American Express Membership Rewards - Increased fraud alert on card?

Anyone else having increased fraud alert tagging on their card? I've already been on the phone with AmEx three times (!!) this week for fraud questions for routine plane ticket purchases.

I understand why they have to do it, but this seems a bit excessive (and frustrating- in one case the plane sold out while I was dealing with AmEx).

I would reather them call me the to find out my account info has been stollen.

Absolutely agreed- but 2 calls were for the same exact transaction (same plane ticket) which I cleared once, and got blocked by AmEx again, even after having cleared...just seems a bit much considering that it is a frequent route of mine to begin with.

Not a big deal, just curious if others were experiencing similar situations or if it is me-specific

I had something similar happen to me while out of the country last month. What was absurd in that instance was that the fraud-alerts were for AMEX-booked travel. And, this happened again and again. Its really annoying and no one can tell you why this happens.

To be fair, a year ago Visa denied my charges due to suspicious activity. When I pressed them, the flagged activity was me buying a flashlight at Home Depot and a 2-liter of Pepsi at Walgreens - both with a mile of my house. Hmmm.

Absolutely agreed- but 2 calls were for the same exact transaction (same plane ticket) which I cleared once, and got blocked by AmEx again, even after having cleared...just seems a bit much considering that it is a frequent route of mine to begin with.

This brings to mind a question: I know that the Amex statements will list the passenger name and city pairs for airline tickets. Is this information presented to Amex as the time of authorization, or only when the transaction is submitted for settlement? It's entirely possible that the route and pax information is not available to Amex at the point they must approve the transaction, even if it later appears on the statement.

A few weeks ago I was blocked on an AmEx transaction for the first time in ~8 years. I was in the process of canceling two different tickets and buying a third, all on co.com. Apparently the rapid frequency of transactions on the CO web site raised a flag. I called in and told them that it really was me and they released the lock on my card. No big deal for me.

The time before that, 8 years ago, really was fraud. Someone got my number and was buying phone cards. I'm impressed that AmEx caught that one.

The only time I've been blocked by Amex was when I made several > $100 purchases at 3 different Wal-Marts within a 4-hour period in the middle of the night. No doubt that that looked suspicious, but I was able to get the final transaction approved after speaking to them on the phone.

This brings to mind a question: I know that the Amex statements will list the passenger name and city pairs for airline tickets. Is this information presented to Amex as the time of authorization, or only when the transaction is submitted for settlement? It's entirely possible that the route and pax information is not available to Amex at the point they must approve the transaction, even if it later appears on the statement.

It is more likely they get that info later, once ticket is processed and issued.

I would reather them call me the to find out my account info has been stollen.

Sometimes I get calls from them, but sometimes I don't get a call at all and just look like an idiot trying to make a purchase. They should call you every single time they put a block on your card.

I had my first charge denied ever on AMEX about two weeks ago. It was a $39 charge from DKNY.com - it was denied because they felt it didn't match my profile. I found this strange - I regularly shop at the DKNY store. I've been a cardholder for over ten years.

When the charge was denied, I received an email the following day from Amex fraud protection, a phone call, AND a letter was mailed to my home address.

In the past, I've had major issues with fraud alerts on my UK Amex card. They would just randomly reject online purchases that seemed to go through and call me a few days later to tell me (or for in-store purchases, they'd reject the sale from going through creating a nice embarrassing moment).

I almost always call Amex before travelling to let them know where I'll be and what my expected spend will be like. I also have informed them that on-line purchases routed to my parents or wife's parents house in the USA should be allowed to go through.

Seeing this thread and the latest on Amex's financial condition I was expecting to have lots of rejected purchases while in the States for the holidays, but for some reason, all of my purchases (about 2,500 GBP worth of varying amounts) went through with no issue this time.

And the fun continues...this time it is my on the cost of my move when I even called Platinum Services to ok the charge knowing that it would be large (I'm moving overseas) before making it. STILL didn't go through at first- requiring 2 calls to AmEx on my side and 1 AmEx fraud alert call to me. Ugh. The quantity was not SO large that it trumped the size of other bills that I have paid to AmEx in the past, and was the exact same moving company I used last year and charged to my AmEx without issue.

Getting a little frustrating because every time it really counts (plane ticket, moves, etc) I have to jump through hoops- this is all very sudden because have been a card holder for 10 years and never experienced anything like this- nor have i had any issues with my account (fraud, lack of payment, etc) ever.