{"id":4395,"date":"2022-04-29T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=4395"},"modified":"2023-04-18T11:44:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:44:32","slug":"closing-april-american-express-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/29\/closing-april-american-express-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing April, American Express Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since American Express has effectively consumed the majority of this month\u2019s posts with their ludicrous, new-Subaru-MSRP-valued offers<\/a>, it seemed fitting to send the month off with discussion about scaling and financial reviews based on chatter in and around the community.<\/p>\n

Scaling<\/h4>\n

American Express is more tolerant of massively scaled spending than any other big bank, but keep the following in mind:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. AmEx doesn\u2019t care about cycling your credit lines. You can spend up to your credit limit, pay it down before the statement closes, and then spend a bunch more.<\/li>\n
  2. AmEx does care about an explosion in spending. If you typically spend $5,000 per month and then spend $300,000 in two weeks, you could end up with a financial review. For rough numbers lets say:\n

    \u2013 A quick ramp of 3x to 5x of your normal spending is probably OK
    \u2013 A quick ramp of 20x+ of your normal spending is probably not OK
    \u2013 A slow, multi-month ramp to 20x+ of your normal spending is probably OK<\/li>\n

  3. AmEx doesn\u2019t care if you spend multiple times your annual business revenue on business cards.<\/li>\n
  4. AmEx often cares if you spend multiple times your annual income on personal cards.<\/li>\n
  5. AmEx doesn\u2019t care about round numbers \u2014 30 to 50 repeated $1,000.00 transactions won\u2019t cause any problem, provided you\u2019re playing by the above rules.<\/li>\n
  6. AmEx won\u2019t typically shut you down immediately if you violate the above rules, instead you\u2019ll end up with a financial review. (Shutdowns at AmEx are more like being in the wrong place at the wrong<\/a> time<\/a> unfortunately.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Financial Reviews<\/h4>\n

    When American Express finds behavior it doesn\u2019t like you\u2019ll get a call asking for a financial review<\/a>. When you get a financial review<\/a>, American Express will usually ask:<\/p>\n