USA: MR points transfer blocked, account being reviewed [Consolidated]
Feb 3, 2017, 9:48 am
#16
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
25,000 point referral bonus posted to my MR account on 1.19.2017. Made successful test transfer to BA just now, and I can see the points in my BAEC account.
Mar 22, 2018, 5:04 pm
#17
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 3,575
I found out only when a points transfer to delta failed, and I got the "account is currently being reviewed to make sure all eligible purchases meet qualifying criteria" message.
The message does not seem to fit any reality with the account. One representative indicated that the hold began several weeks ago, the day on which Amex gave me a 15,000 point bonus to sign up for the extended pay option. There were no purchases tied to that bonus.
That same day, I started a dispute over a couple months of gym membership charges because my gym closed four months earlier, but kept up the monthly billing. The disputed amount is no more than a couple hundred dollars. They have not suggested that was the trigger.
The message does not seem to fit any reality with the account. One representative indicated that the hold began several weeks ago, the day on which Amex gave me a 15,000 point bonus to sign up for the extended pay option. There were no purchases tied to that bonus.
That same day, I started a dispute over a couple months of gym membership charges because my gym closed four months earlier, but kept up the monthly billing. The disputed amount is no more than a couple hundred dollars. They have not suggested that was the trigger.
Filed a CFPB complaint immediately and amazingly the next day my account appears unlocked again and I appear to be able to transfer.
Last edited by antonius66; Mar 23, 2018 at 4:59 pm
Jul 30, 2018, 10:02 am
#18
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 37
MR points frozen for seemingly no reason?
Hi,
I wanted to see if anyone else had experience with points being frozen for no reason I can think of. I have 3 Amex cards, all opened in the past 3 year with one opened per year. Most recently I opened the Gold Rewards card in Feb and met the minimum spend within 4 weeks. My girlfriend is also an authorized user on my plat card and has been for almost a year. I recently successfully transferred about 45k points to ANA. I then wanted to transfer more for another flight and got an error message saying I was under review. No idea why. I don't do anything weird with my accounts. I still use all the cards and I've paid the bill off on time except once (I didn't realize I had a $10 balance because I paid before something cleared). They said the review will take 6-8 weeks and sounds like there is no way around that. Pretty mad as I needed to transfer this points ASAP to book these flights. Any idea what might have triggered the review?
I wanted to see if anyone else had experience with points being frozen for no reason I can think of. I have 3 Amex cards, all opened in the past 3 year with one opened per year. Most recently I opened the Gold Rewards card in Feb and met the minimum spend within 4 weeks. My girlfriend is also an authorized user on my plat card and has been for almost a year. I recently successfully transferred about 45k points to ANA. I then wanted to transfer more for another flight and got an error message saying I was under review. No idea why. I don't do anything weird with my accounts. I still use all the cards and I've paid the bill off on time except once (I didn't realize I had a $10 balance because I paid before something cleared). They said the review will take 6-8 weeks and sounds like there is no way around that. Pretty mad as I needed to transfer this points ASAP to book these flights. Any idea what might have triggered the review?
Jul 30, 2018, 10:11 am
#19
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
Yes, it is almost certainly this:
...they are checking to see if all of the spending qualified to meet the requirement, and to see if there were any returns.
Extensive discussion here:
[OFFER DEAD, MR accounts frozen, some bonuses clawed back] 100k Amex Plat (USA)
I opened the Gold Rewards card in Feb and met the minimum spend within 4 weeks.
Extensive discussion here:
[OFFER DEAD, MR accounts frozen, some bonuses clawed back] 100k Amex Plat (USA)
Jul 30, 2018, 10:14 am
#20
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,450
Jul 30, 2018, 12:03 pm
#22
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 103
Don't mean to threadjack, but I just had an odd situation with Amex. Got the Gold Rewards last month, 50k for 2k spend. I haven't hit my min spend yet, but Amex just posted the 50k bonus into my MR account couple days ago. My first statement hasn't closed yet. Is this normal? Should I be worried about my MR account being frozen if I try to use it?
Jul 30, 2018, 12:24 pm
#23
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
Jul 30, 2018, 12:38 pm
#24
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: DFW
Posts: 684
Jul 30, 2018, 12:42 pm
#25
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 37
That is actually just me name, ha. I've never done any of the churning stuff. All normal charges. Can't say for certain if there were any returns on the card, but if there were they all would have been small and would not have impacted the $2k requirement.
Jul 30, 2018, 12:50 pm
#26
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
In any event, the people you can contact directly are not the people who do the review, and (in my experience) they don't really know what the company is looking for, even if they offer a guess.
Jul 31, 2018, 1:55 am
#28
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 1,610
Yes, any time you get a bonus of any kind (promotional on new card, on adding an auth user, bonus points for completing an amex offer, bonus points like 5x bonus on travel) - any of those bonus offers can trigger/flag your account for review. But while the account is flagged, the actual review timeline (of 8-12 weeks) only starts officially from the date you see the message when you try and transfer.
Sorry, but that's the new stupid amex rules.
Sorry, but that's the new stupid amex rules.
Jul 31, 2018, 6:42 am
#29
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 37
Yes, any time you get a bonus of any kind (promotional on new card, on adding an auth user, bonus points for completing an amex offer, bonus points like 5x bonus on travel) - any of those bonus offers can trigger/flag your account for review. But while the account is flagged, the actual review timeline (of 8-12 weeks) only starts officially from the date you see the message when you try and transfer.
Sorry, but that's the new stupid amex rules.
Sorry, but that's the new stupid amex rules.
Aug 13, 2018, 7:51 am
#30
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: Hilton Diamond, Marriott/SPG Platinum
Posts: 496
Having this exact issue right now. They are telling me 6 to 8 weeks which is beyond insane, considering they triggered it by linking and unlinking my wife's account when trying to help me transfer points to my airline account. I am beyond furious.
Filed a CFPB complaint immediately and amazingly the next day my account appears unlocked again and I appear to be able to transfer.
Filed a CFPB complaint immediately and amazingly the next day my account appears unlocked again and I appear to be able to transfer.