Topic Wiki

1)   What is a Financial Review?
In short - American Express occasionally freezes the credit card accounts of individuals with high-risk patterns, or for new account holders.
They request a lot of personal information, such as IRS tax returns, bank statements, letters from Banks ect…

Let’s break it down into 2 different types of Financial Reviews
A)   Mini Financial Review
B)   Financial Review

A)   Mini Financial Review

(please fill in info) This form of financial review, is usually a short process, it could be as short as one phone call. American Express might feel a need to verify your finances for whatever reason, and they could call you to verify information. Your accounts could be suspended from using until you get in touch with them, typically they will restore your accounts after a simple phone call.

B)   Financial Review
This type of Financial Review is very common. It often happens when opening a new account for the first time, usually if you are opening a Charge Card, or a Business Card or if on a new account you start off will a lot of high spending.
American Express will suspend your account/s, they will not remove the suspension until the review is over, which takes around 2 weeks.

If you cannot provide the required information, shut down your account right away.

2)   Triggers

Look below for a list of triggers and links.
 
3)   What will happen?
Your accounts will get suspended. You will be able to log in online, and see account activity, but you will get a message that charging is suspended.

They will contact you via phone and email. Once you get in touch with them, (typically) you will be assigned a specific representative to work on your case.

The will require mainly IRS Tax returns. The point of a Financial Review is to verify your income. They may also require Back statements, a letter from a Bank to verify your address, and other documents. People have reported that they did survive a Financial Review with just bank statements.

As long as you could provide the documents they request you will be fine, they might lower your credit lines, but you should be able keep your account open. Even as low as a $6000 tax return people have been able to survive a Financial Review.

In cases of a Financial Review after opening a Business Card, you will need proof of Business income.

If you cannot provide the required information, shut down your account right away.

As long as you could provide the documents they request you will be fine, they might lower your credit lines, but you should be able keep your account open. Even as low as a $6000 tax return people have been able to survive a Financial Review.

4)   What Steps Should I take?

Get in touch with Amex as soon as you could. Send in the request inform promptly. You will have a rep that will be working with you, and telling you what documents are needed. 4506-t is a transcript request from the IRS for you last tax return. You will need to fill out this form, fax it to Amex, it will take them 24-48 hours until they receive this form, they will request the tax return from the IRS that could take about a week.

Important: you only have 2 attempts to send them the fax, if they reject it after 2 attempts you will get shut down. You don't get more than 2 attempts. (source)
You may be able to get 3 attempts if you ask for a manager.

You need to be on top of it, if you don’t follow thru, they could shut your accounts down.


5)   What to do if American Express closed your accounts?

Once American Express closes your accounts, the only way to get back on is if you have the required information needed to pass a Financial Review. They will require you to request a 4506 form from the IRS (which will cost you $57) before they even approve any of your future applications.


To start you may want to read up here:

F/R triggers:
[/color]


Credit line of $25k or more
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=1438.msg10906#msg10906

Family member receiving FR can cause other family members to get Fr'ed as well
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=6223.msg74003#msg74003 http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=8.msg24759#msg24759

Living at same address as someone who was FR'ed
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=8.msg77046#msg77046

Using majority of CL
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=7526.msg87716#msg87716

Large cash advance
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=5908.msg82906#msg82906

Nothing...
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=2723.msg30062#msg30062

Changing name on business card
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=3589.msg38101#msg38101

Mint purchases
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=146.msg22932#msg22932

Amex Gift Card Purchases
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=2422.msg26670#msg26670
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=8.msg40106#msg40106

Unusual spending
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=8.msg7627#msg7627
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=3710.msg39597#msg39597

Amazon payments (possibly)
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=3657.msg88656#msg88656
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=3524.msg42436#msg42436

Using close to reported income
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/2537

Logging in online too much (!)
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=8.msg13741#msg13741

Prepaying
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=1712.msg13732#msg13732
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=3710.msg39725#msg39725

Adding Cardholders (many?)
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=8.msg49318#msg49318

Refunds exceeding total payments made on the card since it was opened
http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=8.msg845606#msg845606
[/font]
Though not exactly F/R, it's worth mentioning that Amex takes returned payments very seriously.
They often shut all accounts without going through the F/R process.

