I just got hit with a F/R. Rewards plus gold charge declined this morning at the grocery store for a little over $100. Used my Citi card as a backup to make the purchase. Nothing in the mail as of yesterday. Called and was redirected to the financial review dept. The rep was very rude and told me that a letter was seny Monday with further instructions. I can't emphasize enough how rude she was, I truly felt like a convicted felon. She refused to elaborate on what triggered it and told me all pertinent info is in the letter.

In essence, I have 10 business days to provide the following info:

* Last 3 months of pay stubs
* 2004 tax returns
* 2005 W-2
* Last 2 months of checking and savings accounts

If I do not comply, all my accounts will be closed and payment demanded in full immediately. Current status is all credit and charge cards in my name are frozen. Credit lines remain intact pending review of financial docs.

Here is what I currently have with AMEX, noted as CL/CURBAL

Blue 53K/3.5K
Blue Cash 21K/0
Starwood 16K/800
Hilton 11K/134
Gold Rewards Plus ?/1.1K

Most recent account opened in Oct. 05. First account opened in 2001.

This is very troubling and disturbing at the same time. I still have all my MR points and am transferring them right now. In addition, I am paying these accounts off by the end of the day so they'll post as 0's across the board tomorrow.

My plan is to close all my AMEX cards this week, well in advance of the due date I was given. I will not submit any financial docs though I did not tell her that.

This will hurt FICO and utilization to be sure. However, I have plenty elsewhere and now have the luxury of obtaining an AMEX branded card at Citi or MBNA. In fact, Citi told me I can convert my Platinum Select to a Citi AMEX if so desired.

So, thats it. I've thought about this enough. I have no regrets in what I am about to do. I knew the risk of F/R was out there, but I honestly did not expect to be hit with it at this point.

I hope this provides some useful info for others to use as a data point.

If I get any communication from AMEX regarding my impending actions, I will update this thread.

I think more credit issuers are or will become more edgy because the average american is carrying far more debt than before.

People are tapping into their credit cards for housing purchases.
When and if the bubble bursts, credit cards companies will be the biggest losers.
People will max out their charge accounts before filling for bankruptcy or going through a foreclosure.

That just seems so bizarre...that they'd freak out and send you to an FR with your AMEX balances being so low. I understand that concern that you might start racking up huge balances on the 53K line, but sheesh, such a paltry sum...

Have you had any other recent activity? New applications? New inquiries? Or is it just the high balances (elsewhere) that triggered the FR?

Thanks and best of luck!

4 months ago, I was 80% utilized on a 60K BofA card where I was carrying a 0% balance. Fast forward to today, that is down to 40%. That might be what triggered the F/R. However, this is the 5th time I have repeated this scenario with BofA and other issuers. Aside from that, I have 2-3 cards with relatively miniscule balances, the rest are showing a $0 balance.

I've only applied for one new account in Dec '05. That is the last app I submitted. Inq's are under 5 in the last 12 months for each credit bureau. Nothing really out of the ordinary on my credit reports. I just pulled all 3 to check if anything has adversely changed.

I've had the 53K AMEX blue since Jan '06 at which time I reallocated 20K from my starwood. It could be that they are freaked about having one 53K card without docs, but I'd be frankly surprised if that was the case.

summitsix said:sdeals said:I think more credit issuers are or will become more edgy because the average american is carrying far more debt than before.

People are tapping into their credit cards for housing purchases.
When and if the bubble bursts, credit cards companies will be the biggest losers.
People will max out their charge accounts before filling for bankruptcy or going through a foreclosure.

A few comments here

Not sure what you mean by housing purchases, but if you mean groceries, home improvement, utilities, broadband access, etc then I am guilty of using credit to pay for all of it.

The federal reserve does not increase the prime rate when the bubble is about to burst. Economic indicators clearly do not point in that direction.

Debt is at an all-time high, but delinquencies and chargeoffs are at an all-time low even though many banks have now raised min payments where applicable.

With new BK laws in effect, I highly doubt many of the maxed out credit users will be allowed to file.

The new law does not affect CC debts that much except for the fact that the filer might be asked to do a ch 13 as opposed to a ch 7 if he/she has enough income.

The way most are leveraged now, making an argument for a non-burdening ch 13 will be hard. So, they will get ch 7 as usual.
Even ch 13 is still a lost for the CC company as the borrower usually pays less than 50% of what's owed.

People are buying more houses than they can afford leading them to put other purchase wants/needs on CC.
In essence, as far as the CC company is concerned, they have far less collateral than before.

The BK court will take into account the housing expenses of the filer (which are now very high) into consideration leaving little for CC repayment.

Again, people will max out their credit lines before going into foreclosure or default or mortgage payments.

All AMEX accounts are now closed. The F/R notation was attached as notes on my accounts. As such, no retention efforts were made and no inquiries made as to why I was closing them. No regrets whatsoever. What took a long time to build can so easily be decimated in minutes. A valuable lesson learned however.

snoopy123 said:Today, I got a call from them for financial review. I already faxed them a copy of my w2 form, 4506-T form. The problem is when I applied the card, I triple my income. What will probably happen? Thanks.LOL why bother complying if you overstated your income by 3x?

I recently triggered an AMEX FR but after paying the balance down, they stopped bothering me and released the hold on charging anything to my cards (a big red message would display while checking account info online saying I needed to call CS about it and that disappeared). The funny thing is that I never called or contacted them about it, even after getting the letter in the mail warning if I don't respond in 10days they'll close my accounts.

I have three AMEX cards - Blue, Blue Cash, and Clear.
I reallocated my credit lines as follows:
Blue $1000 - Opened in 2001
Clear $1000 - Opened in Feb 2006
Blue Cash $25100 - Opened in Feb 2006

The reason being is that I wanted to take advantage of a 2.9% for life offer on the Blue Cash card. I had no existing balance on any of the cards. I transferred about $24200 to the Blue Card and thus, because I was at about ~90% utilization of my total AMEX credit, that probably triggered the FR. Taking a chance to see what would happen, I sold some stock to pay down the balance and dropped the utilization to <69%. After a few days, the red message online saying that I cannot charge on any of my accounts disappeared. I used both my Blue and Clear cards to check if I could and had no problems charging on them. I've since received no calls or letters regarding a FR or requests for documentation.

duna said:Recent experience: friend had no lates, went over 50% utilization only on one of three AE cards( others with 0 B) and they reduced CR by 40%. Seems nuts. By the way they PF and now awaiting to see what AE does.Any more details? E.G., how big were each of the 3 lines when this happened? Did he get FR'd, or try calling them about the CL decrease? And I assume PF = Planet feedback?

duna said:By the way they PF and now awaiting to see what AE does.Agree with Dave. Your post is terse to the point of being cryptic.