Got hit with a Financial Review on my Amex Platinum Business card!! Now what?

The only thing I see as an issue here is AMEX somehow blacklisting you for awhile. If youre never having an issue paying bills, I think its dumb though.

Just send a secure message and request them to credit the global entry. They process requests very quickly for Plat card holders (for obvious reason). I got my global entry as well, finally get to use it next month. Do you get the $200 airline incidentals? Im not sure with the Biz Plat, use that quickly too if you do, and buy the 4 AA $50 GC. Also, I dont know of any good Hilton card sign-up bonuses right now anyways. There was a 60k card at one point, with no annual fee, I stored that card. Just get this FR mess figured out and then apply when a legitimate sign up bonus comes up for Hilton or the SPG cards.

Funny you mentioned it, I was actually reported to the IRS once by PayPal for my transactions/sales (exceeding way over 200 & $20k). Luckily I paid up quick and had no issues, but that wasnt a fun letter to receive. It seemed to have no relevance on my CC applications though. Dont think thats the issue. I think this is solely AMEX checking up on you cause its your first AMEX and you went straight for the big money Plat card. (These have no official spend limit, cause theyre charge cards.)

Okay..how likely do you think I'm going to get into any serious trouble over this?
AMEX told me that they don't report anything to the IRS. all they are going to do is ask the IRS to supply that income tax information to them.

Serious trouble? I don't think you're in for any serious trouble.

An overstatement of income is bad when it is huge. $10k isn't huge. They might lower your limit slightly, or might question why you don't have a schedule C on your return (assuming you don't), but the issue will be contained at AMEX. It isn't going to hurt you with the IRS or credit bureaus (unless you've had this account for a very long time or one of the other major reporting factors).

No worries - worst case you lose the AMEX card. Your credit was good enough to get it in the first place. Income typically only decides the amount of your credit line on a credit card (unless your debt-to-income is high and becomes a big factor).

Hey! let me start off by saying. Thanks. Thanks for being courteous. Thanks for being polite. and thanks for cutting me some slack.


I should get all the bonus offers that the card promises IF they don't cancel it. For now the card is on hold and my account is frozen. Thus, I can't use it for ANYTHING. So I don't think they'll credit me for anything right now.


I'm going to wait and see what happens. I did fax them everything. And I hope the analyst stays true to her word that as long as I fax them back the info, they wouldn't cancel my card, just (in all probability) place a spending limit on it.


I hope this isn't going to be a trend with them. Do they do a financial review just once? Or for every card?

When you were reported to the IRS, what kind of fine did they charge you? PM me if you don't want to say it here!

If they do cancel the card, won't that be on my credit report for all the rest to see? that american express cancelled the card?

. However, are you expecting the IRS to independently question you because of PayPal aside from this AMEX review?

i wanted to get some detailed information about the travel insurance that they offered, so i called their helpline.

big mistakes for $500/mth guy

either i somehow got transferred to their financial department, or they had my account flagged, so that if i called, the call would go to the financial department.

yea, if $500/mth guy shows an immediate eagerness to cost us a lot of money, he needs a financial review. Big surprise.

the analyst began asking me questions about my business (which i listed as ebay.) and my total annual income.
So, then she asked me for my email address, and told me that she was going to email me a form, and that's when it struck me that this was a financial review!! so, the card has been placed on hold. I asked her, what triggered the review.

She said that they are just doing the review to make sure that "based on your income, you're getting the best value and service from this card"

translation: You seem like an expensive client. We need to know that you can charge a lot of stuff every month. Or we're going to encourage you to take your $500/mth elsewhere.


now, when i was applying for the card, (i did it over the phone) i specifically asked the rep, if he wanted me to mention the annual income as it appeared on the tax return? Or if he wanted the total, including what i made through ebay and various other sales, that i am not required to report to the irs? He said, to give him the entire amount...now the analyst tells me that they will get in touch with the irs to get a copy of my tax return and verify what my annual income is...and this is not going to match what i told the rep when i was signing up...

this is likely the reason the first rep. told you to lie. Now the analyst can cite a good reason for screwing with your account.

Also, nice job of applying by phone (expensive) instead of online (cheap).

I'll just be given some sort of spending cap.

yea, one that stops you from you from using amex. as a one-night stand.

she also said, that they don't want to cancel my card, and the only way that i could get the card cancelled was if i didn't reply to that email.

lol! How can it be the only way? What if the irs reported no tax return on file for you? Or what if your tax return showed a ghetto-level income? She's full of shit.

tl;dr- got hit with a financial review on amex platinum business card. Now what?

cancel your plans for that 100k points.

i have not done any major spending on the card. I've only charged around $500 to it.

what a perfect time to call in & ask about one of the many free perks.

i hope they don't cancel it...because if they are, then i'd like to beat them to it. I'd rather have it show on my report that i cancelled my card rather than amex cancelled it.

haha! This is the least of your worries. Virtually nobody looks at credit reports (it's usually all about the fico). Some employers do. But all they typically care about is either poor payment history or extreme debt.