Author Topic: Amex F/R Master Thread  (Read 2181217 times)

Offline D.S.

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #60 on: June 29, 2008, 03:00:53 AM »
Levi - Yes, I believe I did make a purchase with it.

Offline aaa

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #61 on: June 30, 2008, 12:14:35 AM »
Yes they will, confirmed

Levi what does that mean? That if I have a few dollars in the bank they will be like ok we will reinstate your account? How are you confirming this?

levi

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #62 on: July 03, 2008, 11:08:53 AM »
Levi what does that mean? That if I have a few dollars in the bank they will be like ok we will reinstate your account? How are you confirming this?
If you can prove to them that you make X amount of money and that you can afford to spend the money that raised the F/R then they will have no problem

levi

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #63 on: July 16, 2008, 10:34:01 AM »
Anybody have any luck reapplying recently?

Offline aaa

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #64 on: July 17, 2008, 01:02:54 AM »
Levi when you get back I will teach you how to get around this. Maybe.

Offline Aussie

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #65 on: July 24, 2008, 03:54:01 AM »
Do they just want to see that you have money in the bank, or do they want to see monthly 'deposits' that match your 'income'?

levi

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #66 on: August 27, 2008, 12:23:48 AM »
Great News!!!

So its been almost a year since I had to close all my Amex cards due to a F/R I have tried a couple of times since then to apply and each time they were requesting alot of information that I was unable to provide (Bank Statements, IRS tax forms....) Last week I made up my mind that I'm going to get to the bottom of this and somehow have my application approved because we all know that the Starwwods card is an amazing card.

So here is where it starts I was on the phone with the Platinum Conceirge from SPG making some hotel reservations and at the end of the call the agent started to metion to me some special promotions they are running for Platinum member that sighn up for the Starwoods card 1) 15,000 point sign up bonus 2) double starpoints on any purchase for the fist 45 days. I said to myself lets try this all over again and I told her that I'm interested and she went ahead and transfered me to the department that takes my application. I went ahead and applied and about a week later I received the same letter that I received in the past that Amex is requesting that I provide them with some more info 1) letter from an accountant or atterny verifing my address, social security number, and emploment information. 2) copy of my tax return and some other IRS form. So i call up Amex new accounts departments and one call after another spaeaking with supervisors I am being told the same thing that nothing will be done unless they have all the information the requested from me. I asked one of the supervisors if I can speak with her supervisor and she said that there is noone above her available to talk to but I can leave my number and request for a Sr supervisor to call me so I did.

Today I got a call from a Sr supervisor who seemed to be very nice so I said to her "lets be honest here none of the information that is being requested will be sent in because I have 3 different addreses and  I am a full time student with no income" on the application I wrote X amount of money for household income and I explained to her that my parents pay all my bills and that I have the Amex Platinum through my fathers account and I just want a way for me to earn starpoints every month so i kept on telling her that I am a fulltime student and there is no way I can provide them will all the information they want. anyways to make a long story short she said that is a good thing that I requested a call from her and that its a good thing that I explainded to her my situation and therefore she overrode the system and manually approved my application :) :)

p.s. She gave me all her contact info and said if I ever need anything here is my direct number and my email address ;D
p.s. I pay all my own bills ;D and I've been out of Yeshiva working for over two years now ;D
p.s. I have very bad spelling so please dont even start with the spelling mistakes :)
p.s. This is the most I've ever typed at once on a computer :)

Offline Avid Reader

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #67 on: August 27, 2008, 01:11:43 AM »
Levi, Congratulations! This just goes to show what (more then) a bit of trying can do.

Offline Charles The Govenor

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #68 on: August 27, 2008, 01:21:15 AM »
Levi no kidding im not surprised at all if there would be anyone that could pull it off id think that it would be you and you did.

