Evan writes that he recently got married, and the newlyweds make more money than they did at this time last year. American Express suspects something, and has suspended their credit card, demanding a copy of his wife’s tax return from last year. What’s going on?

He writes:

AMEX abruptly suspending charging on our Gold charge card and is making my wife and I fill out a 4506-T? Our account manager is very vague as to why; and won’t accept copies of recent bank statements or pay stubs. When we filed our taxes last year we made about 48k, and our income this year has increased substantially, into the low 6 digits. Why are they doing this? Is this just a bunch of red tape before they close our account? If they compare our current spending with our “official” income last year of 48k; they probably will close the account. Sounds like a bunch of BS.

The account is one year old and we have never made a late payment.

This is crazy…why won’t they take our current paystubs as proof of income? My wife and I weren’t married in ’09; so they just want her income tax return; our income now is significantly higher.

Some key information is missing here: is he carrying a balance on the card, or paying it off every month? Is he using the card more, spending more money along with his increased income?

We passed Evan’s e-mail along to someone at American Express, and hope to post an update soon.

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