Amex insisting on having my annual income and occupation

[Deleted User]

kaMelo said:

Jami74 said:

kaMelo said:

Completely off topic I know but why be wary of white vans?

It was a tongue-in-cheek comment mocking the van warnings that appear on local groups. https://southendnewsnetwork.net/news/breaking-van-spotted-outside2/?fbclid=IwAR25LVS3BvnVVsH6OjFjpSHi2bZJtGUupvE8ffStFZ5wrYPSisS8_CF4U8w

Wow, when people have too much time on their hands it's amazing what crap they can come up with.

Southend News Network is a spoof like The Onion, but always amusing to see people fall for it

kaMelo

Deleted_User said:

kaMelo said:

Jami74 said:

kaMelo said:

Completely off topic I know but why be wary of white vans?

It was a tongue-in-cheek comment mocking the van warnings that appear on local groups. https://southendnewsnetwork.net/news/breaking-van-spotted-outside2/?fbclid=IwAR25LVS3BvnVVsH6OjFjpSHi2bZJtGUupvE8ffStFZ5wrYPSisS8_CF4U8w

Wow, when people have too much time on their hands it's amazing what crap they can come up with.

Southend News Network is a spoof like The Onion, but always amusing to see people fall for it

Indeed. 


"According to the regulator, this move will be both environmentally friendly and compassionate, giving anyone who got upset the chance to five-knuckle shuffle the rage away."

Jami74

kaMelo said:

Wow, when people have too much time on their hands it's amazing what crap they can come up with.

To be fair, I think he makes up enough crap to get an income from it.

MEM62

andyeyeam said:

Ergates said:

andyeyeam said:

Sorry to disappoint but really nothing interesting here. If you read my post carefully you will see that I said I did not trust the motive. Before I share personal details I like to understand why. 

The motive is very obviously that they need to know if you can afford to pay back the money you're asking to borrow from them.

They have been lending me money for 11 years.

And it is likely that most people's circumstances would have changed in 11 years so it makes sense to update the information and review limits etc.  There are tighter restrictions and controls on lenders that they must adhere to.  The fact that you do not think that is is an issue is no defence for AmEx when meeting compliance.     

Marchitiello

Interestingly when logging into my app today I was asked to confirm contact details, DoB, annual income, employment status, industry, and job role (no employer), all easily answered, and done within two minutes. Not sure if it is a general thing now or was it specifically as I had put a lot of work travel expenses in the last three months (flights, hotels, F&D) and hitting the BAPP companion voucher at the same time… 

Se1Lad

Marchitiello said:

Interestingly when logging into my app today I was asked to confirm contact details, DoB, annual income, employment status, industry, and job role (no employer), all easily answered, and done within two minutes. Not sure if it is a general thing now or was it specifically as I had put a lot of work travel expenses in the last three months (flights, hotels, F&D) and hitting the BAPP companion voucher at the same time… 

I was asked to confirm my details too when I logged into the app, and my housemate was prompted to do the same when he logged in via the website.

keiran

Yes, I was asked to do the same.

As an aside, a puzzling thing happened with Amex 3 months ago and I wonder if MSErs could postulate any reason.

3 months ago, out of the blue, I received 4 standard letters about my 4 Amex cards , telling me that they review accounts regularly and that they then determine whether the risk profile of certain accounts means that there is a greater likelihood of customers not being able to pay. Following such a review, they decided to increase my interest rate from 22.2% to 26.1% per year.

However, I have never had a late or missed payment in all my decades of holding accounts. I've been with Amex since 2005 and they could easily see this on their systems (I assume) 

Anyone say what could have spooked them? In true MSE style, I do open a lot of (switching offer) bank and (0% balance transfer) credit card accounts, but this is a long term thing. Amex customer services could only suggest I look at my credit files (which are completely "clean" save for opening many accounts) 

Whilst their increasing my interest rate is of no consequence (as I always pay off the full balance every month, as their records would show), it is worrying to me that they may have some (maybe false) information of which I am not aware

Thesaltmustflow

keiran said:

Yes, I was asked to do the same.

As an aside, a puzzling thing happened with Amex 3 months ago and I wonder if MSErs could postulate any reason.

3 months ago, out of the blue, I received 4 standard letters about my 4 Amex cards , telling me that they review accounts regularly and that they then determine whether the risk profile of certain accounts means that there is a greater likelihood of customers not being able to pay. Following such a review, they decided to increase my interest rate from 22.2% to 26.1% per year.

However, I have never had a late or missed payment in all my decades of holding accounts. I've been with Amex since 2005 and they could easily see this on their systems (I assume) 

Anyone say what could have spooked them? In true MSE style, I do open a lot of (switching offer) bank and (0% balance transfer) credit card accounts, but this is a long term thing. Amex customer services could only suggest I look at my credit files (which are completely "clean" save for opening many accounts) 

Whilst their increasing my interest rate is of no consequence (as I always pay off the full balance every month, as their records would show), it is worrying to me that they may have some (maybe false) information of which I am not aware

Nothing to worry about at all, I had a similar thing happen to me with my Halifax credit card a few years ago, they increased my standard interest rate from around 15 to 18% (if memory serves) and after I got over the 'How very dare they' because I too had/have an exemplary credit file AND pay off in full each month attitude I just ignored it and forgot about the letter. Nothing bad happened and ironically they dropped the rate back down 6 months later. 

mcpitman

keiran said:

Yes, I was asked to do the same.

As an aside, a puzzling thing happened with Amex 3 months ago and I wonder if MSErs could postulate any reason.

3 months ago, out of the blue, I received 4 standard letters about my 4 Amex cards , telling me that they review accounts regularly and that they then determine whether the risk profile of certain accounts means that there is a greater likelihood of customers not being able to pay. Following such a review, they decided to increase my interest rate from 22.2% to 26.1% per year.

However, I have never had a late or missed payment in all my decades of holding accounts. I've been with Amex since 2005 and they could easily see this on their systems (I assume) 

Anyone say what could have spooked them? In true MSE style, I do open a lot of (switching offer) bank and (0% balance transfer) credit card accounts, but this is a long term thing. Amex customer services could only suggest I look at my credit files (which are completely "clean" save for opening many accounts) 

Whilst their increasing my interest rate is of no consequence (as I always pay off the full balance every month, as their records would show), it is worrying to me that they may have some (maybe false) information of which I am not aware

It's likely to be risk based pricing.

Not you, but someone (or many people in a sample data pool), may present a higher risk than others. Therefore because you are likely to be or become one of these riskier people, you have received an APR increase, to demonstrate "rate for risk".

Or you've shown up as a "non-profit" client, where you cost more to "serve" than you return in profit and they are trying to price you away from them. If this is the case, there is normally a credit limit reduction applied in due course.

Whichever it is, it is customer profiling for risk and exposure calculations.

Been a while since I worked in banking, but the above were common practice, 10+yrs ago.

keiran

Or you've shown up as a "non-profit" client, where you cost more to "serve" than you return in profit and they are trying to price you away from them. If this is the case, there is normally a credit limit reduction applied in due course.

I should have said they'd increased my credit limit on one of my Amex cards a few weeks earlier !?!