Complain about a product or service

American Express

Corporate Card

Susanne of Essex, CT June 19, 2009

While visiting Copenhagen last October, my husband had his wallet stolen. It happened the day before our departure back to the US, but we did not realize it until shortly before our flight. We called all our credit card companies upon our arrival home, including American Express. On the night before our departure, the stolen card was used at what turns out to be a strip club to the tune of almost 10,000.

We have filed several fraud cases with American Express, but they have repeatedly said that it was not fraudulent because there is a signature and the merchant has a copy of his drivers license. Of course they had the driver's license...the whole wallet was stolen! Amex now wants payment. Citicard had no problem agreeing that fraud had occurred; that stolen card was also used at the same establishment with charges of 20,000.

Not only did we not make these charges, but do not have the resources to pay for what American Express failed to do in the first place, which is to protect the consumer. The strip club must have been in cahoots with the pickpocket as we don't see any way someone could spend a total of 30,000 at a strip club! We did not file a police report at that time and of course do not have any receipts. Being up against American Express feels impossible...we just don't know what to do. My credit will suffer if I do not pay. My credit will suffer if we negotiate a debt settlement. Unless I take out a bank loan, we cannot pay this amount.

Brad of Prairieville, LA June 15, 2009

I have been an american express member for about 6 years. Was never last with a payment, balances low and all of my account with them were closed without notice. After speaking with them, they informed me that they needed a letter from my attorney stating my income, SSI, address, and employment. In addition, they informed me to submit my IRS taxes from the last 2 years to prove my true income. I did all of this.

After attempting to have my american express platinum card opened back up, they informed me that they didn't get the IRS forms in the time allowed. The IRS forms states that it takes 60-90 days to mail off the forms and american express only allow up to 60 days to obtain this information. After speaking with customer service rep, they informed me that I had to resubmit the IRS forms and attorney information again within the time allowed or they won't be able to reopen my account. I informed the rep that nothing will change in the forms sent from the IRS, so I don't understand the issue. She explained that they can't use the information if it was past the deadline eventhough the information won't be different.

I have excellent credit, with no mortgage, no credit card debt, or even a automobile loan with a six figure income. I don't understand why a company like this would do this to there loyal customers. I will never work with american express again.

DD of Blue Lake, CA June 12, 2009

In March of 2009 I received a letter from AMEX stating that my credit limit was being reduced due to a review of my Experian credit report which showed 'possibly' one of 4 issues: too many open accounts, too high debt ratio, too many inquiries, too many charges. I wrote for and received my credit report and there were no issues whatsoever. I have the same number of accounts that I had when I opened the AMEX account, I have never missed a payment on any account, there were only 3 inquiries in the past year, and I have more than 2/3 of my total credit available to me.

On the 3rd of June I called to ask that they reduce my interest rate, which they did. On the 4th of June, I paid 1500 dollars of my 2100 dollar balance. On June 5th, AMEX arbitrarily cancelled my account, sending a letter with the EXACT SAME reasons as were stated on the March letter.

I called on June 11th to inquire and they said that they had a new policy and that my account was cancelled due to no fault of my own. I expressed concern about the fact that they were going to add a black mark on my excellent credit rating. I pressed the customer service rep about the mark on my credit. She just kept repeating that their policy had changed, that I had too many open accounts (Remember, I have no more accounts today than I had when I opened the account), and that they were canceling me due to this new policy.

I pressed her by asking her how AMEX would view a "cancelled by company" mark on my credit rating and her response was, "I am unable to answer that question." I asked for a supervisor and was placed on hold for 10 minutes, during which time I Googled the AMEX cancellations and found this has become their new policy - to cancel accounts in good standing and damage the credit reports of excellent creditees. I decided to hang up and file formal complaints.

salina of bremerton, WA June 10, 2009

I went to use my card to rent a car and it was declined. I pay my bill not only on time but twice a month so I am able to pay down the remaning balace quicker. When I call to find out what was going on they say it because of my credit report. so I got on line and ran not one but three differnt reports, all said the same that my credit is in good standing, no late payments and all credit cards show that I dont owe very much on them.

This company is losing good customers by doing this and hurting the people that have been faithfully paying there payment on time. This is gooing to hurt my credit score, and I did do anything wrong!

greg of san jacinto, CA June 10, 2009

Any changes to auto-pay takes 1.5 billing cycles! Poor. I have made changes to Auto-pay, and thinking that industry standard is 3-4 business days for payment changes, I get late fees and finance charges, because American Express is not consumer friendly. Your online site NEEDS updating, code script re-written, Auto-pay and online computer pay sites linked to share information. Or BOLD CAPS DISCLAIMER informing consumers any changes will take affect after 45 days! Your own customer service reps agree site is poor, and designed to generate fees for Amex.

I've sent the normal letters to "Email Us" as viewed in the attachment, noting my frustration on Amex lack of updating software. I even try to prepay my outstanding balance, by 2000 to have a credit balance and can't! I have to wait for a billing cycle? A customer wants to give you money and Amex won't take it? 5 letters to Amex, last ones to CEO's. Auto pay is designed to generate late fees and finance charges. Sign up takes 45 days, any changes you need to cancel and re-apply and that takes another 1.5 billing cycles. Amex computer pay site AND autopay are not linked. So your bank account info such as default bank, will not be same as autopay,(if you have more than 1 bank account) Two separate companies, yet on same site!

Amex is behind the software update time frame. Also notice when you sign up to auto-pay it defaults to the 20 day payment date? That is designed to generate last day to pay bill, so if there is a problem, too late for you to phone or do a computer payment. Zap with late and finance charges. I even tried to pay ahead and Amex wont take . For Email addresses go to Corp. site and look at media contact to get email format and then to corp management site to get names!

late fee reversed by calling 3 times, subject to finance charges, though trying to prepay outstanding balance to reduce "daily balance" yet unable to, again designed to generate fees

dirk of seeb, Oman June 10, 2009

As I am an expat working in Oman I still have to pay some bills in Germany. I did transfer 480 Euros via internet banking (like 3 times before), with the same data like usual to American Express in Frankfurt on march 03. I was very surprised when Amexco called on 15. april they are still missing my payment. I did contact first the telephone hotline with the reference number from the confirmation which I got meanwhile in printing. My account was deducted by the amount and the money was sent.

The very next morning I went to the Seeb branch to check again the details of the transfer. I was talking to the manager and he confirmed all data send were correct. I told him to investigate where the money was sent to and why Amexco did not receive it. He promised to update me the very next day. 5 days later still no reply. I went again to him. He replied as he did not had an update he did not call me. I was very upset and told him I was previously working in an international bank and if any bank receive money which the cannot transfer to the beneficery they have to sent it back the very next day!

So where is my money? He explained something about the way the money is send from Oman via New York to London to arrive finally in Frankfurt. Absolutely Nonsense! So the mistake is with Amexco.

I called the next 10 days Amexco twice a day to check and HSBC to find out what is going on. At may 15. he called me: they had found the amount at their branch in Frankfurt, where it was the whole time. Due to a software update in Oman the money was deducted and send without any information about where it should belong to. Why it was stock there for now 6 weeks, he could not explain. Will cancel my account on next opportunity. Definitely.

Roy of Los Angeles, CA June 2, 2009

Unappropriate business tactic to confuse and harrass customer. 1. Unnoticed credit limit reduction. No Paper and Calls made to notice me to credit reduction. 2. No statement has been made for last three months without notice. specially for business reason, need statement all the time but for last three months, I have not received statement. A late charge has been enforced and they stopped my card for further use because of that. 3. Unappropriate treatment and Harras customers who non english native speaker with bi-standard judgement and harrassing words using their fluent but unnessary country accent. American express company became a monster who think they can control and manipulate customers for fullfil their greediness.

Michelle of Henderson, NV May 30, 2009

On May 29th I pulled up to the Costco gas station to fill up before going in to pick up a few things. I swiped my AMEX card and it was declined. Certain there was a mistake I tried again, & again..declined. I immediately assumed something fraudulent had occurred causing them to block my card for my protection as I knew it wasn't anything on my end. Perfect payment history, never carry a balance etc. So I called them right away.

After going through all of the security questions the man says to me "Ma'am are you aware this card has been canceled?" I was shocked! I said "No! I didn't cancel it!" He said to me "Ma'am after reviewing your account we decided to close it on the 27th. We sent you a letter in the mail. (this was the 29th so of course I had not received the letter & was not notified by phone) I was caught so off guard I didn't know what to say. When I asked him why, he claimed that they reviewed my credit summary and decided I no longer qualify. RIDICULOUS I have a perfect credit history and when I say perfect I mean PERFECT. The only thing that has changed for us was a home loan pre approval on the 26th (the day before they canceled my account)

Now, I can understand why they would rather not have someone who never carries a balance, has no annual fee and gets a cash back check at the end of every year. They are not making a single cent on my business and still sending me money one a year for rewards BUT the way they went about it was all wrong. They punished me for being a responsible consumer. The kicker is that when they canceled my account they forfeited ALL of my cash rewards that I have earned this year, so I will now not receive the rewards that I earned for being a responsible AMEX card holder.

Today I called & I asked the rep "can you tell me where it says you can cancel my account without notification and then take my rewards on top of that "She said "It doesn't say that WE can cancel your card and forfeit your rewards but it does say it the card IS canceled then the rewards are forfeited" Now, I could be wrong here but I think that gives us consumers a legal leg to stand on. WE did not close our accounts (from what I see this is happening to MANY of us) THEY canceled them without notification and in most cases without valid reason.

Many of us can prove this by showing copies of our credit reports with no derogatory changes. They have dinged our credit by closing our cards (especially the ones with unpaid balances) and also taken our cash rewards that we earned by being responsible. They should be ashamed of the way they are doing business. By canceling my credit card while I still had a small balance from the months purchases my credit rating stand to take a hit.

samantha of guilford, CT May 18, 2009

My husband and I have been AMEX gold and Optima account holders for a combined 40 years. This past January I missed the payment cut off date by 3 days and immediately upon noticing this, I sent them a payment for significantly more than the min. due. A few days later my husband rec'd a call from AMEX (he is the card holder I am the authorized user)informing us that they were reducing our OPTIMA credit line from 32,000 to 4,500.00. When questioned why, they told us that we had a history of late payments (not true, just this one, in over 18 years), when that was proven to be wrong, they told us that we had a derogotary statement on our credit report (not true, we had our most recent report in December, with an outstanding credit score, over 800), after numerous conversations w/ AMEX and never being able to get beyond a "supervisor", we were told that our debt to income ratio was too high. They don't know our income (which is well over 200k/yr) and we only owed 4,500.00 on the card. Then the arrogant, little "snot" told my husband to reapply later.

So, I wrote a letter to Senator Christopher Dodd and told him my story. Senator Dodd asked us to help him get the Credit Card Reform legislation passed and we have supported him in getting this legislation passed. When we were interviewed with the TODAY show, AMEX wanted us to "waive" our privacy agreement w/ them so that they could expose our credit file. We denied the request. They tried really hard not to let the segment be aired.

AMEX is in trouble and I am glad to be a part of bringing this monstrosity to its knees. We will never again be an AMEX cardholder and we hope that anyone who sees our story, will cancel their cards. Due to the signficiant decrease in credit line, our FICO scores have decresed from 830 to 780. I am ready to sign onto a Class Action against AMEX.

annette of clermont , FL May 9, 2009

my american express card that i have never been late on was cancelled by the company with no notifiation. There is balance of 147.21 cents. No where near limit. I went to purchase a 298.00 mini laptop for Mothers day. To my embarrassment. my american express card was cancelled with no notification what so ever. This incident cause me undue stress. I am a disabled veteran of the armed forces.

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