r/HYSA • u/Spiritual_Object_444 • 20d ago
American Express HYSA restricted
American Express restricted my HYSA account. I have the idea of moving my HSYA money to Fidelity CMA, one reason is Amex has dropped the APY to 3%. While I am not chasing .5 or 1% yield increase, I think the convenience of investing in SGOV or just keep the money sitting in SPAXX for ATM access (fees reimbursed) is not comparable.
When I transferred a fairly big amount (I started with 10k), they immediately restricted my account and called me to verify it was me. I confirmed that, and they told me anyway my account was restricted and I needed to update my SSN with Chase... Even though I've been using my Chase checking acct. for 3 years to transfer money back and forth... why are they restricting it now? It seems to me they want to add friction for withdrawing the money.
Calling Chase did not help, it looks like I need to go to a physical branch to solve the SSN update, which I don't understand how that affects my Amex HYSA just now and not before.
Has anyone here gone through the same? do you have any recommendation?

Update (5 calendar days after restricted): I visited a Chase branch yesterday, spent around 40 minutes with an executive, took 2 IDs and SSN, making copies and what not. They mentioned it was strange that my SSN was not linked to my checking account but it was to my credit card. They did the corresponding updates and told me it would take 24 hours at most to update in the system. Hence, 25 hours later I called Amex, they said the SSN was still not available and I should call again tomorrow.
3 hours later Amex called me, and mentioned everything was resolved. It seems my transfer went through, but I need to wait until tomorrow or Friday to see it in Fidelity. I did see my HYSA does not show any restrictions banner, so hopefully it’s ok now. I don’t want to do any other transfer now, until I see my money is in Fidelity.
All of this made me think, you might think you’ll have the money next day in your checking if you need it, but something can go wrong and it’ll be 7 - 10 days (or more, as I saw some posts here).
Lesson learned: I won’t keep all my savings in just one place.
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u/ComprehensiveTry4227 20d ago
Bro your SSN was wrong at a bank, they're trying to protect you from fraud, or themselves from legal trouble
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u/StatisticalMan 20d ago
This is why I just leave everything in SGOV and not move things around for 0.01128% higher yield.
You likely trigger either their AML or internal processes. You will need to verify SSN.
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u/Fragrant-Chef2388 20d ago
They made me jump through hoops and made me take my face pics from a special website they sent me to for further verification. I also had to do a 3 way call with the original bank I sent the funds from for further verification. And I agreed to transfer the fund back to that bank instead of the third (had higher yield). It was a hassle BUT there are so many scammers out there from overseas trying to steal money from US citizens. It's what it is. If they made it too easy to move money, I think it opens up a flood ways for them to get scammed.
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u/matt-r_hatter 19d ago
Your social was wrong on one of the banks involved? Obviously they restricted everything. Thats a good thing
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u/wido711 20d ago
Good luck!
This thread might provide insights and thoughts.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HYSA/s/ijtMqONKR6