One of my friends got a mail from American Express stating that his SimplyCash and Blue Cash from American Express accounts will not accept new charges because his accounts is under financial review (FR). They request my friend to provide his previous year’s tax return documents and last three months’ bank statements. Otherwise both of his accounts at American Express will be closed. The reason why he got the financial review is he spent a lot of many on his Blue Cash card recently. He used this card to pay all the expenses for a trip to Paris.

I know many of you may have already experienced the famous “financial review”. (Yes, I know you are a good customer: never has a late payment, balance is way lower than 50% of your credit limit.) Many of you may get your account closed even though you provide all of the information they request. Many of you can still use your American Express credit cards after the financial review because their system “feels” that you are financially safe now. I want to summarize some common scenarios about financial review from American Express. And I hope this post would be of any help to those who receive the financial reviews in the near future.

How do you know that you are under financial review?

• Get a call from American Express—telling you that you are under financial review and requesting you to provide financial documents to them.
• Get a mail from American Express— stating that you are under financial review and requesting you to provide financial documents to them.
• When you login your online account, all of your accounts are highlighted in red and your available credit of each of your accounts is $0.
• You can’t use your American Express Cards any longer.

What can/should you do with financial review?

There’s really nothing we can do to deal with the financial review from American Express. All you can do is to comply their requests and fax or mail all of the information they need: tax return documents, bank statements and other supplemental materials. However, there are some tips I think will help you.

1. Pay off all the balances on your credit card accounts immediately and request them to close your accounts. In this way, you accounts are close by consumer but not the credit granter. It’s said that ‘closed by consumer” make your credit report look much better and good for your FICO score. (I don’t believe so.) In this way, you have to say “bye bye” to American Express cards.

2. Mail or fax any materials they requested: tax return documents and bank statements. I have a very good advice here: ask your personal banker to issue an official document (payroll) for you stating you are receiving your salary constantly from your employer. This document is very effective. Plus you should also write a letter by yourself telling them that you like American Express card or more specific, Blue Cash from American Express, Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express.

Why do you get financial review?

There is no official saying from American Express. If you look at the credit card agreement, they can close your account for any reason. There are a number of things that can spark the red flag on your credit cards—insurance claims, over use of credits, major charges on one or numerous account, open multiple accounts within a severely limited period of time, ask for credit limit increases every month, etc.

When we talk about how to use our credit cards, we should always know that credit card issuers are curious about the following factors:

• New inquires and new accounts
• Credit utilization
• Payment history
• Number of cards with a balance