while anything is possible, its highly unlikely a simple request like replacing a debit card put eyes on your account. unless theres more to the replacement story. why did you replace your debit card? did you say it was stolen or lost? since you said "cancelled", then i assume its a brand new number. in that case, then its likely you had some monitoring.

Arrival Plus Closure by Barclay
 

1. It was shutdown by Barclay due to "Account Useage". Not sure what that means.
2. Had card for 2 years and $30K CL
3. Average balance about $10K, but month of closure it was about $20K.
4. Average $10-15K per month in MS
5. Last month I paid balance 6x during month. Typically I would do this 2-3x per month.
6. Never did BP except from another bank. WF and Chase
7. Not sure of this question.

Did you drain the accumulated cashback frequently and completely?

No, I did not drain the cashback frequently. In fact I was building up points to wipe out a $600 travel cost that was about to disappear. I got a $475 credit and that was the last thing to hit the account. Just paid $9k of the 14K balance and waiting on balance of debit cards to pay off the balance.

So they automatically credited your account for all the points you had earned with a statement credit?

Interesting that they had problems with such minimal MS. I got shut down in fall of 2017, but I spent 1.5 years doing almost daily trips to Simon, probably 2-3x limit per week and cleaning out all the points weekly via fake refunded hotel bookings. I guess they wisened up after a few users like me and are now even more strict.

Which card are you using now for your MS?

A bunch of 2x cards at giftcardmall, and I had a Discover 3x that just hit 12 months, and I'll have to sign up for another one of those in a few months :)

Discover has gotten much tighter recently. I also need to renew my miles it but got turned down twice. Fico of 800 but to many recent inquiries and new accounts. Lol/24 ofc but never expected discover to turn me down ... Same situation as last year but it was no prob then.

We'll see how it goes. I've been taking it easy on apps last 2 years. I'm around 5/24 with personal cards, maybe another 4-5 with business. I'll wait it out for a few months before re-applying.

Greetings, I signed up my mother for a spend bonus promo on her Bonvoy personal CC, but she has only 3k CL. So to be meeting the bonus requirements ($25k a month) she would have to cycle the CL more than 8 times !! And thus three more times during the year. That's quite a bit of cycling. I definitely don't want AMEX to shut down her accounts, but also don't mind taking SOME risk. The question is, how much? Does anybody have a good sense to estimate the risk here? I know excessive cycling is risky but also curious if the low CL makes a diference, meaning cycling 50k CL 5 times is not the same as cycling 2k CL the same amount. Thanks!

On the personal card you have all year to spend in 25k increments, not 25K a month, up until Dec 31.

I find it hard to believe that Amex or any other card purveyor does not have intimate knowledge of our spending habits. My wife's Amex cards (plat and Hilton) have both been hacked in the past 3 months and Amex fraud picked up the discrepancy in spending immediately. The hackers had done the usual $1 charge to see if the card worked and Amex let that sail, but as soon as they tried using it for a real charge (of between $100-300), it was denied immediately and I received alerts from them. They knew that the items the hackers were buying on-line were not in her spending history, so the algorithm just kicked it out.

So if your mother has a CL of $3k, you can bet that as soon as she starts spending $25K a month, rat's eyes are going to bulge :o:
Amex didn't give a CL of $3K/month for no reason at all. I would be very cautious pursuing this line of MS.

Just a data point not a recommendation as your CL is very low. I have 30k+ limit on several amex cards. Amex lets me charge over 100k on these cards on one shot. I regularly go over 2 times my limit. (I do not think this is cycling because I am not paying it down, but I could be wrong) . I primarly do this on the Bus Blue because they let you carry balance interest free up to your credit limit, so I do this to earn the free interest. Plus you get 2x up to 50k spend each year, so I max that out also. You just get a warning that you are over your CL. In the begging they would just automatically raise your limit. Now I see an option to click here if you want your limit raised. I do nothing and just pay amount over limit plus minimum. They have a tool on their website to check spending power. You can see how much over you are allowed.

thanks for the data points folks. And yes, looks like that offer doesn't limit you to a month window. I guess signing up for my business Hilton card offer (10k a month) made me think of the same condition for mom's personal card. Good deal, makes a difference, still will have to "cycle" but not as much. Thanks.