Suspicious spending applies to each card or all cards from a bank?
Nov 29, 2012, 4:47 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
Suspicious spending applies to each card or all cards from a bank?
My title probably isn't very clear...
Anyway, a lot of us are "buying" money to get points/miles. You hear about people buying $5K+ in VR, etc. Surely, this type of thing gets the bank's attention, but I guess if it's only done once in a while, that might not be so bad. My question is whether the banks look at each card a user has individually, or together with other cards from the same bank? For example, if someone were to buy $1000 in groceries using AMEX HH today and do the same again tomorrow, that will probably raise red flags. But will AMEX perceive it differently if someone spends $1000 today with AMEX HH and $1000 tomorrow with Blue Cash Pref?
Anyway, a lot of us are "buying" money to get points/miles. You hear about people buying $5K+ in VR, etc. Surely, this type of thing gets the bank's attention, but I guess if it's only done once in a while, that might not be so bad. My question is whether the banks look at each card a user has individually, or together with other cards from the same bank? For example, if someone were to buy $1000 in groceries using AMEX HH today and do the same again tomorrow, that will probably raise red flags. But will AMEX perceive it differently if someone spends $1000 today with AMEX HH and $1000 tomorrow with Blue Cash Pref?
Nov 29, 2012, 5:26 pm
#2
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: DTW
Programs: AA Gold, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 819
I have been wondering the same question regarding Chase cards.
I can see the OP's question with regard to the current BB loading from purchasing VR at CVS.
What about Chase? We have satisfied our spend requirement on the new Ink with a wide variety of spending. Now we will be working on the CSP and UA cards. Not the same great deal for UR through OD but I still need to send checks to contractors and want to do it by loading BB with these other Chase cards.
As mentioned on other threads, this shouldn't be a problem as long as spend is well diversified. I'd be interested in hearing discussion.
Thanks,
gg
I can see the OP's question with regard to the current BB loading from purchasing VR at CVS.
What about Chase? We have satisfied our spend requirement on the new Ink with a wide variety of spending. Now we will be working on the CSP and UA cards. Not the same great deal for UR through OD but I still need to send checks to contractors and want to do it by loading BB with these other Chase cards.
As mentioned on other threads, this shouldn't be a problem as long as spend is well diversified. I'd be interested in hearing discussion.
Thanks,
gg
Nov 29, 2012, 7:05 pm
#3
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 866
Suspicious spending applies to each card or all cards from a bank?
Iran into issues with WellsFargo on my checking account because of all the money orders I was depositing. I hadn't really considered this component as there was no risk on their part but they didn't like it anyway.
Nov 29, 2012, 7:11 pm
#4
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Nov 29, 2012, 7:33 pm
#5
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Flyover Territory
Programs: Hilton Diamond
Posts: 687
I was going to go with IRAQed my credit by paying my bills late...
OP, I wonder about this as well. I suspect there is no easy answer. My guess is that if you don't get flagged for something, human eyes and brains will never be reviewing your profile.
If you do something that flags you for attention from a bank, I would think you'd be at risk for them reviewing your entire spending profile and not just the individual card. I *believe* that when AMEX does FR, it is all accounts (am I right?). It seems most logical that way; if you're a risk, you're a risk overall, not just with one card.
Again, all just guesswork so take with a huge grain of salt.
OP, I wonder about this as well. I suspect there is no easy answer. My guess is that if you don't get flagged for something, human eyes and brains will never be reviewing your profile.
If you do something that flags you for attention from a bank, I would think you'd be at risk for them reviewing your entire spending profile and not just the individual card. I *believe* that when AMEX does FR, it is all accounts (am I right?). It seems most logical that way; if you're a risk, you're a risk overall, not just with one card.
Again, all just guesswork so take with a huge grain of salt.
Last edited by akp; Nov 29, 2012 at 7:38 pm Reason: added
Nov 29, 2012, 8:38 pm
#6
Join Date: Nov 2010
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I was going to go with IRAQed my credit by paying my bills late...
OP, I wonder about this as well. I suspect there is no easy answer. My guess is that if you don't get flagged for something, human eyes and brains will never be reviewing your profile.
If you do something that flags you for attention from a bank, I would think you'd be at risk for them reviewing your entire spending profile and not just the individual card. I *believe* that when AMEX does FR, it is all accounts (am I right?). It seems most logical that way; if you're a risk, you're a risk overall, not just with one card.
Again, all just guesswork so take with a huge grain of salt.
OP, I wonder about this as well. I suspect there is no easy answer. My guess is that if you don't get flagged for something, human eyes and brains will never be reviewing your profile.
If you do something that flags you for attention from a bank, I would think you'd be at risk for them reviewing your entire spending profile and not just the individual card. I *believe* that when AMEX does FR, it is all accounts (am I right?). It seems most logical that way; if you're a risk, you're a risk overall, not just with one card.
Again, all just guesswork so take with a huge grain of salt.
Nov 29, 2012, 10:32 pm
#7
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: HNL
Programs: AA Citi Visa and Amex, Citi AA Biz, SPG, Amex Green, Zync, Discover It (Starbucks Gold) HHonors Gold
Posts: 268
Banks have the ability to see your entire credit portfolio with them, and many of these bank systems can do a cross portfolio search by seeing all your accounts that have the same SSN. I would imagine if you triggered an alert on one of your cards, a Fraud Analyst would check your other accounts for similarities.
Nov 29, 2012, 11:30 pm
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
I think it's clear that if you're getting reviewed, the bank will look at all of the cards you have from that bank. But my question is whether or not red flags will be raised if you make a lot of large purchases from different cards from the same bank in a short period of time. Like the example I gave, $1000 from AMEX HHonors, $1500 from Blue Cash Pref, another $1500 from SPG. Will this raise the same eyebrows as if you made those 3 consecutive purchases of $1000+ on only one card?
Nov 30, 2012, 1:03 am
#9
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: HNL
Programs: AA Citi Visa and Amex, Citi AA Biz, SPG, Amex Green, Zync, Discover It (Starbucks Gold) HHonors Gold
Posts: 268
I think it's clear that if you're getting reviewed, the bank will look at all of the cards you have from that bank. But my question is whether or not red flags will be raised if you make a lot of large purchases from different cards from the same bank in a short period of time. Like the example I gave, $1000 from AMEX HHonors, $1500 from Blue Cash Pref, another $1500 from SPG. Will this raise the same eyebrows as if you made those 3 consecutive purchases of $1000+ on only one card?
Nov 30, 2012, 1:15 am
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: LAX
Posts: 10,908
No they really dont care where you spend the money. They just want to make sure you don't max out your cards and vanish.