Wife’s Platinum card cancelled

[Howard0181]

My wife’s Platinum card and BA Amex both cancelled with no warning. Anyone had this before? Don’t do anything naughty. Both cards always paid off. Both cards had for about 12 years.

My wife had a review as it’s a business card but she has a small property business and we lodged details plus tax return etc and this was 4 months ago. We did call up and they said the review is fine as we proved the business. Anything we can do?

They even took away about 150,000 Amex reward points.

[Colin MacKinnon]

Maybe hoarding “convertible” Amex points not such a good idea, eh?

I was always happy with “good value” avois rather than speculative possibilities.

[Froggee]

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/amex-have-cancelled-all-my-cards/

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/amex-suspended-and-cancelled/

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/amex-suspended-all-my-cards-with-no-warning/

You should at least be able to transfer your points out.

[Rob]

Were you paying her bills from your bank account? That is now grounds for expulsion due to money laundering concerns.

[JDB]

@Howard0181 – I’m sorry to hear this. It’s not such a common occurrence, but recently not so unusual either for Amex peremptorily to close accounts.

Firstly, you have been told above that your wife should move her MR which is sound advice, although you say in your post, they have been taken away. If they have actually already been removed, please post again for avenues to pursue. It’s in the contract that they can, but it’s highly doubtful if that’s enforceable.

It’s not 100% clear from your post, but I think your wife has a Business Platinum (as opposed to a Platinum she uses for business) and a BAPP. If this is correct, they each have different rules as the BP is a charge card which is not protected under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (“CCA”) which the BAPP is. This means that the BP can be closed as a matter of contract whereas the BAPP can be closed as a matter of law but both require two months notice of closure unless your wife has done something quite serious. They don’t need to offer any reasons for such closure but arguably they do if they immediately restrict your credit.

Unfortunately, Amex doesn’t respect these niceties as other card providers do, so while nothing can probably ultimately be done about the closure decision, the breach of contract and failure to comply with CCA by Amex and failure to follow due process should be compensated.

Your definition of ‘naughty’ probably differs from Amex’s! While they gladly allow people to rip them off for SUBs and retentions which suit Amex for bizarre reasons, they shut accounts for reasons including the one mentioned by @Rob above, business use on personal cards and vv, excessive PayPal transactions, unusual spending patterns/refunds, excessive supplementary cards, gaming of offers but probably most of all surprising data picked up from external sources such as National Hunter, Official Gazette, Companies House and credit agencies. Basically information they pick up that doesn’t tally with what they know and they operate on a shoot first, ask questions later basis.

[Howard0181]

1. I have always paid my wife’s credit card. I never realised this is an issue.

2. My wife had a letter asking for confirmation of business. We used the portal to lodge information Bout the business and then had another letter asking the same. We lodged full details including tax returns. E then called up a they said all ok. Thst must have been about 3 months ago.

3. My wife’s business plat card had about 150,000 Amex points.

4. The BA Amex card also cancelled with no notice.

5. My wife had an email yesterday saying account closed sure to money laundering and failure to provide information on business.

6. She will call this morning. Our main reason for having this card is that we are both 70+ and we have for insurance

7. We had one small claim when our flight cancelled and we lost a bit of money on a cruise but that was 2019. About £2000 pay out.

8. No complaints to Amex.

9. I will check credit record but doubt anything.

10. No change in financial situation.

Thank you for replies

[Howard0181]

Also, nothing on PayPal. Only a few referrals and
none self. No gambling.

Sounds like it refers to not picking up
Information on my wife’s business and me paying
wife’s account.

[Howard0181]

Update – Wife’s BA and has been in cancelled so it’s just the Amex Business Card that’s been cancelled – She will call this morning. It looks like it’s to do with my wife’s business. We have provided full details but perhaps there is an issue.

Thanks for all the assistance

[JDB]

@Howard0181 – at the risk of stating the obvious, before your wife calls Amex, it may be worth considering what she wants to achieve from that call. It’s extremely unlikely the decision will be reversed, but if the MR have actually been removed, retrieving those would seem a priority and generally cleaning up the mess.

[Howard0181]

JDB – agree with your comment and my wife wrote down objectives which were to reverse decision (unlikely to succeed), found out why? And third get points back.

The response was that card cancelled as Amex did not get answers to business questions. They only received one lot and not the two I am certain I sent. The reason I am sure is that two weeks after I sent the second batch via the portal my wife phoned and was told all ok.

