile that led to the pre-emptive suspension and was then cleared by what you provided… if you don’t understand the underlying reason there is a risk it could happen again and no guarantee it will be as easy to clear next time, so you should try to find out. If you do know the reason then please share as that is useful information for all of us!
It seems that Amex may have overstretched themselves, less places are accepting the card as the charges for the merchant are too high. I’ve had too many problems with Amex, I was a Gold and a platinum member, needless to say they all of a sudden demanded I pay the balance in full, which of course I did. I only owed £3200 and i paid my accounts every month in full. It seems like they are in financial difficulties themselves as they are seeking to get every penny back they can, ironically I was just about to pay for my new care at &40,000 (just a run about is all I needed) then pay them in full in the next billing period. I never defaulted once and I provided all documents they required and I was with American Express for over 3 years and paid my balance in full every month. I think they (from what I’ve heard from my brother whom works in finance) are in big trouble themselves financially. “It’s no skin off of my nose.) as I literally get good rates with any card and we all only use them for points to redeem against flights or cash back and I think that is what is hurting them, that and increasingly nobody will take the card locally (for me at least this is the case.) good luck to them, my many friends that thought about taking a card out with them are going elsewhere. It reeks of desperation and hard times financially for Amex to me!
ironically I was just about to pay for my new care at &40,000 (just a run about is all I needed) then pay them in full in the next billing period.
Which dealer was going to accept Amex for your car purchase?
And what make of “runaround” is £40k?!
@Andrew. There’s a thread on here somewhere about car purchase/leasing and which dealers accept Amex and other credit cards.@JamesMK1 they are not in financial trouble don’t know whose told you that but they have public accounts you can check to see that’s just false. $46bn cash or cash equivalents they are far from that.
There share price is also up just over 95% in the last 5 years on the back on YoY growth
It seems that Amex may have overstretched themselves, less places are accepting the card as the charges for the merchant are too high. I’ve had too many problems with Amex, I was a Gold and a platinum member, needless to say they all of a sudden demanded I pay the balance in full, which of course I did. I only owed £3200 and i paid my accounts every month in full. It seems like they are in financial difficulties themselves as they are seeking to get every penny back they can, ironically I was just about to pay for my new care at &40,000 (just a run about is all I needed) then pay them in full in the next billing period. I never defaulted once and I provided all documents they required and I was with American Express for over 3 years and paid my balance in full every month. I think they (from what I’ve heard from my brother whom works in finance) are in big trouble themselves financially. “It’s no skin off of my nose.) as I literally get good rates with any card and we all only use them for points to redeem against flights or cash back and I think that is what is hurting them, that and increasingly nobody will take the card locally (for me at least this is the case.) good luck to them, my many friends that thought about taking a card out with them are going elsewhere. It reeks of desperation and hard times financially for Amex to me!
Posts like this do make me smile…
Hannah, is that you?!
@Travel Strong 🙂 very quick! Brought a big smile to my face on this grey, wet English summer.
Lol, just got that!
Posts like this do make me smile…
I’d go as far as to say chuckle!
I’d hardly call it “amazing customer service” to simply receive service that is worse than what should be expected tbh…
@prothos08 – assuming that you’re not Hannah or her PR team – what do you thing triggered the check?
Bloody hell, I read this thread with mild concern but my cards have just been suspended too — for overpaying my card by mistake and asking Amex to return the direct debit.
Bloody hell, I read this thread with mild concern but my cards have just been suspended too — for overpaying my card by mistake and asking Amex to return the direct debit.
Did you ask Amex to return the DD (as stated above) or your bank? Amex won’t normally take the DD if the payment is made more than five working days before the date it should be taken. Unfortunately, fiddling with the DD is a serious rookie error that sets off alarms at Amex.
I asked Amex to return it as I’d made a manual payment. Was also charged a £12 fee without being told ahead of time. Won’t be making that mistake again!
Just come across this, but last month I got the exact same, woke up to a heap of emails saying my cards were disabled in Apple Pay, then logging in I had a suspended banner – I’ve been with Amex UK continuously for the last decade, the current only remaining card since 2007. I called them a week or so later, because I kept forgetting, but the lady on the phone was really good, told me exactly what they needed and where to send it. My siutation is also a bit odd, as I have dual addresses and am paid by an overseas company in a different currency, so I explained that and sent payslips/statements showing my other address, as well as statements with my Amex UK address. A couple of days later I got an email saying all good, and everything was back to normal.
I figured it was just a random check (which the lady I spoke to actually proactively said it was when I called), but I suspect some high CC balances reflected in the CRA feed for a few months (stoozing) may have spooked them (as my Amex balance was zero at the time, and I won’t risk my Amex relationship with heaps of MS/PayPal F&F/etc.).
It seems that Amex may have overstretched themselves, less places are accepting the card as the charges for the merchant are too high. I’ve had too many problems with Amex, I was a Gold and a platinum member, needless to say they all of a sudden demanded I pay the balance in full, which of course I did. I only owed £3200 and i paid my accounts every month in full. It seems like they are in financial difficulties themselves as they are seeking to get every penny back they can, ironically I was just about to pay for my new care at &40,000 (just a run about is all I needed) then pay them in full in the next billing period. I never defaulted once and I provided all documents they required and I was with American Express for over 3 years and paid my balance in full every month. I think they (from what I’ve heard from my brother whom works in finance) are in big trouble themselves financially. “It’s no skin off of my nose.) as I literally get good rates with any card and we all only use them for points to redeem against flights or cash back and I think that is what is hurting them, that and increasingly nobody will take the card locally (for me at least this is the case.) good luck to them, my many friends that thought about taking a card out with them are going elsewhere. It reeks of desperation and hard times financially for Amex to me!
LOL…I really don’t think Amex have much to worry about financially.
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