bocastephen

That's because the OP did exactly that - they pushed their luck. Cards were maxed out and they did huge transactions in rapid succession that Amex identified as quasi-cash.

If you are not maxing out your card and are buying coins along with normal purchases, it's really none of Amex' business and any attempt by them to harass you should be met with intense escalation on the part of the cardmember. The magic phrase is demanding to speak with the team "SDL" (service delivery leader).

Needless to say, an Amex card is probably the last option I would use for any 'mileage earning' schemes - their nastiness is balanced only by sheer incompetence, and I speak as someone who consulted for them years ago.

My favorite Amex story is about management staffer who roared into work one day and resigned (then went to a competitor) because his card was cut off without warning or reason while in the middle of shopping for Thanksgiving dinner and his own team refused to re-activate it. Arbitrary account cutoffs for nonsensical reasons are quite common with them - and when you call in, you're likely talking to someone with a high school education, earning $9/hr who doesn't know their right foot from their left unless you are a high balance customer (and that team knows most of their regular customers quite well) or are referred to the criminal-fraud team.

ShakuniMama

There is a thread at FW for some ideas

Thunderroad

FWIW, my wife and I both applied for the business card about a week ago, got emails notifying us that we'd been approved a few days later, and just got the cards via UPS today.

SkinsFan0521

Well, I've had AMEX contact me about my mint purchases and threaten that if I continued to use it for mint purchases, it may be canceled. Since I like my AMEX cards (specifically the SPG personal that I was using for these purchasese), I decided to go other routes to get my spending.

I had the conversation w/the CSR who called me and told her that she shouldn't care one way or the other because they get paid the same amount no matter what I'm buying. Plus, if they have an issue with me using my card at an AMEX approved merchant, perhaps they should take it up with them, not me, their "valued" customer.

Then I argued that I don't always buy dollar coins (which is 100% true) and how can she tell me that I can't use my AMEX for buying silver & gold coins when all the transactions post as the same description. That has been "fixed" though. lol Now, they show up as specifically dollar coin purchases.

Moral of the story is that AMEX contacted me out of the blue and told me that I can't keep using my cards for mint purchases or my cards may be canceled. And I wasn't exactly charging at "mrpickels" levels either. I was doing about $5k/month.

Happy

What was the total amount of other purchases?

AA Novice

I just found this thread and wondered the same thing.

SkinsFan0521

Well, I was doing about $5k/month combined on two AMEX cards at the time and my other spending was much less than that... probably around $2k/month. Plus, this was only for about 2 or 3 months ($10k - $15k total) before they called and threatened. I then found other ways to get the coins and still use the same card, but they have since cut me off from that too. haha

So, I do know that it was a high percentage, but I certainly was much less than many people on here do, that's for sure and it wasn't over an extended period of time either.

Trustguy

Take screen shots and give it a try...

ShakuniMama

Was it PayPal?

sent

D'oh! I have been thinking about a Starwoods credit card and just missed this. Well now I know to keep my eyes open for a better offer than the "usual" hopefully in the near future...

AA Novice

Think I will.

SkinsFan0521

lol no, not at a cost of 3%

travelinfoo

Won't actually help your case. The offer page has "expires 7/6/2010" on it. So if you applied after that date, the page supports SPG not giving the offer to you.

susiesan

I applied July 1 for 2 SPG Business cards for myself and on July 4 for one for my husband. July 9 I got an email saying DH's had been approved and was coming in the mail. I got another email July 9 saying check the status page for my apps. When I checked it said one business card had been approved and one app had been canceled. When I got home form work both my husband's and my business cards were there via UPS letter.

I called to explain that the 2 bus apps were for 2 different businesses with different EIN's. But they were confused and think it's a duplicate. I'm not going to push my luck and press for the second bus card.

Monday I will pay bills at my business and have the spend on all 3 cards taken care of. Sweet.

ShakuniMama

Please do let us know.......suspense is killing me ............and I want to sleep tonight