Anyone else recently get hit with the dreaded F/R?

Ok, I am the latest to be selected for a review.

6-7 year old AMEX Blue Student 12k+ line, mostly unused. StarWood since Jan, with a 3k limit. No use until April, when I moved over 10k from Blue Student to Starwood.

Starwood -- 60% of CL usage in July, 35% authorized in the last few days. Almost maxed out.
Blue -- 0 balance for about 4 years now.

Almost my entire usage is dealpass, which can be considered suspicious / abnormal. Made a payment today, and was stupid enough to call them to ask when it would clear. A few minutes later, the website started showing both accounts in red with a "suspended - call us" message. Called thinking it was a fraud alert, turns out to be a "Financial Review". They want last 2 years tax returns for income verification.

Possible reasons on why it happened, all ar emy hunches, no official reason given:
(1) Old card is student card, new card is *wood platinum.
(2) Heavy and sudden gift-card purchase activity.
(3) When dealpass returned 20% on Aug 1st, in AMEX's bizarro accounting world, I have suddenly used 120% in this cycle.
(4) Two 90% util on non-AMEX cards, total less than 50% util on all credit lines.
(5) My call regarding payment.

Wonder what I should do -- I haven't filed my '05 return yet (extension), and my '03 and '04 would show low income as I was in grad school then. I would prefer to keep the *wood, but I don't think this will be an option if they see my grad school income. They aren't interested in curent job status, just tax returns from the last 2 years.

I am going to think about it overnight. I'd consider filing my taxes tomorrow if I had the time to do it -- the *wood program is that good..

*shrug* IMHO, keeping 6-year old cards in your credit history is worth the effort. Who cares if they reduce your lines to $5K apiece or something foolish like that. Do you regularly the full $17K they've alotted you?

SIS: Can you explain the ramifications of doing so? What all can they access with that sort of a release / form?

Arthur: I guess I'd ask them what they REALLY require and see if it's worth it for you to provide said documentation...

mbaker4096 said:SIS: Can you explain the ramifications of doing so? What all can they access with that sort of a release / form?
..suggest you take a look at the 4506 on irs.gov

A 4506 is completely irrelevant. When you apply for AMEX they ask for household income, not whats on your personal tax returns. Also, you do not need to disclose all sources of income when filling out a cc app. Providing a 4506 lets them see EVERYTHING youve reported to the IRS. This is a tremendous invasion of financial privacy.

Sure, lots of people wont care if their tax form is plain, but do you want AMEX knowing:
the names and SSNs of all your dependents
the addresses and income of your rental properties
your self employment activities
whether you have large stock/gambling winnings or losses
etc etc etc

Threats of legal fees probably wont dissuade them. AMEX is getting ultra-sensitive to risk

I would just refuse to deal with companies that pull this BS. My six fugures of AMEX Cls are sitting here unused for over a year bc of these reports.

ElectricElvis said:So if they close all of the accounts, will they require you to immediatly pay back the balances, or if you have any intro offers can you still pay them off according to the original agreement?i believe the terms of AMEX promo offers state they will expire if the account is closed.

you wouldnt have to payback immediately, but you likely wont keep the promo rate. probably reverts to the "closed account APR" which isnt low

ArthurDent said:I have not even exceeded my credit limit, ever. And they are making these unreasonable demands.

Fine. I will let the situation get as bad as possible from their side. The more unreasonable they look, the worse reviews and complaints I can start filing, starting with PF, BBB, FTC, Comptroller of the Currency.

If you are reading this, have your fun now, I am going to wait till this FR is over, and then start a long chain of correspondence costing you a good bit in legal fees. Not to mention you've lost a good chunk of future business


If you goto Flyertalk.com AMEX forum search for financial review and you will find a large post on it. Most people account have been flagged for financial rewiew where tiggered when there usage all of sudden increased or when AMEX noticed a large increases on balances carried on other cards when they do there normal monthly soft pull.

Most people on Flyertalk.com have given info needed and most of the time nothing happens and there accounts get unfrozen within a week or less. Some people account have had there credit lines reducded to no more of 20% of there gross income stated on there tax returns.

Filing complaints claiming they denined you credit will be totally worthless as they did nothing wrong. Fair credit laws say banks cant denie you credit based on race, religion or sex. AMEX here is doing nothing more than verifing your income and ability to pay your bill which they are 100% with in there right to do.

AMEX is not only credit card issuer who does financial review on accounts. Search here or on Flyertalk.com MBNA, Chase, Citibank and Discover card do as well. Just seem that AMEX does it more often than other issuers.

AMEX has in house consoul and it cost nothing to respond to legal consoul or even defend a claim.