They don't need consent to pull his credit under the FCRA, as they're an existing creditor. They can pull his credit whenever they feel like it. And FYI, a pull is a pull, the difference between "hard" and "soft" is just how it gets coded for score calculation.
First, they do a "soft pull" whenever they want. The AR pull shows what you owe, it is not a full "warts and all" picture of your credit profile. It is also significantly less expensive than the "hard pull", beacause the info is much more limited.
Has Amex or any other creditor ever done a hard pull on you for an existing account?
Then by your logic, how does a stale 1-2 year-old tax return demonstrate anyone's ability to pay tomorrow either? At least the CBR information is constantly updated, and so accordingly would prove a better indicator than what I earned a year and a half ago, right? By your own logic, Amex's F/R process makes no sense, as it's based on old data that is virtually guaranteed to have changed one way or the other
Second, I was questioning the logic of coupling "I've never missed a payment in 25 years" to receiving and F/R now. You're getting the F/R now, because something changed in spending patterns on your charge card and they are concerned that you're not going to be able to pay your bill. They want to know for sure that at least
as of last April you had the income to match your spending patterns. Its the best they can do now because HR won't tell them how much you make, and as been pointed out here, anyone with a cell phone can answer it "ExxonMobil, how may I direct your call?"
Getting an AA on an Amex revolving account (which is what you're mad about) is a different animal than the current F/R topic.