American Express’s earns a 2.4-star rating from 9 reviews and 442 complaints, showing that the majority of cardholders are somewhat dissatisfied with financial services.
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card closed, wrong info!
After just three weeks of being APPROVED and using my new American Express card, the card was promptly closed on me before the first bill was even due! The reasons they gave for closing the card were inaccurate and after sending in paperwork (my credit score and credit report from Experian, the place in which they say they got all this information) that proved the reasons were wrong, they sent me a letter stating my card would not be reinstated. Why? They used the same reasons I just proved were wrong! My favorite reason is I was past due in the last 12 months with them. Funny. I've never had an American Express card before. They've acknowledged I've never been late with them, EVER, and that that reason was a mistake but it didn't stop them from using it as a reason yet again for not reinstating my card. I will fight this until the card is reinstated as I don't want this to effect my credit score since it was based off of false information. Once it is reinstated I will promplty close the card. I want nothing to do with American Express, ever. If you don't have one of their cards, thank your lucky stars. Terrible customer service, terrible practices. And one other thing. They might have gotten rid of me because I shopped at Walmart for Christmas presents when the card was opened. I hardly ever shop there but found the best prices for toys this year. (I always pay in full. on time, and am never late) Apparently they don't like it if you shop at Walmart and think Walmart shoppers are credit risk type people. Check out Clark Howards website for more information. Stay away from American Express!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
false pretense
American Express sent me an invitation offered credit cards application with deal that if I spend $500.00 before between December 1, 2008 to February 26, 2009 I can earn bonus points and be eligible for 2 domestic flight. I had bad experience with American Express once long time ago, but I though I give it a chance. I get approved for Rewards Plus Gold Card and earned 51, 007 points from spending according to agreement. On January 29, 2009, I received letter from American Express informed that my account has been canceled due to " I did not provide the financial document and/or income tax return information requested" and the letter also thread me with under these circumstances may result in negative reporting of this account to the consumer reporting agencies. When I applied for credit card all my personal information had been given included my work address and my home address. American Express keep sent the bills to my company head-quarter and were forward to my home address. Finally the last billing statement and the letter of cancellation come to my home address. My complaints is American Express offered with the false pretense for consumer to go and change on the credit card and then decided to cancelled the credit card and void the reward points. I was not late or over-due on the bill. I am suggesting that if anyone wants to have an American Express you might think before you do, don't waist you times and effort and get your blood pressure up for it.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
American Express charged me for things I never bought. They refused me dispute resolution.
American Express charges you for things you never have bought.
American Express charged me for purchases I never made and refused to put the charge in Dispute Resolution forcing me to pay for something I do not have or will never have from Palm Beach Jewelry.
I was charged for a purchase I did not make from the Palm Beach Jeweler that I never ordered and never received and now American Express refuses to let me put it in dispute resolution.
unauthorized charges
12/22/08 I received a $50 American Express gift card as a Christmas gift from a friend in Plano, TX. I tried to use the card that very evening at a nearby Walmart to purchase some last minute gift for my child. The self-check out would not accept the card so I asked an employee to finish my transaction at her terminal. The card kept spitting out receipts with zero balances. I paid for my items with cash and called AMEX when I got home 30 minutes later. I was told that my friend who purchased the card needed to call them with her receipt information before they would investigate.
12/30/08 I sent an email to my friend letting her know what happened and she called AMEX herself. They told her I'd spent the money already and that she could see the transaction online. I went online myself and checked and the website said the information was unavailable. I called AMEX again; just as one other gift card victim experienced the agent explained that although the receipt claimed the card was activated it was not and contained a balance of $0 not $50. I too was told to fax over copies of the receipt, front and back of gift card plus the packaging, a photo id, my name, address, phone number.
01/05/09 faxed over all items; no response from AMEX that information was received
01/08/09 still no response from AMEX so I called yet again. My first call was directed to the resolution department's extension which rang three times and hung up. I called customer service again and the agent Michelle says they did receive my faxed information.
01/14/09 still no response from AMEX. Agent Gail says they are sending me a letter to my home with an update to my case but would not tell me what the letter would say.
01/23/08 still no response from AMEX. Agent Kat says the letter was sent on 1/14 but would take 10 business days (talk about snail mail) to arrive at my home. I found the letter waiting for me when I got home and was sent into total shock when I read it. AMEX claims that I sent them the wrong receipt (total lie!) and that it did not match their information. Not only that but if I did not sent them the correct receipt immediately that the case would be closed. This is crazy! They show in their system the exact store that I was at when this fiasco occurred, I send them a receipt from that store showing the same timeframe, but my receipt is unacceptable?
Are they really that starved for money? If they treat non-customers this way I can't imagine how actual customers are treated. This has been a month of hell and many times I just said forget it, it was the thought that counts, but I can't back down from a scandal like this. This is total nonsense and I want them to credit my card or my friend for her original funds. It's one thing to read about these nightmares, it's quite another to live through.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I just received a letter from American Express stating that they were revising our corporate credit limit down to $8, 000. Our current balance is around $7800. We've had credit as high as $25, 000 on this account. We've had the account since 1996 and have never made a late payment. As a result of this decision, two of our 3 employees will not be payed today and will have to wait until next week.
My concern is not that they lowered the limit. My problem is that they did it without calling or warning or even offering a one week or so grace period. We could have made other arrangements. But obviously, They are not concerned with helping the small businesses they claim to care so much about. Shame on you American Express. We will be closing our account with you and will tell as many associates as we can about your treatment of our company.
I own a small cosmetic company that sells all natural skincare and cosmetics via the Internet. Recently my company was ripped off by a customer who presented herself as a new eligible business. She provided me with her tax ID, her address and her website address and she placed 2 big wholesale orders in June 2008.
She had paid by American Express card. Both her orders were processed and shipped to her billing address within 48 hours by USPS priority mail with delivery confirmation. Almost 6 months later, in November, she contacted American Express and claimed that she had never authorized the purchase with my company, without ever having notified my company at all.
American Express had never informed me of her claim and charged back my bank account. I faxed them all the necessary evidence of the order having been sent and delivered to the customer's address. I spent 2 days on the phone trying to convince them that I had 2 legitimate orders from this customer, that were approved by American Express and the charge was authorized by them. Nothing helped!
American Express never notified me of any of this. After having spent 2 days on the phone they admitted that they sent the notification to some incorrect address. This, their error, did not affect their policy. 25 days after they supposedly mailed me a notice they instituted the chargeback. All I know is I never received anything from them and was not aware of any of this until I saw a chargeback on my bank statement 6 months after the original transaction. Dispite their error they automatically instituted a chargeback and informed me that any further dispute is between me and the 'customer'.
Needless to say that I canceled my merchant account with American Express but I still lost my hard earned money.
American Express' merchant policies only encourage online robberies, product theft and online fraud. My complaint is that by the nature of their chargeback policies American Express fairly encourages fraudulent chargebacks and practically encourages unscrupulous thieves in a commission of their fraudulent crimes.
Not only was I ripped off by my 'customer' but more over I am convinced that American Express behaved is nothing less than an accomplice in this crime. American Express behaved callously and offered me as one of their participating merchants no protection whatsoever, despite their own errors in this matter.
I received a letter from AE saying that my card was canceled due to a bankruptcy that I filed for. I have never filed bankruptcy and I am not in the process of doing so. After hours of fighting with the completely surly and incompetent AE front line staff and supervisors, I found out that they had recorded another account holder's bankruptcy in error to my account. The error was due to a data entry error on their end.
AE refuses to send a letter of error and to confirm or deny whether or not they reported the erroneous closure of my account due to bankruptcy to the credit reporting agencies. I am waiting to receive my credit report. Can't view it on line due to 'freeze' on credit, which indicates to me that AE's incompetency has had a negative effect on my good credit.
AE has refused to take accountability for their error. They did send a new card, which I promptly shredded (never will use that card again). And the real kicker of this, is they sent a card with conditions of use indicating a higher interest rate than the card I previously held with an excellent rate which I earned over years of low balance and steady payment history.
Warning to all AE card holders, if AE makes an egregious error to your account be prepared for days of fighting with them, zero customer assistance, being treated poorly and a refusal to document the error and provide you with a statement of error and correction.
It seems ridiculous that I may actually end up having to hire an attorney to get AE to clean up their damage.
Check to make sure your payments are getting posted correctly and you may want to check to make sure no one else is getting your account information through the process of filing a bankruptcy! If they can record another account holder's bankruptcy to your account, do they also disclose your account number to the person whom filed bankruptcy? Makes you wonder who across the world may get your account information handed to them by AE.
AE doesn't give a RIP about customers in good standing. Actions speak louder. than words.
I feel American Express treats their customers badly and will do whatever they can to make as much money off of you. I had been a customer for over 10 years and had been paying faithfully and on time for years. Then, last year we received a notice--after we made some rather large charges -- that we no longer had a credit limit and that any new charges we incur would be due at the end of the month. I have no idea why this was done other than American Express wanted to get their money back and hurt us financially. I had paid off the card last month finally and tried to close the account before the membership amount was due, but because of delays by American Express, they charged me another $85 for membership renewal even though the amount owed was paid in full and we requested the account closed. I truly feel ripped off by American Express and will never use any of their products ever again.
What ever happened with this? They are such thieves. They just stole $833 dollars from me. It's disgusting that businesses can run however they want with no recourse.
I too had a $25, 000. limit never going above 12k. I recived the phone call of the lower limit. And after paying $4, 000. on my card thinking that would stop them from ever lowering my limit again...not the case . today three months after the time ..they did it again know $9, 900.limit when I have a $8, 800. balance.
I would love to join a lawsuit, this cannot be legal to play games with peoples FICO score.
T Warlick
long Beach, CA
Unauthorized billing
I own a small cosmetic company that sells all natural skincare and cosmetics via the Internet. Recently my company was ripped off by a customer who presented herself as a new eligible business. She provided me with her tax ID, her address and her website address and she placed 2 big wholesale orders in June 2008.
She had paid by American Express card. Both her orders were processed and shipped to her billing address within 48 hours by USPS priority mail with delivery confirmation. Almost 6 months later, in November, she contacted American Express and claimed that she had never authorized the purchase with my company, without ever having notified my company at all.
American Express had never informed me of her claim and charged back my bank account. I faxed them all the necessary evidence of the order having been sent and delivered to the customer's address. I spent 2 days on the phone trying to convince them that I had 2 legitimate orders from this customer, that were approved by American Express and the charge was authorized by them. Nothing helped!
American Express never notified me of any of this. After having spent 2 days on the phone they admitted that they sent the notification to some incorrect address. This, their error, did not affect their policy. 25 days after they supposedly mailed me a notice they instituted the chargeback. All I know is I never received anything from them and was not aware of any of this until I saw a chargeback on my bank statement 6 months after the original transaction. Despite their error they automatically instituted a chargeback and informed me that any further dispute is between me and the 'customer'.
Needless to say that I canceled my merchant account with American Express but I still lost my hard earned money.
American Express' merchant policies only encourage online robberies, product theft and online fraud. My complaint is that by the nature of their chargeback policies American Express fairly encourages fraudulent chargebacks and practically encourages unscrupulous thieves in a commission of their fraudulent crimes.
Not only was I ripped off by my 'customer' but more over I am convinced that American Express behaved is nothing less than an accomplice in this crime. American Express behaved callously and offered me as one of their participating merchants no protection whatsoever, despite their own errors in this matter.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
On Friday, October 05, 2007 at approximately 700 pm, pst, I contacted American Express Card Company and spoke to a card account representative who stated that she would remove the charge from my account. I then inquired as to how this charge was authorized in the first place.
She then stated “We mail out non-requested magazine subscriptions to our card members and if they don’t respond we automatically charge their account with the annual subscription amount. Again I asked who authorized this charge and she replied we just automatically charge it to your account. I asked for a way to make a formal complaint as to how they are automatically deciding on my behalf and without my consent to apply charges to my account. She then gave me an address (American Express, PO Box 981542, El Paso, TX 79998) to send a dispute/complaint letter to and stated that this is just the way they do things at American Express at which time we ended our conversation. I will be pursuing fraudulent credit card charges against American Express because they charged something to my account without my consent. Just because I hadn't responded to the magazine offer thru American Express doesn't mean they have the right to automatically charge my account. Based upon the fact that my LACK OF RESPONSE to their magazine subscription does not give them the right to charge anything without my consent. The question is how many other American Express card holders are being charged for magazine subscriptions who hadn't responded to a non-solicited magazine.
You don't own the card/account, American Express does. So you want to file a fraud claim for charges that the card issuer put on "your " account? This doesn't sound right. Your story doesn't make any sense. Additionally, the card issuer gave you credit for the charge. I'm sure Amex got consent to enroll you in the magazine. I'm sure you didn't completely read some sweepstakes form or other promotion that was sent to you.
American Express is a very powerful company and gets away with a lot of abuses. That are not generally known until an individual uncovers one on a bad day, as above. Most people won't spend the time to deal with this and Amex knows it.
You are correct on this. If u did not order something and it is sent to you anyway, you are NOT obligated to pay for it and they cannot do this on your behalf.
Contact your state attorney general.
Contact your local media.
Fight Back!
overcharged
Hey american express customers... is this happening to you? I open a american express account about a year and a half ago.. I made a balance transfer at a great 3.99 interest rate, always making my payments on time and always more than the minimun payment, but I made a mistake, I made a few purchases, nothing crazy, about 1300, at a interest rate of 8.99, after they raise my rate to 11.24 I started to pay attention to my statements and the payments I make go towards the balance tranfers at 3.99 interest rate and nothing goes to my purchases...
here is the ripoff I get charge interest on my purchases at 11.24 and interest on my balance transfer a 3.99, my payment takes care of the finance charges on the two balances but the finance charges on my purchases get add up to my purchases balances every month, so even if I make my payments on time and more than the minimum my purchases balance goes up every month and I wont chip away on this balance until I finish paying the balance transfer... is this fair?...is this legal?
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Last month and for the past so many years, my American Express credit card interest rate on new purchases was 11%. On the statement I received in the mail yesterday, the rate was increased to 26.99%.
I thought it was illegal to change the rate of interest without prior notice to the consumer, allowing the consumer to discontinue use of the card if not accepting the new rate, and then paying off the card at the old rate. I have been unable to get through on the phone to question this. I was on hold for 53 minutes yesterday. I would expect American Express did this to a lot of people.
Has anyone else had this happen and what did you do about it?
I have had a card with Amex, on and off for 25 years. I've always had excellent credit, we have equity in our home and pay our bills. Amex lowered my limit, raised the rate, I set up online banking so I was underpaying by something like $2 and getting $39 fees without notice from AMEX online, as I requested.
When they called I immediately paid the total due but geez, it's snowballed into a huge debt.
Unfortunately yes it is legal and yes they can get away with it. It's gonna get ALOT worse once the new credit card laws go in effect next year. Keep a close eye on your card. Im paying mine off as fast and as soon as I can and canceling them, hopefully before February when the new laws go in effect.
No more credit for me anymore, it's been nothing but trouble. Im just gonna spend what I can afford, thats it and if I can't afford it, I don't need it. I have way too much crap aqumulated in my life anyway, Im done. I have more than enough clothes, shoes, jewelry, knock knacks and everything else and all it does it collect dust. I don't go anywhere so my fancy clothes are useless and so is my jewelry. I don't think people realize that they just buy too much, when I look at those cable shopping shows Im amazed at how much they sell of so much garbage. I just know people are spending without thinking, we all need to stop doing that. Someone is getting rich while we go into debt.
They did the same thing to me. Two seperate $39 late fee charges within 15 days of each other. Here is what the damage was
$29 late fee for first 30 days
$39 late fee for 45 days
$39 late fee for 60 days
Over $100 in late fees assessed. Took me 20 minutes on the phone to get everything paid. Took me another 60 seconds to cancel my card. 11 years I was a loyal AMEX cardholder, and the first payment I didn't pay in full this is how they treated me. Rat ###!
ASame thing happend to me... we should all get together and file a complaint directly with their CEO.
fraud and cheating
That's right folks with a credit score of 719 I found out today that American Express, just this morning, lowered my credit limit on my American Express Business Platinum card. They lowered my limit to $400 dollars above my current limit.
I just made a payment of $1, 000 on this card last week. I was no where near my limit but my charge was rejected, wouldn't you know, when I was trying to buy airline tickets to take my family vacation.
This is a new practice that the financial world is now employing if you haven't heard about it, let me share what I know. They now do periodic reviews of your credit and based on their questionable formulas of the debt ratio you have on other cards and other information about your credit that doesn't pertain to the account you have with them at all, they make decisions to lower or even cut off your credit.
This is what we get for bailing them out with billions. I am sure all the fat cats at the top got their bonuses and instead of opening up the lines of credit to encourage confidence and spending, they are going into a hoard mode. UNBELIEVABLE!
I have been a member with AMX since 1981, usually the gold card that you pay off at the end of the month. So AMX comes out with this new business card plan and offer me this card to purchase equipment for start up and now they cut my limit in half.
What a way to stimulate the economy and encourage more economic growth. Cut available credit so you can't expand. This is only the tip of the iceberg I am afraid. But as for American Express, they have lost a loyal customer that will find another place to do business.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
What can we do as a group to stop this? If you read all of these AMEX stories from customers who truly don't deserve this, from this website and many, many more...there has to be a way to get this resolved. There must be a lawyer or congressman that will take this on and expose this situation. Maybe CNN, GMA or 20/20 can do a story and expose this now, not later after AMEX has done all this damage to good people and their credit scores!
lowering credit line for no reason
I have been a customer with American Express since 2000 with no late payments. They recently sent me a letter reducing my line of credit from $13, 000.00 to $6300.00. My experience with Amex has been an exact duplicate of a report I see here from a California customer. When I questioned their action, I too was told I had 'too many delinquent accounts' 'and I was late paying my mortagage - I do not have delinquencies and I am not late on any of my mortgages. I had pulled my credit reports prior to contacting AMEX as my bank account had recently been compromised and I feared ID theft. My credit reports were all clear: no delinquencies, no late payments. I proceeded to make repeated calls to American Express working my way up to the Department manager of their RLA department. I explained that the false information they gave me regarding 'delinquencies' had caused me a great deal of distress and wasted time contacting the credit bureaus to investigate. American Express are now telling me that what I see on my Experian credit report is not what they are seeing and 'I have too many delinquencies'. I did manage to speak with Experian directly, they assured me that the credit information they sent to me is the same information supplied to vendors. They also said they are receiving a lot of complaints from American Express customers for the same reasons I list here. I am appalled at the conduct of American Express and their blatant and willfull misrepresentation of customer's alleged 'bad credit'. I am contacting the FTC tomorrow and will update this site, I too believe this must surely be an illegal practice. If it isn't, it should be.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
So I made a payment to American Express and called several days later to make sure it went through via ACH Bill Pay. I did so I made reservations knowing I would be covered. Went to use it and was declined called American Express and they said they don't know where it went but do show it was there and cannot put it back on my card till they investigate where it went.
THEIR GIFT CARD ORDERING PROCESS IS PAINFUL. ITS SO BAD THAT THEIR OWN STAFF CAN NOT COMPLETE THE ORDERS ON THE SYSTEM EITHER.
AMERICAN EXPRESS WAS A PREMIUM BRAND THAT COMMANDED A PREMIUM PRICE BUT NOT NO MORE...
On June 11, we arranged for a new card number to stop charges by a family member to the current card. On June 14 and 15, American Express accepted charges to this new number although the person charging lived in another state and we did not yet have the new card number. The AM Ex rep insists the charges were made to the new number, which is impossible. We closed the account, which had been in effect since 1967. Trust Am Ex? No way.
I have been an AE customer for 9 years. I have an excellent payment history and excellent credit. They yanked my chain when I tried to cash advance myself for $2, 500.
My credit line with them was 50K.
My wife died on September i9, 2009.We had a joint account with American Express.My wife charged about 10, 000 dollar on American Express.And the card was insured with American Express.American Express refused to pay off the balance.They stated the insurance was on me-not my wife.They finally pay the account when the my lawyer got involved
I wish to get off the account. Please remove me from your list and do not deduct $1.00 anymore from my American Express card
Cancelled both my Blue and Gold Accounts without notice. No late payments, no over limits. Claimed it was based only on my credit report. I do have a house in default working on modification (investment).
This after having a card since early 1990s.
The representative offered to attempt reinstatement but if reinstated would charge me $25 !
good ole amex freezes my card about every other charge. Their "fraud" dept. made a merchant call in to question a $100 charge. I charged 11k last month and always pay the bill in full. Been a customer since '92 and never had the slightest case of fraud. Last year I billed 200k with them. Pathetic customer appreciation hassling customers
American express took $6000 out of my Business Check account without my authorisation, just because one of my cleints did not recognise the business name on is statment 6 months after the event. The cleint owed me the money now i have to track him down. He has moved his business. What change now. American Express have no right to do that without contacting me.
They cancelled my credit card without pre-alert and without any reason. All rewards points gone. It is unfair. We used their card and get the rewards points which they promised. Now they stolen our rewards and cancel our cards just because they are in the crisis of economic. How can they do that to the loyal customers? Does anybody know how to file the complaint and how to fight with them to solve the problem?
their web downtime is your penalties and fees
After years of not missing a credit card payment deadline, I missed one on my new American Express Corporate card. I was signed up for electronic vs. paper notification. I attempted repeatedly to pay online, 01/12, 01/14, 01/18. 01/19, 01/20. The American Express site was down, and I could not review my bill. The amount due in the notification email was different than the amount due on the telephonic "pay your bill", so I wanted to understand the difference before making payment. When I finally got a hold of a person on the 20th and had access to the website, I was able to get my questions answered, understand the bill, and make a full payment.
However, I was forced to pay a penalty, and began incurring daily finance charges. I tried to make a full balance payment to eliminate the daily finance charges on 01/31 and 01/05 but the site was down. Once again, I finally got a hold of a person on 01/06, and although the site was down, I was able to make a payment based on our discussion that cleared all the balance, interest, and penalties.
American Express wants to save money by using paperless billing. They therefore incur an obligation to keep the site up the vast majority of the time. The site's repeated outage is more than an inconvenience; I have the right to know what I am paying for and ensure the accuracy of the bill before making payment. However, the company threw the liability of timely payment back on me stating that I could have called an operator; I did not need access to my account to make a payment.
Note that the other financial institutions I do business with, ING and USAA Bank, had no know outages during the same period. Over the past year I have worked with them in a paperless billing relationship, there have not been any unscheduled site outages.
AMEX is responsible for maintaining access to their site. This is not a profit opportunity; their downtime is their liability, not the consumers. They should be compensating the business that patronize them for repeated site outages.
Therefore I am dropping AMEX Corporate as too unreliable of service to maintain a banking relationship with. Began incurring penalties, $59 fine. AMEX reversed the late payment fee, but was not concerned about the site access issues I raised. They did not deny the site was down, but stated that it was "not their problem".
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
cancelled card with no notice
Recently paid off balance on my American Express, went into to online account the next day to make sure everything was good, and found out that the card had been cancelled. Called customer support to find out what was going on, and she told me my credit score had fallen and the received some info from experion with serious deliquency. Only thing on my credit report was the same thing that was on there when i got the card in first place, 1 late payment for my car. I will never do any busy what so ever with american express. This is not how you treat customers that have a good standing, 0 balance and never been late. I suggest if you have american express you should dump them immediately before you get dumped without notice
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Hello Readers
My name is vanessa
wow! AMex did the same thing to me they canceled my account for no reason. I just got a new car for $40, 000 and I'm buying a house. They are so wrong . when I called to ask why they closed my account they gave me some BS story about my credit score going down which it did but only because I got a new car and not by much. Shouldn't that be a + not a - . I wish I would have done my home work before I applied for this card like I always do for everything else I buy or apply for. Now I have to worry about how this canceled card, first card ever to do this to me will impact my credit now. I will dispute it with my credit bureau when it does show up on my credit report. It was not my fault and they canceled for no good reason. FYI there was a peace in the wall street saying that AMEX was canceling peoples cards because they were using the AMEX cards in stores such as Target and wall-mart who said we cant it didn't say that in the contract when you apply for the card . Crazy they are discriminating. They want you to use the AMEX cards in blooming dales and A/X stores. Only high class stores. I also wish i would have read all you guys comments before i got the card.
* I WILL NEVER EVER RECOMMEND ANYONE TO GET A AMEX CARD ! AND IF YOU DO HAVE ONE SHRED IT NOW!
NOT NOW RIGHT NOW BEFORE THIS HAPPENS TO YOU!
Count me in for the class action lawsuit!
I am glad to hear I am not the only one with problems with Amer Ex. I had a Gold card for many, many years, and was told that my account is no longer good.
Well now, not only will I have have nothing to do with American Express on a personal basis, I will no longer accept their cards at my business either.
Treat people like dirt, and you will get mud thrown back at you.
I'm in the same boat. Had my card nearly paid off, and found out it was canceled when I tried to use it on vacation just this past weekend. It worked that afternoon, but by evening it no longer worked. I called AMEX, and was told my account was canceled because I had too much debt. Bad thing is, I actually have less debt now than when they approved me for the card! No new bad marks on my credit report (I check it regularly), and I have always been in good standing with AMEX (payments often make immediately upon receiving bill, and most of the time 3 times or more than the minimum payment). This was very frustrating to have this happen when I expected to be able to use my card on my vacation. Like someone else posted here, I suspect part of the reason was that my rewards would have matured after this trip (I planned on using the card to get my few remaining points needed for my free airline tickets). This is the first thing that came to my husband's mind when I told him the card was canceled! I plan on telling everyone I know to stay clear of AMEX, and I know a lot of people. Many folks I know have their own businesses, so that is serious potential business AMEX can be losing because of word of mouth! American Express received $3.4 billion in bail out money, and they are turning away customers in good standing from who they are getting interest income? From the standpoint of a taxpayer who will have to pay back part of that $3.4 billion into the government, that makes me even more upset that my account being canceled without notice!
To add insult, my account was canceled on 9/27/2009. I returned from my vacation on 10/4/2009 and went through all of my mail and email. I still have yet to receive written notice of their decision and reason for their decision. You can bet that I will be writing them a nasty letter letting them know how unhappy I am and that I will be telling everyone I see to avoid AMEX like the plague!
August 9, 2009
To: Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Chenault, American Express
Executive Offices
American Express Company
200 Vesey Street
New York, New York 10285
[protected]
From: Dr. Curtis J. Ohl American Express member since 2002
Gold Business Account
Platinum Account
RE: This is a letter seeking redress of our $40, 000 credit limit reduced to $6, 000. Please read our letter and we await your timely response.
Time to leave home without American Express!
As long time customers of American Express let us share our frustration and disappointment in the way this company has been treating us and indeed many card members during this past year. Our cascading grief is over American Express reduction of our credit limits, and raising credit card interest rates. American Express is reacting to the financial crisis out of fear. The financial damage to American Express will be long lasting and far-reaching.
Let us give you a little history as to what type of customers we have been. Our payments are always on time to all our creditors. Our story is like so many other card members. We have two open accounts with American Express. We have been members for seven years, perfect credit with long established payment history, FICO scores over 800 but only Amex has tampered with our credit limits. Only Amex has seen this pressing need to reduce our credit limits. We called Costco and took off the auto renewal for Amex, we no longer want American Express to continue any further unilateral credit damage to our pristine credit portfolio. American Express can no longer be trusted with our credit. We have stayed the course but American Express has run into the economic ditch!
We have called several times, talked to numerous staff, those who survived, faxed our request with supporting documentation and now we are writing to you for redress. In the past it was a punishment to raise interest rates for those who could not pay their debt on time. Is this our reward for being loyal card members with established credit histories, to raise our interest rates for paying our debt on time? We suggest, just as American Express looks ever so closely at our credit worthiness, we look to the executive board and CEO for leadership worthiness!
These actions take us back to a time where perhaps Pony Express might be a better company name. American Express is in total freefall. American Express is failing to provide customer service with a total disregard for ethics and indifference to the many card members. It seems we are going back in time with Pony American Express.
We just recently read of American Express filing a lawsuit against the infamous Courtney Love. Legal papers showed the rocker owes $352, 059.67 in unpaid charges and fees on her Amex Gold Card – which has since been suspended by the company.
So let us understand, American Express trusted a well-known drug addict, notorious for her litigation in not paying bills and American Express extended credit on a gold card for $350, 000 but Amex cannot restore our previous credit limit of $40, 000? We pay all our bills on time, never been late on any of our payments and we are not drug addicts, in fact we do not even use drugs, not even the good kind!
American Express will never need to file litigation against us but we know so many who want to file a class action lawsuit against American Express.
We jumped through the languishing morass of the many hoops of fire and sent in our full credit report, tax returns and listed assets along with an overall financial statement.
We are writing to inform you that, after reviewing your letter of August 2009 denying us our credit increase, with obfuscated contrived reasons we will not accept this treatment from American Express.
We are financially solid and have not changed, we are not sure the same can be said of the financial hemorrhaging of American Express that will hold another round of layoffs, after cutting 7, 000 jobs in October 2008, decimating its work force along with frozen salaries and good luck with that Courtney Love lawsuit. It was sadly, no surprise, when we read your computer-generated letter of indifference. The famous words of Thomas Jefferson rang so true “Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”
In July of 2009, American Express itself stated second-quarter net income came in at $337 million, down 48% from 2008 when the company made $653 million. This net income attributable to common shareholders was only 9 cents a share, down from 56 cents a share in the year-ago quarter, according to the company.
At the same time net write-offs for the company were 10% of total loans in American Express's U.S. card-services business in the second quarter. Loans that were at least 30 days delinquent represented 4.4% of total loans in the latest period, up from 3.3% a year earlier. We do read the Wall Street Journal.
Yet with all this bad news, there was one bright spot as stated by the financial leader of American Express, Chief Executive Kenneth Chenault:
“The number of card members who are falling behind in their payments, the volume of bankruptcy filings and the level of loan write-offs were better than we had expected.”
“If these trends continue, we expect U.S. lending write-off rates on a managed basis to be below 10% for the second half of the year, which is lower than the outlook we offered earlier this year, ” Mr. Chenault added.
Yet American Express continues to punish us, the good card members, why? Is it out of fear that we might increase the financial bloodletting? I do not think you need our help for that! May I suggest a bold new direction, take care of the customer first and the bottom line will follow!
American Express appears, as a company, to be in poor financial shape, and undercapitalized. Since we take our financial life seriously, we cannot be associated with a financial company that manages to loose so many employees, assets and runs its own affairs so poorly.
We are not proud of our American Express relationship, are you proud of your leadership? In addition, American Express has too many bad reviews within the consumer community, and your overall rating on every consumer site, is a very poor rating.
I looked, in vain, for a POSITIVE review of your company from any person or news source, and could not find even one except for the mysterious award from JD Powers. Even JD Powers would not return my calls when I asked them to define further what criteria they used to base American Express only award of “good customer service.”
This recession will not last forever. When it is over, and people choose the few credit cards they are willing to use, there will be fewer companies and cards to choose from. The ones who will survive are the ones who realize that the only thing that keeps a credit card company afloat are customers who accept a card, use it, and pay their bills. The companies who will be in business then are the ones who take care of that good group of people today. You are clearly NOT taking care of your good customers today, so I don’t expect you to be in business then.
American Express has raised our interest rates on not only new purchases but on all existing balances. In fact when Congress passed the Credit Card Reform Act, this is exactly what they wanted to prevent Credit Card Companies from doing.
We also found this very interesting from Financial News USA. WASHINGTON (AP) -- American Express Co. spent $710, 000 lobbying the federal government in the second quarter on legislation touching on an array of financial issues, a recent disclosure report shows. The article continues with American Express lobbied lawmakers on legislation related to credit card fees and practices, data security and consumer privacy.
American Express also lobbied in the April-June period on consumer bankruptcy, advertising and taxes.
Beside Congress, the company lobbied the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, Office of Thrift Supervision, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Internal Revenue Service and Executive Office of the President, according to the report filed July 20 with the House clerk's office.
The $710, 000 spent by American Express in the second quarter compares with $830, 000 in the first quarter, and nearly $1.1 million in the year-ago period. We were amazed to find American Express on the fast track to being granted banking status in just a 30 day period. This usually takes much longer. Of course with this banking status, the company gained over 3 billion in TARP funds.
It was not so nice for American Express to get credit but deny the card members credit.
Our final question, was the $710, 000 well spent for the persuasion of influence in Washington DC? While your company is loosing funding, market share, customers, bad debt write offs, against a backdrop of massive company layoffs and your increasing salary of over 42 million with a base salary, cash bonus, stock and other options was it all worth it? Just curious!
So Mr. Kenneth Chenault can you redress this issue with our credit limit or do we need to hold American Express accountable in the court of public opinion? The choice is yours.
Waiting your reply,
Curtis
What do i say that has not been said in the previos testomonials. Had a 11, 000 ballance on my card, never missed a payment or late. The DAY AFTER i pay the balance to 0.00 they turn around and cancel my card.
They cited the same excuses as many that i have read in the above listed complaints about my debt to credit ratio, too many inquiries, length of time accounts have been established, ect. Was a AMEX customer from 2006 and had no credit changes.
Attempted to call their 'customer service', that was a joke. I got absolutly no help at all. They even had the gall to tell me that i can re-apply for a card with them, and if i get approved they would not remove the cancelation from my credit report.
I will NEVER use AMEX again. Was the worst 'customer service' that i have had in a long time.
I totaly agree, that the moment that reoccuring finance charge was gone, so was them keeping me as a customer.
For those of you who use it for Costco, I just spoke to a customer service rep. there, and unfortunely, Costco has a contract with AMEX untill 2014, but however they said they have been getting alot of complaints about AMEX.
I agree i have been with amex since 03 Never been late I have 2 Amexcards They have beem decreasing my limits so i decided to pay off both my cards and they cancelled my cards the next day I called and asked for my membership fee to be removed and they told me tough they jut renewed both my cards 3 day before my cancelling so i stopped payment GOOD LUCK AMEX UNTIL YOU CREDIT MY ACCOUNT I WILL NOT PAY YOU
fOR ALL OTHER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT
Same thing happened to me paid early - paid over what was owed and they cancelled me telling me Experian showed late payment. Had just gotten my 3 credit bureau reports and nothing was late. They kept about 100, 000 in points by doing this. Will not use them again. Only got them for convenience of Costco.. but my debit card works just fine.
Hi, I started a cause on Facebook called "Boycott American Express". Feel free to join and spread the word:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/289806
I was an AMEX card holder for 4 months when they canceled me (right as my rewards and interest promos were maturing) ... $20 in interest and $100 in lost rewards before I could get my balance transferred.
If you are a Costco member and have an AMEX issue:
Call Costco corporate member services at
[protected] (have your Costco Member # handy) ... press 0 and an CSR will be with you.
and/or visit https://costco.egain.net/system/web/custom/initialPage.html
I just had a great conversation! Professed my love of Costco, told them I hope they would look at their relationship with AMEX, referred them to this blog, and made sure they put on this ticket my phone number to contact me for more information.
Any wonder why Costco is so highly rated by customers and employees and AMEX is not? Shouldn't be ... service is king!
http://twitter.com/CreditMatters
http://www.creditmattersblog.com/
Also good resources ... my AMEX cards are shredded and I will continue rewarding my Fidelity Visa :P
All this sounds to familiar. About 2 days ago I tried to use my Costco AMEX to pay for some airline tickets. The card came back declined so I checked my online account and realized my account was cancelled. I called customer service and argued with them that I have always paid my payments on time and have never been late. They told me my "debt was too high" and that they could not do anything about it. Furthermore, they lied to me saying that the credit bureaus told them "you have too much debt". I pulled up my report and saw that all they told me was a lie. My credit is excellent and I have no bad records. This is very disappointing and I will most certainly never use a AMEX card again. I do wonder though, since my card was cancelled, will that affect my credit?
lowering credit limits for no reason
My credit card limit was recently lowered from 17, 000.00 to 5, 000.00 dollars. When I called to question this action I was told that I have delinquent accounts on my credit report and that my proportion of balance was to high. The people I talked to said that My credit score showed delinquent accounts, so I went and looked at my credit report which I pay American Express to monitor, and nothing has changed for a long time. I have had no delinquent accounts in a long time, and I certainly have not have had any since I applied for this card and got it about 8 months ago. They told me that they credit report I was looking at which was all threee of the credit reporting agencies was only 75% accurate. How is that possible what am I paying them for if I only get some of my credit report? They then told me that I do not pay enough each month, in November of 2008 I paid 9, 000.00 dollars, well above the minimum payment, also I pay more than the minimum payment every month. My question is the legality of this. I assume this hurts my credit, and If they do this whithout good cause and without any grounds is that legal? They will not tell me anything more but that, I just dont see how this is legal. Also this happened to my parents company. They own a small buisness, and American Express cut their credit limits and told them it was do to credit scores. When hey researched it they found that they were wrong and that their credit was excellent and they always paid their bill, American Express gave them the run around for 6 months until they just gave up. This is wrong if not legally than morally!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Same thing here. My credit limit was lowered and I was advised due to low score and delinquent accounts. I obtained the credit report and my score is over 900 and no late accounts. Everything is perfectly fine. I have been calling for weeks and asking for supervisor. I faxed their credit dept my report and was told in review. I keep getting the run around. Thats fine if you need to lower my limit because I do not use the card often but don't tell me for the wrong reason. This is absolutely not acceptable. I hope there is a law suite over this. I especially feel bad for those over their limits that did not get advance notice. Shame on A-mex. This is very bad business practice.
Had the exact same experience with 2 Amex cards. When I took out my American Express Blue Card they offered me a $10, 000.00 limit and I transferred a balance from another card to it which was $4300.00. Never made a purchase on the blue card. I get notified that they lowered my credit limit to $4500.00. Same excuses as all of you. FICO score of 763 which I watch very carefully. No negative reports, no late payments and if you added the balances of all my other cards together it may equal $1000.00. Put in a dispute, sent them copies of my credit reports, FICO score. Got a letter back stating that due to the amount of money I owe out and bla bla bla. So that was a resounding NO. As for my green AMEX, they set a credit limit $500.00. I have never made a late payment to AMEX in all the years I've had them. While all this is happening to my credit, my husband got a letter from Discover, they raised his limit another $1200.00. Imagine that when I pay his card as well as mine. Oh well... Karma
Did the same to me today. Told me I had several negatives on my credit report. I got my report and none! I called back and was told debt to income to high. Credit score 780? How could that be? Cut my limit from $11, 000 to $4, 300. I am at $4, 100.00 and that means it looks like I am almost maxed out. Also told I don't pay enough each month. I only had one bill since I had not used the card in over 5 years. I paid 3 times what they asked for but was given a response that I now I charged $3, 000.o0 more this month and haven't paid anything on it. I have NOT even received this months bill never the less pay it. It is not due till the end of the month. Asked rep why that set a payment minimum this month at $84.00 but really want hundreds? No answer. Have been with AE since the 1980's and I am angry with these tactics. Always thought they were a solid company. Will pay off this account and will NEVER use this card again. Waiting for them to lower credit again like they do to everyone. I hope they go down like some of the others. Rude to boot. I also hope a class action suit starts...need a good lawyer and then count me in.
I had the exact same thing happen. I have stellar credit. Never missed a payment, or been late. I have an AmEx business card - they've lowered the limit twice. I also have a personal card. We used it at Costco this last weekend and got an AUTOMATED phone call a few hours later that they'd lowered my limit from $10K to $1000! WTF!. So, we will be paying off the balance and canceling. They apparently don't want any customers. Especially the kind that can and do pay their bills.
I wish some attorney would start a class action suit involving all of us who have been duped on this american express credit card sham! As far as I am concerned, they are involved in criminal acts. There must be thousands if not millions of us out there who have been abused. I don't care if I ever get a dime out of this . I would just like to see them fry on this whole deal. Just because the whole economy tanked, why should we all of a sudden be the bad ones with alleged bad credit risks. If you ask me, they are the ones with the problem. Why the government ever allowed them to be become a bank and borrow money is beyond me. Now we are paying the price for their poor money management.
AMEX has lowered my limit twice since December of 2008. Each time, they lowered it to less than 1k above what I owe them, and in both cases the letter from them states it is due to poor credit report, and high risk.
In both instances I immediately went to Experian to get my free credit report that is allowed whenever someone is denied credit. I also paid the 5.95 extra to get my credit score.
Both times my credit report shows NO POTENTIALLY NEGATIVE ITEMS!
In fact, my credit score which was 782 in Dec. of '08 actually went UP to 785 this time around!
American Express, shame on you for not just telling the truth. If you have overextended yourselves and need to pull back some credit that you have out their to protect the company, fine...just do it and say that's why.
Don't send bogus letters to long time customers saying that the reduction in credit was OUR FAULT!
If AMEX does not want to stick with me during the hard times, I do not want anything to do with them during the good times.
It is my intention to pay off my balance with AMEX and cease to do business with them going forward.
They are going to find I think that this will backfire, and their plan to "protect the company" is going to end up costing them the company all together. American Express will be just one more thing we talk to our grand kids about when we speak of the "olden days".
I am havig the same problem with Amex...
from prestigous to sub-standard
American Express has become a sub-standard card. During the holiday season numerous places of business denied the card complaining that they are charging retail vendors too much. It was also turned down by several restaurants, one of which I was lucky enough to have just enough cashto pay the check and had to apologize to the waitress for stiffing her.
I also booked a flight the beginning of Dec. to the Dominican Republic using my membership rewards points. The Am Ex operator directed me to go online and use 67, 239 points...the equivilent of what she said was a $672.39 ticket. Now, I found out that I could have transfered 25, 000 miles to Jet Blue and booked it through them. So basically, Am Ex screwed me out of 42, 239 points! I called to complain and when I couldn't get anyone on the phone from Am Ex that spoke clear english, I finally asked, "Where are you located?"
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
false advertising
Amex is doing a scam on the public by advertising in the media and on its online site that there is no pre-set limit on their charge card which you pay in full each month. Maybe in the past that was true but when you are embarrased after a DECLINE at the merchant you find that they are perpetrating false advertising on the public and they don't have the decency of any warning of the limit till it is too late. Shame on you AMEX
the credit card companies and banks want the help of the taxpayers but they act like loanshark mobsters with their customers who have excellent payment records
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
late billing/mailing issues
We have been American Express cardholders for years in order to access our car insurance through Costco. A couple of years ago American Express began a campaign to encourage cardholders to pay bills electronically. We preferred to avoid this payment option and noticed that despite being paid well in advence of the due date, we were told that the payements were arriving late. Customer service agents at AMEX told us it would be better to pay online and avoid this problem which they attributed to the post office. We chose not to do this but instead started paying by phone. Last month our bill was not even received until 13 days after the due date. The envelopes are prepaid so there is no record of the postmark and as usual customer service agents are blaming the post office for the delays and encouraging us to pay online to avoid these issues. We have never had a problem with any of our other mail! We called our local post office (who has fielded similar complaints from other American Express customers, some of whom had to pay for priority delivery to avoid late penalties) and they deny the problem is at their end but unfortunately they have no way to track the incoming bill without a postmark.
We have spoken to other Costco members who have had the exact same problem but most of them got tired of fighting late fees and switched to the online payment system. We also spoke with a Costco employee who was familiar with this problem from others who had similar experiences. She told us to fill out a complaint about AMEX and encouraged others to do the same...So if this has happened to you please let Costco hear about it and perhaps they will drop this credit card company in favor of a company that is more ethical.
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lowering credit limits
This action must be popular for American Express. I have credit cards that are increasing my limits because I'm a good customer, not lowering them. I never keep a high balance and have always paid on time and always piad 2 to 3 times more than the minimum due monthly. Lowering the credit limit on cards creats problems with your FICO. Is that Illegal? The...
Read full review of American Express and 1 commentcard activation
I bought a $50 American Express gift card from CVS in Diamond Bar for my brother-in-laws birthday. Three days later he tried using the card and it was declined at three places. Turns out although the receipt claimed the card was activated it was not and contained a balance of $0 not $50 that was charged as well as a fee of $4.95. I called AMEX customer service, they told me to fax over copies of the receipt of purchase, front and back of card, it's packaging and my state issued ID. I had this problem happen months ago and CVS called AMEX and resolved the problem within minutes and CVS issued me a new card in store. Now CVS has a "new policy" with AMEX and customers MUST go through AMEX exclusively. I think I'm getting the run around as I've read has happened to MANY other unsuspecting customers. I think a class action lawsuit may be in order! As well, if I don't get satisfaction from AMEX I will see if the local Los Angeles TV news stations want to hear the story of the big card company AGAIN ripping off the hard working consumers!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I bought $2000 worth of American Express in 8 gift cards to give to customers to create goodwill. 1 card I had not yet given out. One customer called me to tell me her card was not working. I had Amex check the other card I still had and found out that one also was not activated, even though I have the activation receipt! The Gift Card Resolution team was willing to send me a replacement for the 2 non-working cards I had in my possession. Now I am left with going back to my customers and asking for those cards back. More than likely, they tried to use the cards, said a few choice words about me and just discarded the non-working cards. Now to replace them and try and minimize the bad-will this has created, I will be taking a loss of another $1600. Amex won't replace the cards from the receipt or even credit me back the processing fee unless I can produce the non-working cards from my customers. DO NOT BUY Amex gift cards to give to anyone you actually like, or you could have your gift blow up in your face like this has for me!
I just bought a $25.00 Amex gift card for my daughter so she could buy a game online five dollar change. The Web sight had a picture of the Amex card on its page. The card would not work and when I called the help desk I got some Indian guy with plenty of excuses. After waiting two hours and trying repeatability still no game. Now I have to wait until Monday after 7AM to call them back and my daughter is crying she wants to play her game. I want a full refund and I have Monday off so I have all day to spend on the phone. I will never buy a AMEX gift card again and I will tell everyone I know to stay away too. Who else can we call to complain about them?
I have $100 X 3 American express gift cards( $300 total) not activated. When I called American express, I got an Indian call center that implied that I stole the cards and said I was lying when I said they had a problem with their computer system.
When the activation instruction were followed, the balance on the cards were check online before they were fully activated which caused their system never to active the cards.
Now, it has been days since the activation and the cards have zero balance on them.
Why can't American express fix their computer systems? My guess is because it is run by these Indian call centers who are like mindless robots which follow a script and have no ability to look into problems that fall outside their script.
Stay far far away from these cards or else American express will end up stealing your money.
We opened an American Express Costco Card 2 months ago. It was cancelled 2 months later, due to our 'credit report'. How much could it have changed in 2 months? We have no late fees, no problem areas and no understanding of what happened. I am relieved to hear this is a pervasive problem as I have been searching for what happened. And their closure of our account will do more to hurt our credit than anything they could have found. A class action suit is in order. Portland, Oregon
Same thine happened to me. I think it would be a good idea to have a class action suit. Please contact me scarlett185@mac.com
Steer clear of Amex prepaid gift cards. Gift cash instead and save yourself the headaches.
I was given 3 Amex prepaid gift cards as a holiday present ($500, $50, $25). First, I called the toll-free number on the back of the Amex card to verify the full amounts were available - - they were.
Surprisingly, few retail stores in my NYC area would accept Amex gift cards. I should have gotten the hint then, but I forged on innocently.
A Nordstrom department store accepted my Amex gift cards, however the clerk was having such a hard time exchanging the Amex cards for Nordstrom gift cards (standard procedure?), that she became frustrated.
After 5 minutes of trying without success, the clerk asked me how I was going to pay, then dismissed me and told me to go to customer service. At that point, I started getting very embarrassed.
Next, I discovered that when the clerk swiped my cards to then cancelled my purchase, the cards were showing $0 balance.
No merchandise. No money on my Amex gift cards, and no Nordstrom gift card.
Nightmare.
credit limit reduction
I recently returned from Afghanistan.
After inacting the federally mandated Service Members Civil Relief Act American Express told me thay had recieved negative cret information from Equifax and had to reduce my available credit.
I pulled my credit report and discovered my credit is super-clean without a single mark with a credit score is "excellent". My American Express account has always been paid in full and I have A+ credit. After years of trusting AMEX I find that I have no faith in the company. Who knows if the card will be accepted or declined when used. American Express FIRST lowers the available credit THEN sends out a notification letter. I guess they have better things to do than make money off of my business. Good riddence!
AMEX reduced my credit limit as an act of revenge for my enactment of the Service Members Civil Relief Act. How do I know? This is the second time they reduced my available credit and both times it was within days of either enacting the Service Members Civil Relief Act or days of renewing the Service Members Civil Relief Act. Coincidence? Nope!
I will be looking elsewhere for my financial requirements. American Express can no longer be trusted. Beware: they are beginning to show signs of financial collapse.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Welcome to the club! AMEX took away 70k of our available credit with no warning. No lates, 700+ score. What they are doing should be against the law. I wrote a blog with some things I did to fight back:
http://amexcreditreduction.blogspot.com/
The funny part is they are also asking for BILLIONS from the bailout bill. The same bill that was passed by congress to INCREASE lending!
Once again, they little people get the shaft, while corporate america gets a bailout. Shameful. Shameful Shameful.
They lied - it was American Express's decision to cut your limit - YOUR CREDIT RATING had nothing to do with it. IT WAS PURELY A BUSINESS DECISION. ALL THE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES ARE DOING IT!
Its the economy - they are claiming it was your credit rather than admit it was a company decision They ARE DOING IT TO EVERYONE!
refund
*Theft of $10, 000 Amex Travelers Cheques in Africa* On July 14, 2008 I was robbed of $10, 000.00 in Amex Travelers Cheques in Africa. During the very short and violent struggle my companion was injured and the criminals ran off with my bag and its contents. Traumatized we picked ourselves up and went back to the hotel where I immediately made a call to...
Read full review of American Expresstravelers cheques refund claim
*update to my 11/16/08 complaint report *****consumer warning***** Amex travel related services, co. inc. travelers cheques print ads and television commercials suggest "do not leave home without them"... The company also states that the cheques can be refunded within 24 hours worldwide if lost or stolen.. In my previous submitted complaint i was robbed on...
Read full review of American Expresswrongfully sent to collections
My husband has been a member with American Express since 1993. In the last two years we have spent $3, 000 a month on the card and before for that more like $800.00 to $1, 000.00. Of course we would pay it off each month. In May 2008 my husband was laid off. We were still making the payments. When August came and he'd still had no luck getting a job so we'd called up American express and spoke with them about how we'd reached hard times right now. They set us up in their CARE Program and the agreement was to pay $410.00 each month for a year till it was paid off and our account would be reinstated. That was August 14th. We than paid the bill each month after - Sept. 11th, Oct. 10th and Nov. 10th.
Come November 15th we'd received a letter from AMEX stating that we hadn't paid our bill and if we didn't it would be sent to collections. We called American Express and the rep stated that it was a system error but that we would have to make another $410 payment. The rep also stated that the payment would drop when he re-enrolled us in it again it would be about $200. We would still have paid the $410 though. We told the rep we did not have the money to make another $410 payment since we'd just made one. Rep stated that it was OK to make the payment come December. November 18th comes and we get a call from a collections agency stating that our acct had been sent to them.
My husband called AMEX and they cold transfered him right over to collections. On 12/03/08 he called again and they stated that they were unable to assist him because his acct was in collections that they would transfer him to collections. My husband refused to be transfered and the rep was unwilling to help so my husband hung up the phone. So I immediately called AMEX. I spoke with rep id# 85970 in Manila and immediately asked to speak with a supervisor. Rep stated that I would have to tell her whats going on, so I told her the story. The Rep then proceeded to tell me that her supervisor refused to speak with me. I also heard her floor supervisor speaking to her in Filipino which I know is NOT OK. She than tried to warm transfer me to Account Services but she got back on the line stating that Account Services refused to speak to us as well. Finally after over an hour of being on the phone she transfered me to a Supervisor (I'm assuming). Supervisor became very agitated when I asked for her name and rep id; trying to ignore the question. Her rep id# NOVB815 which I have reason to think that is not even her id#. Oh and she is also in Manila. She placed me on hold for 15 minutes right after she'd received my call than came back on acted like she couldn't hear me than stated "oh, just a sec, just a sec" and placed me back on hold. Then came back on and quickly mumbled something. I asked her to slow down and she stopped and asked to speak to my husband. I put him on the line and she told him that they saw where we had been making our payments and that some one will give us a call back later that day (Dec 3rd, 2008). I told my husband to ask for a case# or a commitment date and she said there was no such thing. No one ever called us back!
We've wrongfully been sent to collections! We spoke with a gentleman from the 3rd party Collections Agency and he'd stated we're not the only ones this has happened to. He said that it was showing our account was flagged to be able to get another credit card with them after we paid this one off. Does that even make sense? That they would want to give us another card if we weren't paying our bill and "had" to be sent to collections? THERE IS NO WAY I'M GETTING ANOTHER CARD WITH THEM! They will either fix this and allow us to keep THIS account OR nothing at all. Our credit is immaculate and there is no way I'm OK with wrongfully being sent to a COLLECTIONS AGENCY!
I'm at a complete loss... I don't know what to do. Maybe I will take it up with the media. They talk about things that aren't even news and this to me is more news than many stories I've seen lately.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Same thing happened to me. They screwed up, admitted they screwed up and said "sorry, you're in collections we can't do anything". I had never made a late payment. Matter of fact, I was paying more than the minimum. I have contacted the BBB and now the State Attorney general. I told the debt collectors that I will not pay as long as I am in collections, but I will pay AMEX if they fix this. I made the charges I will pay them. Luckily my ex-husband destroyed my credit so this is really doing anythiny MORE to it, but the principle of it is jsut ridiculous. At least I have a divorce decree stating I wasn't responsible for his things, but this AMEX was in my name! Not happy, but they're going to be a lot unhappier when I'm done. They should learn the cardinal rule of customer service. Apologize early, because the longer your mistakes go on and people get harassed and pissed off, the more your mistakes cost you. Good luck on your end!
would not replace empty gift card box
My husband and I received 2 American Express gift cards for our wedding from his boss at work. Both were $100 in value and purchased at a local Wawa.
The very evening we received them, my husband opened one of the gift cards up to find that the box had been slit on the side and the gift card was missing. He immediately called American Express to inform them of the missing card in order to have it replaced. They said they would note the complaint and we would receive a phone call within 5 business days. After a week passes, we still never received a call.
My husband calls a second time and discovers that they have NO RECORD of the first call. He gives them the information again, and once more they tell him that American Express will call him within 5 business days.
We got married and went away on our honeymoon for almost 2 weeks without hearing a thing from American Express. My husband calls a third time, and the employee on the other end tells him that he needs to send in the receipt for the gift card purchase. This was GIFT! We didn't buy the card, it was given to us. My husband is not tactless enough to ask his boss for the receipt for our wedding gift because the card had been stolen in the store. If American Express was competent enough to have recorded the first complaint, hours after the card had been purchased, perhaps we could have had it replaced. Instead, we spent a month trying to resolve the issue and got nowhere.
I feel terrible that my husband's boss gave us a gift that went to waste because American Express lacks proper customer service.
We did not receive a replacement card and $100 was probably spent by the thief who stole it in the first place. We will never purchase American Express gift cards for this very reason and I canceled the credit card I had with them.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
American Express Gift Card Promotion Is a scam. They tell you that they are going to send you a $10.00 Gift card after you refill the card 2 times @75 dollars.
Then they dont send the card. Customer service is in Some country where They dont have the first clue about the english lanquage.
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American Express emailsinfo@aexp.com100%Confidence score: 100%Supportauemailfraud@americanexpress.com99%Confidence score: 99%spoof@americanexpress.com98%Confidence score: 98%ukemailfraud@americanexpress.com97%Confidence score: 97%support@americanexpress.com85%Confidence score: 85%support
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American Express address200 Vesey Street, New York, New York, 10285-3106, United States
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My husband's card was also closed by American Express and we got to know about it when he tried to swipe his card.
They didn't even bother to inform us that his card will be closed. Thank God, he had a backup card. But why is AMEX discontinuing the card out of the blue and without giving any reason.