New Wave of Amex Shutdowns and The Strange Reason Behind It

Update (Nov. 17, 2021) – Frequent Miler reports that Amex is reinstating accounts for some people that were shut down. But they are strangely charging a $25 reinstatement fee. It’s definitely worth calling in if you were affected by these shutdowns back in October.

Original article (Oct. 7, 2021):

American Express is notorious for shutting down accounts when they notice or suspect abuse from its cardholders. But last week there was yet another wave of shutdowns and the reason is quite different from previous cases.

Miles to Memories first wrote about these recent shutdowns which happened on or around Friday, October 1st. This was a complete shutdown for many people, with no warning or any correspondence whatsoever by American Express. Those affected just could not access their Amex accounts. Even when calling in, they were bounced around from one rep to another without being able to get a straight answer.

Some of the data points provided show that people were not engaged in any abuse. This seemed very weird, but just a couple of days later, a common thread was revealed. According to Reddit, and some comments at Miles to Memories, there was an American Express employee named Adam that had access to a 150K offer for the Amex Business Platinum. This is the same no lifetime language offer that Amex has been consistently sending out to many cardholder, even multiple times.

But these offers are targeted. This employee’s application on the other hand would work for everyone. So people would reach out to him and he would provide one of these “no lifetime language” offers, over and over. Some people were even able to apply multiple times through him. While it is somewhat shady, he claimed that this was an approved offer from corporate. And it was believable since he was an American Express employee. This thing apparently got so big that people were even selling “access” to his contact information.

And then finally Friday, American Express has shut down everyone or most of those people who applied through this person’s links.

Guru’s Wrap-up

This is a strange situation. Bankers usually have access to offers that might not be publicly available. There could be other Amex business bankers with similar offers, but apparently this person’s links lasted much longer. If you have applied through Adam’s links or any other employee that were able to generate such links, make sure you check your accounts and see whether you have been affected.

It seems strange that American Express would go after everyone that used links from one of its employees. Yes, it makes sense if people got two, three or more Amex Business Platinum cards through these links. But even those who signed up for just one, or just their first Amex Business Platinum card through his links, have been shut down. That seems extreme.

I’m not sure if American Express will work with some of these people to reopen accounts. If you have been shut down for applying through Adam’s links, it’s worth trying it.