Amex Credit Review for New Customers

plh56

Hi, has anyone had a similar experience with Amex as this?
I replaced my rewards card a couple of weeks ago with an Amex one. So far had no issues except a few places that don't take Amex, but last night I finished work at 5pm and ordered something on Amazon and it said payment declined. Upon checking my emails I saw I had one from Amazon jus before 5 saying the following:

We are currently performing a review of your American Express® Account referenced above. We review accounts on a regular basis to ensure we meet our obligations as a responsible lender. While we conduct this review, further charging against your account has been temporarily suspended. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. To ensure the issue is resolved as soon as possible, please provide below mentioned documents within 14 days from the date of this communication:

 • If you are employed by a company, please provide us with the last two months original bank statements reflecting your pay slip deposits.

 • If you are self-employed or a SBS Card Holder, please provide us with your last two months original bank statements that reflects payments to American Express. 

 Return these by post to: American Express Services Europe Ltd. Department 4210, 1 John Street, Brighton, BN88 1NH.

 You can also email the documents to credit.review@aexp.com. Please note that the internet can be unsecure. If you choose to email us, we would recommend using a secure encryption method such as, https://encryptedexchange.americanexpress.com/login if it is available for your PC, in order to safeguard your personal data. Upon successful review of your account, we can look into reactivating your Card. We will stay in touch every step of the way and contact you if we should require further documentation.

I'm not very impressed that as a new customer they've cut me off in order to do this review rather than doing it when I signed up, also what use is bank statements from before I was even their customer? I don't really see why sending them these bank statements will help but I feel like I have no choice as they've already disabled both mine and my wife's cards. The way they've gone about this is terrible as they cut our cards right before their phone lines closed without warning and it's already caused our weekly food shop payment to get declined too now. Why couldn't they ask for these documents before cutting us off?
Is this normal for how Amex treat new customers in people's experience?

The card has a £10k limit and we've spent about £900 on it so far, usually spend about £2000/month on our rewards card (from previous one) and pay it off in full each month and don't use it for anything unusual so not sure why we've been flagged.

Thanks

plh56

Just as an update - I sent the bank statements and called them. After 40 minutes on hold I got told they've received the documents, but can't tell me how long the review will take except they're very busy so it could be a while, new card definitely won't be re-enabled today. Said they can't do the review when we signed up or before cutting us off for some reason.
When I asked why we had been chosen for this review, they said "due to a large number of credit applications in a short timeframe". I use MSE credit club and have not made any other credit applications in recent months except this one, explained that to him and he said it may be just the number in the same postcode as me. This seems ridiculous to me, why should our neighbours activities result in our card getting disabled pending a review?

WillPS

There are a number of things which can trigger these 'account reviews' - if you haven't lied on your application then you have nothing to worry about. It might be nothing to do with your application at all.

Sit tight. If you haven't lied you've nothing to worry about.

plh56

Thanks, I have not lied in the application so am not worried. Just irritated that they do it in such a disruptive way.

plh56

One thing I am concerned about though is that they will see the amount I got paid in the previous 2 months (as that is all they have asked for) and conclude that I get that amount every month, but I don't get paid identically each month and some months are far more than others. While I can prove my earnings match what I stated in my application by giving them 12 months of payslips or more, I worry this will delay the review, keeping my card frozen for longer.
I can understand them wanting to check these things during the application process (it seems prudent in fact!), but I just can't understand the rationale for waiting for a customer they've already accepted to switch all purchases over to the card and then without warning freeze the card to do these checks. It seems like the most un-customer friendly and disruptive way possible and no way to keep customers!

The_Urbanite

I have undergone several credit reviews with Amex. It’s nothing to worry about. If you want to use their product you’ll have to comply with it, if not then the only option is to close your account. 

plh56

Hi The_Urbanite,
Thanks for sharing that information, that is useful to know. I have no issue with them doing credit reviews, it seems normal and sensible, but what seems odd/unreasonable to me is them freezing your cards without warning every time they choose to do them. It's not something I've experienced before with other credit cards and seems like a very un-customer friendly way of doing it. When I've had credit reviews with previous cards they've never frozen my card first so I am just surprised by that aspect.

Can you advise how long each review took in your cases, how far apart they were and if they froze your card without advanced notice each time?
This will help me decide if this is an inconvenience I will be willing to accept based on how regularly my card is likely to suddenly become unavailable. Even if I do decide to live with their way of doing it and keep the card, it looks like I will have to keep my other card as a backup for whenever they randomly chose to do this, otherwise I could be left stuck if I'm out and need to pay for something when they cut it again, so this is a shame.

The_Urbanite

It’s not a periodic thing, it’s triggered by certain activity, like if you spend your declared yearly salary in a few days or use your card to deposit to your bank account. They usually respond within a day when documents are submitted. Yes, they freeze all activity.

As irksome as these reviews are, I deal with them because the rewards offered make the work worth it. Only you can decide it’s the same for you. 

plh56

Very interesting. That doesn't explain why they've done a review in my case then, as I've only used it for food shops, and a few low cost items on amazon/ebay and certainly not at a high amount of spending that would flag it as unaffordable (it's up to about £900 after 2 weeks, which is on track for £2k/month which is my normal monthly spend).
It's been 3 days now, so it also seems to be taking a lot longer than what you've seen.

The cynical side of me is wondering is they are trying to reduce how much I can use it during the first 3 months of having the card at the boosted 5% cashback rate...

born_again

plh56 said:

Very interesting. That doesn't explain why they've done a review in my case then, as I've only used it for food shops, and a few low cost items on amazon/ebay and certainly not at a high amount of spending that would flag it as unaffordable (it's up to about £900 after 2 weeks, which is on track for £2k/month which is my normal monthly spend).
It's been 3 days now, so it also seems to be taking a lot longer than what you've seen.

The cynical side of me is wondering is they are trying to reduce how much I can use it during the first 3 months of having the card at the boosted 5% cashback rate...

Don't forget that they will also be able to see all other accounts. So if they feel that your income may not be within a % of potential debt available to you. That they will want to reduce their risk level.

>>Upon checking my emails I saw I had one from Amazon jus before 5 saying the following:

We are currently performing a review of your American Express® Account referenced above. We review accounts on a regular basis to ensure we meet our obligations as a responsible lender.<<

I take it you mean a email from American Express & not Amazon?

plh56

Hi @born_again,
Yes oops typo there, I did mean American Express of course

What do you mean by see other accounts, I have no other Amex accounts? 
I got this cashback card to replace a John Lewis one as they're closing it down soon, I have always paid it back in full since getting it years ago. If they were worried I'd be happy to show them but they've only asked or 2 months of bank statements which won't help them at all.
The thing I don't get is that they already carried out a review just weeks ago when I applied, nothing has changed in the very short time since then, not even had a statement or a chance to pay them the first month back yet, so I don't understand how they can do a review of any use this soon.