**ONLY** IF YOU HAVE BEEN F/R'D BY AMEX

[shifter]

But don't worry. I don't check this 7 times a day like you.

[Cappy]

But don't worry. I don't check this 7 times a day like you.

Lol. Thanks for remembering

[Omnipotent]

I have a BCP sitting at $10,400/$20,000 due to the 0% APR promotion. I was floating $3,000 on returns that I have not made yet. Amex sees this as a jump where I spent $3,000 from my previous month. I have a MB Platinum sitting at $2,500. The first month I made about $1,000 out of $2,500 including the AF (comforters and dress shoes) in returns after the statement printed. A did recieve a call from the charge card department a couple of days after my statement printed reminding me that my payment was due and offered the chance to set up a payment then and there over the phone. She explained how this was customary for a charge card just to make sure the consumer understands exactly what it is. I paid the full balance on the day I agreed I would. I did not make a payment or set up one through the agent, I just set up the payment on my own. The BCP looked like -$3,000 for arguments sake.

 

Due to my noob status at manufactured spending, my Sallie Mae reported with a $3,000 balance higher than the previous month. My Citi AAdvantage with a $1,300 balance. I also took $5,000 from my Freedom for a Chase Ink. This part looked like -$9,300 on top of the -$3,000 for a total of -$12,300.

 

During my lovely chat with the F/R agent, he questioned if my general merchandise statement on my BCP were gift card transactions. They were actually suits I bought but due to the merchant code assigned to the shop it rung up otherwise. I did however manufacture spend $1,000 of the $2,500 balance on the MB Platinum. He didn't know this.

 

He also questioned why I was returning so many items. I explained how I loathe the hassle and time that goes into trying an item at the store. If I like it I buy it. If I don't like it enough to keep it I return it. This also made me think that due to me returning the comforters/shoes after the statement printed on my MB Platinum, Amex may see this as my realization that I spend more than I can handle and I need to lower the balance so I can successfully make the full payment for the month. ,

 

Some of this may be theory, but the numbers are against me. I completely overlooked the reporting aspect and how it would affect me.

Edited March 8, 2014 by Omnipotent

[Omnipotent]

Edit:

 

The second month is when I manufactured $1k but the balance was $2,600, not $2,500.

 

Also, the general merchandise transactions on my BCP that the rep brought up where purchases over the last 3-4 months. 4 transactions at an average of $900 each.

[Caddypower]

On 4/21/2007 at 1:10 PM, breeze said:

I agree that so far it shows no trend towards any reason. On the other hand, 11 people have responded. We need better numbers in order to break the survey down a bit more.

 

I'm wondering if they maybe are using some kind of service that might rate your finances based on geographic location, as mentioned, or other factors that wouldn't be obvious by the answers to these questions.

 

Meanwhile, let's try to get some more responses to these and see how much interest there is in pursuing more surveys if this doesn't break down to anything usable.

Yeah the fr sometimes doesn't make any sense. 

 

The times I would accept it is if I'm trying to spend a lot. If I'm only spending a few thousand a month and paying in full that should be low risk to amex and I wouldn't expect a fr from that 

 

10 thousand a month and that would be a different story. 

[centex]

2 hours ago, Caddypower said:

Yeah the fr sometimes doesn't make any sense. 

 

The times I would accept it is if I'm trying to spend a lot. If I'm only spending a few thousand a month and paying in full that should be low risk to amex and I wouldn't expect a fr from that 

 

10 thousand a month and that would be a different story. 

Holy Necro-bump Batman...

 

That being said, $10K/mo should never be an event that serves to automatically create a "different story" narrative.  For some people, including many here on CB, that level of spend is not out of line with typical spending. 

Edited March 6, 2020 by centex