Amex F/R Master Thread

[MarkS]

Not very long at all. Once you send on your 4506T it takes about 2-3 days and your up and running again! (Hopefully)

[steve2]

HEY GUYS. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP.

My FR is done. I SURVIVED. What triggered it was my business card (the card is on a TAX IS not a sol proprietor). They wanted to see my business tax returns from 08. I told her that the corp was opened in september 2008 and they was not much action in 08. we went back and forth. I wanted to show her my bank statements instead and she said she needs the returns, she was a very nice person BTW....
What eventually saved my tush was that my father declared me as a dependent in 2008. After she found that out she said to send in my last 3 months of my business bank statements ( the account I had been using to pay the card. I sent them in and she cleared the account within the hour. (the December one wasn't so hot but the other ones were ok) she also asked me a lot about the kind of business that I am running... etc.
anyone have a questions, let me know. I am willing to talk on the phone and give advise from my experience.

 Nice, a major problem for some is that the #s on the app were all made up = no way to show any proof to anything, so in that case its best to simply bluff your way out , if a person is new to Amex then theres not much they can do if they have been with them and have a good track record fall back on that and out of Principle tell them you refuse to send anything in

[Monsey]

I had a hilton amex for about six months with 20k credit. Last week i applied for the personal starwood card and got 2k credit. When i got my starwood card i transfered over 18k from my hilton and on the same day i closed my hilton card. Today i got a call from f/r. On my starwood application i said i make 125k a year and they asked me for proof. I told them that im a dependent on my father and thats his income. She told me i can send in the last 3 months statements of my checking account and any other investments to show them how much money i have and then they will decide what to do. Do you think i should close my account or wait and see what happens. They dont want my fathers tax return because it isnt in my name

[Avid Reader]

Do you think i should close my account or wait and see what happens. They dont want my fathers tax return because it isnt in my name

Dont close. Show them the statements. It worked for me.

[dvwing]

Well two days after my FR, I got hit AGAIN! The first FR was Monday on my husband's two accounts. Yesterday I sent in the 4506T and today I got THE phone call. Now my two accounts are suspended until the FR is done.

I think I know what triggered it. We got the new cards a couple weeks ago, went on to the AMEX link for adding a new cardmember for 1,000 bonus points for each one added. We added 2 per card, a total of 8 cardmembers between the two of us. Somewhere in the transmission it came through new accounts as a new card application instead of an added cardmember. I went in and did it again because the new accounts customer service rep told me to. Now I have been getting all kinds of letters saying that we have already applied for a card and they are cancelling the duplicate request. The thing is, it's not a duplicate request for a new account, but an additional card member.

FR told me there was a lot of inquiries on my credit report.

[MarkS]

They always say that they are not trying to close you down, and they value your business.....As long as you cooperate and send in your statements, YOU WILL NOT BE CLOSED DOWN!  
 All the hype out there about people loosing their accounts is for those who didn't comply and didn't send in the forms.
Even if the amount on your tax return/bank statements shows that the amount you wrote on your application is not true, they will simply lower your credit limit.
They tell everyone that there is only a 1% chance of being closed EVEN IF YOUR STATEMENTS DON'T MATCH YOUR CLAIMED INCOME!!

[D.S.]

I got F/R'd and I really want to sign up again. I love amex especially the starwoods. I am going to try in a few months and pray for the best.

Did it work???

[dvwing]

2 days after my husbands FR, I got FR. All 4 of our cards got shut down.

With the first one, we immediately faxed our form for them to access our tax records which showed 31k when our application said 50k a year. Took exactly one week and the FR went through fine with no changes to the credit limits.

The second FR was painless as they already had received the tax forms from my husbands FR and used all the same info. My cards were up and running with no changes the next day after his FR went through.

 

[Avid Reader]

2 days after my husbands FR, I got FR. All 4 of our cards got shut down.

With the first one, we immediately faxed our form for them to access our tax records which showed 31k when our application said 50k a year. Took exactly one week and the FR went through fine with no changes to the credit limits.

The second FR was painless as they already had received the tax forms from my husbands FR and used all the same info. My cards were up and running with no changes the next day after his FR went through.

 

NICE!! Happy for you. Thanks for posting the results.

[askmoses]

I was fr and when I cancelled then reapplied they wanted a certain form that would have cost me some 50 buck(or so) to obtain from the IRS. They specifically said they wanted that one so I decided it just wasn't worth it....
which forms did they as you for?

[dvwing]

I was fr and when I cancelled then reapplied they wanted a certain form that would have cost me some 50 buck(or so) to obtain from the IRS. They specifically said they wanted that one so I decided it just wasn't worth it....
which forms did they as you for?

4506T No charge

[Avid Reader]

2 days after my husbands FR, I got FR. All 4 of our cards got shut down.

With the first one, we immediately faxed our form for them to access our tax records which showed 31k when our application said 50k a year. Took exactly one week and the FR went through fine with no changes to the credit limits.

The second FR was painless as they already had received the tax forms from my husbands FR and used all the same info. My cards were up and running with no changes the next day after his FR went through.

 

Do you know what triggered it?

[askmoses]

They specifically asked for the 4506.... no T which is the transcript which would make it free. Not sure why they went so gung ho on me....

[Avid Reader]

Maybe cuz you canceled on them, they thought you had a reason to and got suspicious.

[Monsey]

I had a hilton amex for about six months with 20k credit. Last week i applied for the personal starwood card and got 2k credit. When i got my starwood card i transfered over 18k from my hilton and on the same day i closed my hilton card. Today i got a call from f/r. On my starwood application i said i make 125k a year and they asked me for proof. I told them that im a dependent on my father and thats his income. She told me i can send in the last 3 months statements of my checking account and any other investments to show them how much money i have and then they will decide what to do. Do you think i should close my account or wait and see what happens. They dont want my fathers tax return because it isnt in my name

SURVIVED! I got a call today that they arent closing my account but they would wanna reduce the credit line but they cant because its against the law to lower someones credit within 60 days of opening that new line of credit so i still have my 20k credit limit. Thanks avid reader for the help.

[Dan]

They always say that they are not trying to close you down, and they value your business.....As long as you cooperate and send in your statements, YOU WILL NOT BE CLOSED DOWN! 
 All the hype out there about people loosing their accounts is for those who didn't comply and didn't send in the forms.
Even if the amount on your tax return/bank statements shows that the amount you wrote on your application is not true, they will simply lower your credit limit.
They tell everyone that there is only a 1% chance of being closed EVEN IF YOUR STATEMENTS DON'T MATCH YOUR CLAIMED INCOME!!

This is true only if you have a real reported income.

[MarkS]

This is true only if you have a real reported income.

As long as you have any reported income. It doesnt have to be anything near what you wrote on the application.

[jmail]

Can anyone explain what the deal is with Financial review? if you actually make the income you post on your application, is there any downside to FR? What can they do pursuant to FR?

Thanks!

[Dan]

If you have too much suspicious activity (opening too many cards too quickly, spending too much of your available credit, have credit lines out of proportion with your income, spend on suspicious items, etc.) that can cause AMEX to request your past year's tax files.

If you make on the books what you claimed and don't mind giving AMEX that data you'll be fine.  If you make less you may get your lines cut, if you make nothing you need to shut down your accounts before they shut 'em down for you.

[gozalim]

SPG Personal vs. Business:
which is more likely to be churnable?
which is more likely to trigger a Financial Review?