travelin_lite

Mine is still pending as well, according to the status site. I called a few times and got nowhere. However, I did get a call today from All Clear ID saying that AmEx had put an inquiry in on my credit report, so there's that.

dhuey

It's "cash equivalents" not "cash equivalent cards". Money orders, for example, are "cash equivalents" that are not "prepaid cards".

Falimz

Both wife and I signed up for 100k platinum offer. Cards aren't here yet and both MR accounts are frozen. Wife has a single everyday preferred card which is used solely for grocery and gas (no MS). I have a business rewards gold card that I mostly use with MPX to buy GCs that I use for reselling. Neither have ever purchased a VGC. I would consider both as legitimate uses.

Really pissing me off as I need to transfer 200k points to delta.

Happy

You cannot buy Money Orders nor Traveler's Check with a credit card / charge card so it is a moot point as the only cash equivalent instrument you can buy IS in the form of a card.

dhuey

https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-c...t-card-article

Do you contend that lendingtree.com got this wrong?

LizGross144

Should have transferred those points out before applying... the blog post I saw the most recent round of links on warned about that. I'm willing to bet your points are now frozen for 90-135 days or so....

Falimz

Well the time I app'd I didn't know I would need them transfered. Not a huge deal, maybe I go to grand cayman in March and maybe I don't. But I've been an amex customer since 2006, put literally tens of thousands of legitimate spend on existing cards every month for business purposes and then this .... happens. It's really just extremely poor customer service where they are punishing their customers for their own mistakes.

Happy

Yes. Because in reality things do not work that way.

Western Union outlets in my town do NOT take credit cards Lendingtree.com notwithstanding (or for that matter, google search is not going to do you any good because in reality things do NOT work that way. For example all the places in my town that sell Money Order are Cash or Debit Card Only, regardless what LendingTree.com tells you. On top of that, many such places require the debit cards used have the name on it matches with the DL presented.)
OTOH you can walk in a bank and get a Cash Advance from your credit card and that is a Cash Advance - However, if the Cash Advance is done on a Prepaid Card or a Debit Card, there is only a moderate flat fee on the former and no fee on the latter. As a matter of fact, I once heard a BofA customer service rep explained to a customer that with his debit card he could only get $500 from the ATM - but if he needs more cash he can walk into any bank and do a cash advance on his debit card up to $2500 per day, no fee. That is the workaround to by pass the $500 a day ATM withdrawal limit. Suntrust once told me the limit was $35,000 or the balance of the account, whichever is smaller.

Finally I think the discussion has gone way too far beyond the scope of this thread and is irrelevant. Munching words is never going to help people anyway. The empirical data is what people should go by. No way AMEX would penalize cardholders for buying Merchant Gift Cards. AMEX even gives points on buying its own Cash Equivalent Amex Gift Cards...

Happy

It does not matter. The link of the 2nd round is a HACKED link from a non-English website and then being lifted / poached by DoC (did not even give credit from where he got it) and other websites. Why people have not learned from the first round and continue to believe the bloggers is what is truly astonishing.

AMEX does not "punish" their customers if the customers apply the card via a targeted offer or a public offer - however the link in May nor the link this time, both are Hacked links. Whoever apply thru such links, especially the 2nd time go round, should know better that there is a very high risk, especially after seeing all had happened from May.

sigma6

Why can't they just release a 100k public offer and be done with it. Especially with a once in a lifetime bonus, I don't see it a problem if they don't really like churners. Amex plat is great for the casual person who isn't an elite through corporate accounts. I'm sure a lot of IT tech, Doctors, Lawyers and other white collar workers who don't fly for work would still keep the card after year 1.

Mountain Trader

Astonishing indeed. My guess is that people see 100k and hit the link with little or no research. Didn't DoC post with link refer to the issues with apps from May rogue link (Not that it's his job)?

We can probably expect faster work on this since Amex can just reassemble the team they used last time. Maybe put a para-legal on staff to handle the arbitration cases too.

Falimz

Let's be clear, nothing was hacked. AMEX's systems weren't penetrated by a 3rd party which then created the link. A link was released to the public that was never intended to. That's on AMEX. They are your systems and your responsibility. That's a pretty large difference between saying it was hacked.

The point is, this is ultimately AMEX's fault, not their customer's. It would be like best buy freezing all your existing reward points because you bought an item that had a price mistake.

36902BRF

+1 Amex was relying on security through obscurity which often does not end well. This fact this happened again six months later is a sign of their incompetence.

36902BRF

Incorrect, while I certainly would not call it "punishing" though it is certainly very poorly handled, there are reports of folks who used public offers and/or offers targeted to them that got frozen/audited and not just large Plat offers. This is certainly not limited to just this and May's Plat offers though clearly accessing a link that Amex deems "targeted" and not targeted to you (there is no evidence they were hacked) is much higher risk.

LWT3

I disagree. Anybody who applied the second time around was on notice of the risk and chose to proceed anyway. Nobody was victimized here.