Anybody get hit twice or more with an FR?
 

How many of you have gotten a FR from Amex on a second card after already getting a FR on a card in the past sometime?
I got hit with a FR in July when I got the Amex Plat Business card.
And I was just wondering what my chances of getting another FR were?

I'm planning to get the Amex Hilton card...and I'm worried.
Especially since I'll be doing a lot of GCs to hit that $3750 spend.

I'd appreciate your insights.
Thanks.

Not me, but a few posters have reported that they have gotten a FR more than once in the last couple years. It is not really by card, it is your account. I think the folks that get multiples are probably running quite a bit of spend through their cards monthly. If you survived the review the first time, you usually survive the second time so it is annoying but you should be okay.

It depend on your spending habits, if AMEX found suspicious action on the account, then there is a good chance you will hit with another financial review

I opened a personal Platinum in 2010 and got hit with a FR within a few months. Passed it, but with a hard limit of 5k. After 12 months, it switched to NPSL. I always wonder myself if there is another FR lurking around the corner, and ALWAYS worry while I'm away on business/vacation. I always have my backups just in case, but so far only the one FR.

a second a week ago..
 

I had a FR on 2005 and last week unexpectedly wednesday around 6pm got the second just before a trip I had on thursday morning.. cards were suspended until we complete the process.. mmm this time I got really upset because as mentioned by other poster, this can happen when you are in the middle of a trip so far, and what happens then?.. my cards including the centurion were suspended and now I am asking myself if I really want to rely on them or not.. 12 years as a customer always in full bla bla bla.. it seems they don´t care.. since then I don´t know if it`s worth it.. maybe I am still upset..

Anything specific you can think of that may have triggered the FR?

I've got the Mini-FR twice in the last year on my personal account/business account which are linked to my SSN. This is because my spending volume has ramped up rapidly (from 2-3k/mo to >100k/mo nearly instantaneously), and my spending behavior is suspicious (90% paypal, all small transactions - avg $150, to different paypal accounts). Ultimately they just wanted banking info to satisfy that i could support the volume, and they wanted me to promise I wasn't doing anything against their rules (like check cashing, issuing cash for charges, etc).

My other company (no personal guarantee, not linked to my SSN) gets a mini-FR about every 12 months -- This company does about 100K-400k/mo in large charges (30k avg size?), primarily focused on a few vendors (Dell, Amazon, and a few other large suppliers).

In neither case have they shut the credit off, but they do typically set a temporary limit which may be below current balance (eg: 200k current balance, limit set to 150k forcing me to pay down balance before I can charge more).

Ultimately amex's handling of the situation depends a lot on what you are doing, and how quick you are able to satisfy their demands. For me, I can generally pay in full on request at any time, and can provide documentation within 24 hours. When I can't pay in full on request, I can make full payment within 7 days, and a substantial payment immediately.

Keep in mind that amex monitors all sorts of aspects of your account that other banks dont seem to care about -- where you charge, your avg charge size, and how quick you pay back. If you are shopping at Walmart, they are going to be much more picky than if you are shopping at Whole Foods. If you pay typically on the "payment due by" date, they will be more picky than if you typically pay on the statement cut date (which is what I do).

Looks like I'll be staying away from doing any extensive "manufacturing" spend on my Amex Hilton card.

Thank you everyone for your insights.

For one thing, isn't the Hilton AMEX a $3000 spend? It's $750 to hit the first threshold (40K), then $3000 TOTAL to hit the 2nd. And you have 6 months to hit that higher limit. Go slow, $500 a month will be fine. I hit $1000 in a week (legitimate spending) and will cool it down to less than $1000/month from here out (mostly because I have other spend).

Oh..I thought it was a total of $3750... but good to know.

In either case. I've decided not to get it for now... Because getting just one card doesn't make sense. And doing an AOR makes even less sense, because I'll be gone for 2 months.
And don't want to come back to a huge giga-load of spend to meet in that 3rd month.

It's a pity because that Hilton offer expires today.

I just did an AOR including the Business Gold, 5k/3month spend = 50k MR points. With my other time sensitive card acquisitions I will have to manufacture some of the spending. Any opinions on this if mixing in $2500 in Vanilla from a pharmacy would trigger FR ; spread out of course - not a one time $2500. I'm always safe about doing this and always mix it up, but with this being a biz card was thinking large spend at pharmacy might be the trigger. Cheers!

No one can tell you that with certainty. I know someone that got FR for 1k first purchase on Hilton card in a grocery store. So maybe do 500 at a time. If you read other threads there are lots of folks who have increased their spending in pharmacies over the last month. We have not seen a jump in "I've been FR" thread resulting from this increase in pharmacy spending. So it looks like the odds are currently in your favor for a pharmacy slow spend.

Thanks DDallas. Not my first biz card, but my first Amex biz. Hair more paranoia than with the others, which while in moderation, I still rode them without as much concern. just having something called FR makes me take pause. Thx!

Got hit with my first FR 2 weeks ago. Sent in form 4506-T. No adverse action after they confirmed the income from the tax return. Cards blocked for ~2 weeks. FR was triggered by CVS purchase using Amex Hilton card.

How do people get hit with FR's for spending $1,000? I can't think of the last time I put a charge through on my business Gold Amex for less than $5,000 and the balance frequently has a 2 or 3 for the first digit (followed by 5 other numbers) when the bill is due.

If Amex FR'd me for a $1,000 purchase I'd drop them like a hot potato.

Now the last charge on my personal Platinum was $1.08 for an iced tea at McDonald's earlier today, but it still frequently has a balance in the low 6 digits and I've never been bothered by Amex.

And no I don't make huge somes of money or have any banking relationship with Amex.

I do find Amex to be very accommodating in what they allow me to charge, but I find it almost impossible to believe that anyone getting FR'd for a $1,000 purchase would find it worthwhile to deal with Amex.