mia

If I were person A I would submit that documentation.

idkmybffjill

That's my entire point. They said it won't count. They claim that the bank account that was used for the payments needs to have Person A's name on it. They don't care what Person A's bank statements look like if that bank account wasn't the one used to pay the card.

It is utterly stupid logic.

mia

I would submit both, and see what happens.

Gasolin

Why not just make person B pay person A on a regular basis, and let AMEX take the money from person A's account?

idkmybffjill

There are more than 5 cards. The transaction volume would just be a lot in my opinion.

But I think some smaller transactions could be made, just for the sake of showing that there is some payment history established between Person A's account and the cards themselves lol.

halamadrid

Another alternative is to have A & B open a joint account at the same bank where person B has the account that was being used for payments. Person B can then just easily transfer to joint account before payments need to be made. Joint account would just be used for this purpose.

notquiteaff

Well, how does that help with "But for the bank account, the rep on the line says they also need to see that the primary account holders' name is on the bank account where all the payments have gone out of so far. "

B could potentially add A as a co-owner to the "bank account where all the payments have gone out of so far" if B trusts A. And it might also have other unexpected side effects.

mia

It's improbable that anything can be done now to change what was done before, but why would we think that a front line telephone agent's statement is the final decision? I wouldn't overthink this. Send them what they ask for, plus anything else you think is relevant.

Gasolin

I was thinking 4 payments, monthly, based on the amount of the spend on each cards. It wouldn't be that much. And then use Person's A account to pay everything.

If Person B was paying for everyone without receiving any money from them: instead of paying AMEX directly, Person B can transfer the same amount to person A and it's debited from Person A account.

halamadrid

I agree with mia that OP's family member can't do anything about the past at this point. They should just submit what was requested (plus their own bank statements even though payments did not originate from that account) and move the process forward. OP mentioned that current bank statements and paystubs would support the underlying accounts which would make it possible to explain the whole payments coming from Player B's account a matter of convenience. I also agree that you can't just take what a phone representative says at face value b/c they are often wrong/misinformed, flat out make stuff up, or just get competitive due to the nature of the conversation and will just say anything to "win" in that situation. They also are not the ones making the final decision b/c they would have done so once OP explained the situation with the bank statements. My recommendation was forward looking since it seems like the current payment arrangement is triggering concerns and subsequent reviews. Amex is probably being careful since on paper it looks like someone other than the cardmember (the only one Amex has any recourse against) is paying the bills which can be considered a red flag (cardmember could be in financial distress). If OP's family member submits what has been requested it can dispel the notion that they can't pay for their bills even if in the past the payments were coming from someone else's bank account. But in the future I assume that they don't find the whole financial review process to be fun so they need to take steps to try and avoid them if possible.

idkmybffjill

Yes, nothing can be done about the past, correct.

However, it's not a front line telephone agent. It's the actual account manager who is overseeing the FR. That individual will be looking at the submitted documents and making the final decision on the account. This isn't some random customer service rep. To the point where when the FR lined is called, and the specific rep's extension # isn't put in, it will forward you to one of many FR agents, but none of them can see the details of the FR case except the assigned account manager who is in charge of the FR.

idkmybffjill

Lol there are like 8 charge cards and 5 credit cards. It's a lot more than 4 monthly payments.

Steve M

How far off are you from filing for 2019? Perhaps another acceptable solution is to file for 2019 soon and then allow Amex to look at the transcript of that. I'm making the assumption that the request for paystubs and bank statements is entirely due to not having filed for 2019, and that there aren't additional requirements for whatever reason.

Also, how did this FR come about? Did you receive written notice of some kind? You said that you spoke to a rep about the FR. It's not clear to me if that rep was specific to the FR department or just a general cardholder rep. If the latter, than anything they say about a nuanced FR issue is likely to be less authoritative. I'm reasonably certain that Amex didn't call out of the blue and request an FR over the phone - either they sent a written notice, or the cardholder became aware of the situation in any of several ways and then called in.

The reason I think this is important is if there's anything in writing from Amex about the FR, then the thing to do is just comply with the request as it's written. I can see a situation where Amex requests paystubs and bank account statements in the cardholder's name, then the cardholder decides to call Amex and bring up the issue of payments historically coming from someone else's accounts, and what should they do about that? Doing something like that can cause a situation like this to go downhill quickly. Not only does it increase the chances of a miscommunication and/or a made-up answer, it can also raise red flags that get noted onto the account and make the whole process more difficult. It's not clear to me that Amex even knew that the payments were coming from someone else. I suppose it's possible, but it seems unlikely to me that Amex would be noting in any machine-readable form what the name on checks being sent in for payments is, and it also seems unlikely (but possible) that they're reviewing images of payments in order to trigger an FR, or even during initial stages of an FR. I could be wrong about this.

mia

I doubt this can be done quickly enough to satisfy American Express:

Read more: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/transcript-availability

idkmybffjill

I wish you read my original post more clearly lol.

It was from the official FR department. I don't know how many times I need to restate that lol. The FR came about as a call from the FR department, followed by all of the cards under that primary account holder being frozen, and then an email from the FR department with the link to submit the requested documents.

Do you need more proof than this that it's from the FR department? Lol guys, you are seriously killing me.

An FR was already done last year and passed using IRS tax transcripts, so it's not like the first walk in the park with the FR department.

This year (as I clearly explained in my OP and apparently more people did not read...), they are no longer doing tax transcripts because the IRS is delaying them, so AmEx is instead asking for bank statements and paystubs. They also asked why most of the transactions were being made by one of the authorized users and stated that the bank account being used for payments must have the primary cardholders name on it. Multiple calls were made arguing this point, but they said it's the rule, no exceptions.

Just to reiterate one last time, the request for bank statements and paystubs is because the IRS is delaying transcripts right now due to everything going on. AmEx has no idea whether our 2019 taxes were filed (but they were), and the offer was even made to submit the 2019 tax transcripts. The FR account manager said they preferred that, as it was easier for them (just verify income, reinstate account), but due to IRS delays, they were not doing the 4506-T form right now.

This is as clear as I can state these things, so hopefully no one repeats or asks me again if this is "from the real FR department" or "submit your 2019 taxes" - 2019 taxes are already done, but AmEx is NOT accepting it for the moment.

Sorry, just a little frustrated that the point being brought up over and over is whether it's a random customer service rep or the real FR department. Don't know why it's so hard to just accept that it is ha. Random customer service people do not call from the FR department or freeze all of the cards with a notice on the online account to call the FR department's # if that has not been done already.