matthew64832

I just read that thread earlier today, but there's a difference between $2500 paypal charge to a person who is also an AU on the AMEX used to pay for it, and <1000 on AP each month to people that AMEX can't prove are connected to me, no?

Nothing anticipated is involved here, it's current income vs 2012 tax return income. Given that right now the nearest income they can get from the IRS is 2012, does AMEX really expect that peoples' incomes do not change at all? They did not ask me to put my income from two years ago on the app (or I would have), they asked for current income, which I provided (and I even told them less than what it actually is, to be safe). Then when it doesn't match my income from two years ago they will get mad because I found a better job? Surely there is at least some amount of logic/reason applied to these situations. In 2012 I was a student who only worked 3 months of the year, for low pay (internship). I also had no AMEX cards at that time. Today I work full-time for a salary + bonuses.

I do understand AP can look a little suspicious but I would hope that the amounts would be low enough that it would be fine? And I can provide receipts and legal documents (parents & I signed a legal loan document for the money that I am paying them back) for almost all the AP transfers. Does anyone have any experience with AP specifically? (AP has a hardcap of 1000/mo so a lot of the Paypal stories don't really apply)

Also, anyone know about the rent thing?

iqbalt80

One thing to remember folks.. with Amex you need to build up.
You cannot go all bang bang. Go slow, build up and continue to do so.
I do more than 30K MS on Amex every month and been doing it for a while now...

tommy14

I thought my FSB theory in relation to FR was to be proven wrong today. I stop by Target today and none of my AMEX cards would work. Swipe, "card not accepted, transaction denied"; multiple times. Use CSP to get out of there and immediately I'm thinking, they got to me, finally I call right away, but call doesn't auto-route to FR dept, but regular line rep. They say all looks good on their end, "no fraud blocks, etc.", all accounts are in good standing and they don't see any attempted transactions from Target. I run small tests shortly after and cards are as good as always, go figure...

matthew64832

Well, I just moved 2k into an Amex personal savings... it was in a 0.75% savings so, slight rate increase to 0.85%. Hopefully it does me some good, although the amount is lower than any of my individual limits.

I'll probably transfer a bit more in over the course of this year.

tommy14

In my opinion, $2k won't do any good to you if you're into MS.

RedTeam10

Hopefully a quick and easy question.

I put $85k of income on my recent application by taking my salary + personal business gross income. On my 2013 tax return my AGI is only $75K due to several reasons:

My full salary doesn't make it onto my W2 due to several discretionary pre-tax deductions (insurance, 401k, etc).

My business income (line 12 on the 1040) is net of my expenses including COGS, fees, shipping costs, mileage expenses etc.

I thought I was being very conservative with $85k, but if they are only looking at AGI I might be in trouble. Would being greater than 10% off of my "income" be grounds for closure or just a CL decrease?

matthew64832

Not into MS, but I understand AP can look suspicious (even though I use it for legitimate purposes). I mean, does charging my apartment rent to my CC count as MS? I can't really put more than 2k in right now without selling anything, but the cards I put the AP/rent on have limits at 4000-4500 anyways. I would assume 9-10k would be what you suggest for that?

I would imagine 10k would be close enough to justify with the 401k alone; I contribute more than 10k/yr to my 401k, and it obviously doesn't show up in AGI. If it was 25-35k off you'd probably have a lot more trouble.

However, when applying for personal credit cards I personally would not recommend using a business gross income as personal income. Net for that. For business cards it's different.

patrick.barnes

They don't care about a difference of 10K. But yeah, gross business income doesn't mean anything, and shouldn't be included on a personal app (dividends/distributions/etc from said business obviously can be included).

Happy

I think your theory remains intact.

The link to AMEX network at the payment processor Target used, probably was down at the time.

This happened to me at a restaurant a few weeks ago. The HHonors card was declined. However the waitress was really apologetic to inform me that another customer just had the same issue, his AMEX card was also declined. So they thought it might be related to the data not transmitted from swipe. She tried it again at their main terminal and it was declined again. Undaunted, she said she would try to manually input the card number and it was accepted!

When I got home I found 2 fraud alerts from AMEX on the restaurant charge. The system must have gone haywire.

matt5784

This happens to me on a regular basis when using my AMEX at places like vending machines (i.e. completely automated kiosks). Not sure why it's always the AMEX... I'll get denied and start to worry, but when I check later it never even went through. Always able to use another card, too.

As someone said in the previous thread, these things happen and its best to carry additional cards just in case. I always carry at least a Discover, an Amex, and a Visa & MC from two different issuers when traveling. (and I carry at least 2-3 of the above on a daily basis).

cotr

Last night I figured I should do a CLI on my joint Costco account with my wife from 10K to 20K. I hit 30k instead and got the FR notice.

Since I have no need for the CLI, what are the consequences if I dont respond? I have a three cards from amex:
1) standard CC since 04 with a 30k limit of which I use less than $100
2) Costco card since 10 held jointly with my wife
3) Corporate card through employer

I have always paid in full and on time with AMEX and my CR is clean (no debts, no missed payments or defaults).

exmike

is it me, or is a CLI a waste of a hard inquiry? Why would you do that if you didnt need the CLI anyway?

cotr

CLIs with them have usually been soft. I dont have much inquiries anyways (I believe only three in the past two years). I can confirm that this CLI request was also soft.

tommy14

My assumption is that AMEX is wondering why you need 30k CL on Costco card, when you already have that limit on another card which you barely use (<$100). I could see why they would want to FR you in this case. In any event, if all the info on your apps was true, you should reply to their request, and in the worst case; they reduce your CL a little. But if you do nothing, they'll sever the relationship.

silver6054

Was this an FR or simply a request for tax transcript to support the CLI request? (For example, are your cards frozen?) If the latter, it should state on the letter something like "If you do not respond within 30 days (from what I remember) the request for credit line increase will be cancelled"

So nothing bad happens if you don't respond, just no CLI which apparently you don't want.

If it is a true FR, then failure to respond (in a shorter time frame) will lead to closure of your cards. But I am guessing it is just the CLI request justification.