Offline AsherO

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #69 on: August 27, 2008, 02:47:39 AM »
Impressive :-)
DDF FFB (Forum From Birth)

levi

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #70 on: August 29, 2008, 03:51:16 AM »
It gets even better for some reason I was only opproved for a credit line of $1000 so I asked the supervisor to higher my limit and she said that within the first 60 days she has no control but after 60 days she will up it to whatever I want which is great but then I told her that I wont be able to take atvantage of the double points promo for the first 45 days because my limit is too low she said that she will extend the double points promo to 6 MONTHS!!!

Offline Charles The Govenor

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #71 on: August 29, 2008, 04:16:06 AM »
Wow!

Offline AsherO

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #72 on: August 29, 2008, 04:19:17 PM »
Now all you have to do is post her contact information :-)
DDF FFB (Forum From Birth)

Offline Aussie

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #73 on: September 24, 2008, 12:18:47 AM »
Now all you have to do is post her contact information :-)

LOL

Offline Eli

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #74 on: February 25, 2009, 04:48:32 PM »
This topic hasn't been touched for a while, but I just wanted to mention that I just got finished with an F\R. They shut down my 4 accounts with credit limits totaling over $25,000. I asked nicely that if they plan on closing down any of my accounts they should let me know first so I can close them myself and they said "fine". I sent in my tax forms and about 10 different bank statements showing some nice money in each of them. The supervisor was the one who told me to fax in the bank statements, but when it came down to it, the lady who was actually doing the FR said the bank statements don't matter and it was a waste of time to send them in. I also sent a whole letter explaining that I am a full-time student being supported by my parents and that didn't seem to do much either.

At the end of the day, they reinstated all my cards with much lower credit limits. One card that had a $15,000 credit limit that I used about $1,500 a month now has a $1,000 limit. They said I should call back in a few months to higher the limit on the cards. I guess I did not have a problem because I actually had filed taxes the year before although the amount I made was about $100,000 less than I reported :)
-Eli

Offline PAShliach

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #75 on: February 25, 2009, 09:32:01 PM »
Hi,

1. I had over 100k in credit available. FR'd. I canceled all my cards, and then reapplied 6 months later, 12 month later, etc. No go.
2. Finally, i decided to send in my tax info. Really they jsut wanted this form signed and applied for teh starwood. Got approved for 18,500.
3. The way i read it is a "one time" bonus per account, not per person.
4. Great forum.

Peace

Offline aaa

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #76 on: June 02, 2009, 02:45:33 PM »
Just passed my 2nd financial review (in 2 years) with amex. Was a very painless and quick process this time. Just gave them my tax info and within a couple days my account was good to go.

I even got approved right afterwards for a CL increase from 9.5k to 18k. I figured that when I asked for the new limit I should keep it at less than doubling the original credit limit. I only have one amex card at this time, so not sure how flexible amex is these days with CLs. I know it used to be very easy to get 25k+. Anyone here able to comment? How large is your CL and whats your monthly spending and credit score?

Thanks

Offline Mikeoracle

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #77 on: June 02, 2009, 03:39:28 PM »
They FR'ed you twice and you only had 1 card with a 9.5K CL? Why would they do that? I thought they only FR if you have very high CL or alot of cards....

As far as CL's go, lately that have been approving new signups for very small CL's compared to what they did less than a year ago. I know a few guys who I recently referred to the SPG amex and they only got approved for 3-5K or maybe a little more, 1 guy even canceled another amex with 20K or so CL before he applied but that didnt help at all.
Last August I know of a few very high CL's that were approved (20-35K) no problem.

Offline aaa

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Re: Amex Financial Review
« Reply #78 on: June 03, 2009, 04:48:44 PM »
Actually had 100k of credit with about 80k being used. They closed all accounts except for one. Now they did it because I had some strange and large transactions on the card.


Offline daganster

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Financial Review
« Reply #79 on: December 20, 2009, 11:22:20 AM »
My wife and I, whom have different last names, just got flaged.
They froze our accounts and we are under "Financial Review".
Any ideas? suggestions?

Avi