With regards the points the guy said the points are lost!!! He advised to reapply for the card and if successful within 30 days we get the points back!!

I am not going to go this because I doubt the application will be successful.

My plan is to email CEO and proved full details and ask for an investigation and return of points.

Hopefully we get the points back and upgrade my
Gold card to Platinum Business.

Any other suggestions?

[JDB]

@Howard0181 – if you email the CEO, don’t get your hopes up but prepare to be irritated! You can expect a boilerplate response from a UK Executive Office drone. The issue with the points is that while one can’t really dispute Amex’s right and/or the lawfulness of closing your account, the expropriation of previously earned points is plainly an unfair contract term in a general sense but also unfair in FCA Principles terms and cannot possibly comply with the new Consumer Duty. The idea that they are entitled to remove them and will maybe on give them back if you apply for another card is basically dishonest and one-sided. In the circumstances it would be odd if they granted a new application.

The idea that Amex can lawfully remove points runs counter to articles written and de facto endorsed by their affiliate marketing friends who recommend keeping them at Amex for flexibility.

Amex might give you some guff about points not belonging to you or having no monetary value but those arguments are easily demolished. If Amex finds it technically difficult to give you the MR, perhaps they would like to return you the cash equivalent based on the price they used to sell them (1.5p).

[Howard0181]

JCB

Thank you for taking the time to write this.

I had an issue with my own card a few years ago
and exec office did eventually sort problem out.

Thank you.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Howard0181 wrote:

Hopefully we get the points back and upgrade my
Gold card to Platinum Business.

What’s the latter got to do with the former?

[Harrier25]

1. I have always paid my wife’s credit card. I never realised this is an issue.

This issue has been extensively cover on this forum for a long time!

[NorthernLass]

I thought the Plat insurance only covered up to age 70? If it doesn’t cover you any more, maybe it’s not such a huge loss.

[JDB]

The Plat personal is 70, Plat business is 80. It feels the wrong way round but Amex and the underwriters think 80 sounds better and not so many people between 70 and 80 still need a business so cheap to offer. Either way you need to be quite lucky to be 65+ and for the Amex Plat medical insurance to be of much use.

[Cranzle]

Sorry to hear about what you are going through.

I think the pertinent points here are:
1) Age
2) I don’t think Amex agree with your definition of a small property business. For example, perhaps owing a buy to let property isn’t in line with their definition of a business.
3) Are you sure that your wife has held The American Express Business Platinum Card for 12 years?

[BBbetter]

I doubt age or BTL has anything to do with it.

Amex is fully aware of the applicant’s age – why would they suddenly close it because of age? Unless applicant lied about it.

BTL is also a business – rather than the business itself, it’s more likely the nature of the spend on the card that’s triggering questions.

Also as Rob says, if you are paying off business card from a personal account, that’s another red flag.

[Cranzle]

BBbetter wrote:

I doubt age or BTL has anything to do with it.

Amex is fully aware of the applicant’s age – why would they suddenly close it because of age? Unless applicant lied about it.

BTL is also a business – rather than the business itself, it’s more likely the nature of the spend on the card that’s triggering questions.

Also as Rob says, if you are paying off business card from a personal account, that’s another red flag.

Perhaps you haven’t been following these closures in detail.

[Howard0181]

The issues are specifically related to my wife’s business. She has property let but there are other aspects to the property business. They have not
received our second bundle of information.

I have just upgraded my Amex business to platinum as a key benefit is insurance up to age 80.

[vzzbuckz]

Do they have the exclusion of pre-existing conditions on the business card that the personal Platinum card has?

[Lady London]

@Howard0181 I don’t suppose you were paying your wife’s Business Card from an account belonging to your business on which you were a signatory? If so then it would be the business account paying one of the business accounts and I don’t think Amex could object to that.

More to the point, if in custom and practice you have been doing that for years, even from a personal account, then if Amex has changed its de facto practice of accepting this then I can’t see how it can be fair for them to suddenly withdraw service to her without having pre-advised such a change with a notice period to the client.

[sayling]

@BBbetter Rob didn’t say anything about payment from a personal account being the issue, but paying the bills from someone else’s account could be the trigger.

Putting only business spend (though often not that easy to qualify/quantify as a condition) on the card is a requirement; paying from a business account is not.

[Wiseoldman]

At this point Amex are insisting the name on the account and card macth so for business cards the money should come from Business account. Dont know how this helps with ML but that is what it is for now

[TGLoyalty]

Except sole traders don’t need a business account and can have a Business Amex