Consumer complaint received 2024-12-20 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Can't use card to make purchases
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: MA

Complaint narrative:
Ive held an American Express ( the Company ) card for the past few months and recently made several large purchases. Prior to doing so, I verified that these charges were within my limit using the Companys Check Spending Power tool, and the purchases went through without issue. Yet this week, the Company abruptly suspended my account at the request of their Financial Review team, demanding that I provide a number of sensitive financial documents, including proof of income. 

According to the Company, this was all part of a routine review. However, suspending the account without warning, if no urgent issue existed, seems excessive and unjustified. If it was triggered by a specific concern, then the Companys claim that it was simply a routine process is questionable. Moreover, my spending was clearly within the approved limit, I have never missed a payment, my credit score has only improved since opening the account, and I even confirmed the larger purchases as permissible through their own verification tool. 

I strongly suspect that the Companys decision was prompted by the fact that my balance had grown higher than in previous months, despite still being well within the assigned limit. Rather than offering a reasonable alternativesuch as allowing me to pay down the balance early to address any potential riskthe Company is effectively holding my account XXXX until I disclose private financial information. If their true concern was mitigating the possibility of default, permitting me to pay off the balance should have been a sufficient and simple solution. 

If the Company confirms in their response to this complaint that the immediate suspension occurred while I was using the card within the limits provided by them, forcing me to disclose highly personal financial documents in order to lift the suspension would be a violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act 's prohibition on abusive practices, as clarified in the CFPB 's 2023 Policy Statement. The CFPB defines abusive acts as those that materially interfere with a consumer 's understanding of a product or take unreasonable advantage of certain circumstances, such as gaps in understanding, unequal bargaining power, or a consumer 's reliance on the Company to act in their best interest. The Companys abrupt account suspension and demand for sensitive documents, despite my good standing and use of the " Check Spending Power '' tool, could be seen as exploiting unequal bargaining power and the consumer 's reasonable reliance on the Company 's processes. The CFPB 's framework emphasizes that abusive conduct focuses on whether the Company 's actions unreasonably exploit consumers ' vulnerabilities. By suspending the accounts and access to credit of consumers without warning or offering reasonable alternatives, the Company would be in violation of the CFPA and likely other statutes enforced by the CFPB and other regulatory agencies. 

I urge the CFPB to monitor the Companys response to this complaint, and consider whether their actions were lawful or whether they deserve further scrutiny. I make myself available to the CFPB to discuss this matter if needed. Subject to the Companys response to this complaint, given that I have heard about many other instances of this happening, I will report this incident to the Massachusetts Attorney General ( including the facts of the case, along with a copy of this report and the Companys response ), and I will also consider filing a class action against the Company.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation