If you have an American Express card, beware: your card could be put on hold at any moment, even if you think you've made all your payments on time. That means, you won't be able to charge anything on your Amex card.
That's exactly what happened to Cathy Jones, a businesswoman with three Amex charge cards. She got a call from Amex last week saying her cards were now on hold, while the company did a financial investigation to make sure she could pay her bills.
Jones was baffled. She's been an Amex cardholder since 1989 and can't remember being late on a payment. So, to get some answers, Jones and I got on the phone, and called the customer service number on the back of her card.
An Amex representative in New Delhi, India, said because of the bad economic times, American Express is now doing financial investigations of thousands of cardholders. The rep said Amex is insisting these customers fill out an IRS form 4506-T, authorizing the company to get their tax returns for the last three years. The rep told us if Jones didn't fill out the IRS form, they'd cancel her charge cards for good, within five days. And here's the part that concerned Cathy Jones: The rep said these "investigations" were being done, not in the US, but in India.
Comment: Too many anonymous sources on this one, but we are getting used to this type of information to be presented as news nowadays. The two states making the most fuss about Monchegorsk's cargo were the US and Israel, so that tells us enough already on the amount of propaganda to expect on "conditions of anonymity". Some more articles on the subject:
Cyprus: Iran ship can leave without suspect cargo
Cyprus finds no arms on Iranian ship
Ship detained in Cyprus is carrying banned weapons, says UN panel
The "Iranian" Weapon Ships And The Israeli Propaganda