New Card - "Check Spending Power" caused Card to be locked pending a "Financial Review"

[Deleted member 78516]

Hi all,

Newbie here!

So, I got approved last week for an AMEX Platinum Personal Card and received it a couple days later.

Whilst I was playing around with the app, my partner and I clicked the “Check Spending Power” button a few times and It automatically triggered a Financial Review! Couldnt even purchase anything as it declined at the shops 20 minutes later.

I received a phone call from someone who said I need to provide my payslips, Drivers License and bank statements.

Which I did on the same day, however I am self employed, so I wasn’t able to supply payslips, just provided a bunch of documentation showing my income and I also sent through my partners payslips and bank statements for household income.

This is my first AMEX and had no idea about the financial review!

Has anyone else gone through this? Didn’t even have the card for 30 minutes and locked out, and now I may get the account cancelled?

It surprised me...didn’t even know about not touching things in the app!

 

[glasszon]

Just to confirm, you are based in Australia right? It's the first time I heard a financial review is conducted for an Australian card, it is quite common in the US/Canada market but it doesn't seems to be a thing in Australia until your post.

Sorry couldn't be of more help, you can look at flyertalk threads about financial review on US cards, that's the best I can think of.

 

[Spongbob]

Would not AMEX have most if not all of your financial details when you applied for the Platinum Personal Card?

 

[Deleted member 78516]

So yeah, I received an email asking for payslips, bank statements and drivers license..

Provided everything on the same day and got a call this morning saying my account is activated again and sorry for any inconvenience!

I will not be touching the check spending button ever again!

Thanks for the replies!

 

[SeaWolf]

I have heard from US people that the Spending Power button is something to approach with caution. Basically you should only use it if you've got a large purchase coming up and want to be sure it won't get knocked back. In that case it's fine to use it, but put in the expected spend, get the result and then leave it.
What they (apparently) don't like is people pushing it multiple times in a row to "explore" how much they can spend in one hit.

 

[Quattro]

I have heard from US people that the Spending Power button is something to approach with caution. Basically you should only use it if you've got a large purchase coming up and want to be sure it won't get knocked back. In that case it's fine to use it, but put in the expected spend, get the result and then leave it.
What they (apparently) don't like is people pushing it multiple times in a row to "explore" how much they can spend in one hit.

Interesting... I've abused it since day dot (3 years of PC). Especially when I'm overseas actually.

Glad you got it all sorted OP, and welcome .

 

[zig]

I have heard from US people that the Spending Power button is something to approach with caution. Basically you should only use it if you've got a large purchase coming up and want to be sure it won't get knocked back. In that case it's fine to use it, but put in the expected spend, get the result and then leave it.
What they (apparently) don't like is people pushing it multiple times in a row to "explore" how much they can spend in one hit.

Useful information. I have used the button a couple of times over the years to check that I wouldn't get knocked back on a large purchase, but didn't realise the implications for over using it.

 

[Quattro]

If there were implications on it, they are hiding this. There is no disclaimer, and in the FAQ's it states it does not leave a credit inquiry.

It's a feature of the charge card. If you can't use it as you feel fit then what's the point.

 

[DaveB]

Another issue to be careful with the Check Spending Button is it can allow you to make one spend putting the account well above the actual spending cap they have set on your account, in my case $55,000 over the unstated cap on a Business Platinum account.
After making the large payment putting the account up to the allowed spending level, the account was then frozen for further purchases as my wife found out later the same day with her card being declined at Coles for a $30 spend.
All cards remained frozen until I got the balance back below the advised unstated cap.