American Express
Reviews and Complaints

We had a payment due on a sunday that we didn't pay which was $39.99 for a second card that we rarely use. They locked both of our business credit card accounts by that Monday morning (our primary gold card is what we use for all business). We almost never pay even a day late and always pay what is owed. We paid the account on Monday and they unlocked the accounts, but I'm still Pissed! What kind of customer courtesy is that. I've been a loyal customer in good standing, but they halt my business for $39.99. Looking around for a new credit lender as we speak.
Keith

1. American Express reduced my line of credit some months ago, rendering the card virtually worthless for travel, even when making payments "as I went"!
2. Yesterday--May 1, 2009--I received written notice of cancellation.
In the approximately 2 years I have had this card I have paid by electronic transfer from my checking account as charges were posted. I was not late one time.
If anything, I was consistently too early in paying my bills, usually making up to 8 payments a month by the electronic payment feature.
Do you think this had anything to do with my cancellation? The fact that I paid so promptly?
Does anyone know if American Express (the corporation) is in serious trouble?

I was solicited to switch to the Delta Skymiles card from American Express online while visiting the Northwest Airlines site. I signed up for a deal which stated that I would be given 25000 bonus miles after using the card for the first time and 25000 miles would be replenished when used for "pay with miles" program. A free companion airline voucher was also included. When the card arrived I found nothing confirming the above-mentioned terms. I called Amex and asked them to state the terms in their records. The customer service rep was rude and snotty immediately. She listened to my question and responded that the offer carefully stated that the terms which I signed up for were merely a possible award level that may or may not be awarded. Say What! I incredulously asked how they could make the offer only to rescind it once the customer had signed up to their cardholder agreement. I was told by the poor excuse for a service rep that that was precisely the policy!
I asked for a supervisor and was told that they wouldnt help me any further and when I asked to be transfered I was put on infinite hold.
I called back 15 minutes later and cancelled their cards and cut them up.
I post this here so that others will realize that this is the policy of American Express. They are using illegal bait and switch ads which once you've sold your soul to them they immediately renig on their end of the agreement. Screw that!
I'll sign up with US Banks Airline points card.
American Express Delta Skymiles Card Sucks!

I've been an American Express holder since 1992 (Green card). About 2004/5 I opted for the AE Costco card for the 3%, 2%, 1% cash back program. In Mar '09 I talked with an AE rep about the AE Blue card, which advertises 5% cash back, and completed an over-the-phone application. I was told AE would transfer the balance (zero, as I pay in full each month) from my Costco card to the new card. When I received the Blue card I noted it was the same number as the Costco card, so was not really a new account. The literature informed me - for the first time - the Blue card reward was 1% cash back for the first $6, 500.00, and the 5% cash back kicked in at $6, 501.00. I called AE and voice my feelings over not being informed of this at the time I applied, but got nowhere. I told AE I wanted to revert to my old Costco account, they said they could not do that, I'd have to open a new Costco account if I wanted it. I did so. A few weeks later I received my new Costco card. AE had cut my limit from $11, 000 to $2, 000. When I called to ask why, I was told that's the limit for NEW accounts. I argued that the only thing new here was the number on the card. No joy, AE insisted that I would have to wait three months before I could request an increase and that would be limited to $6, 000. Then I'd have to wait another six months before I could request another increase. The rep said there was no guarantee I'd get the first increase much less the second. I've always paid my monthly bill in full PLUS what I know I've charged after the statement was mailed. I can see no legitment reason for AE to cut me off at the knees like this. What really pisses me off is that my wife is home for her daughters wedding, but I can't afford to go.

It is my opinion that AE tricks members into applying for the Blue card by advertising the 5% cash back reward, then switches them to lower limits if they decide to send the Blue card back when they find out they've been scammed.

I've written snail mails to the top three corporate officers, and one email and one snail mail to the office in charge of issuing cards and approving limits. The letters all went out by Mar 30, 09, today is Apr 18, 09. I have yet to receive a reply from any of them.

I've been a member of American Express since 2007, and have never defaulted. In fact in quite a number of times, I even made payments twice a month during the billing period. I noticed that after I joined American Express/Credit Secure, my two American express accounts were cancelled without any forwarning. I find this disconcerting since this arbitary cancellation will affect my credit standing. I had other non-American Express credit cards with high balances, and I always paid them on time. No one at American express has given me a valid reason for the cancellations. Therefore, I am making this formal Complaint against their company's practice of cancelling memberships without notice or reason.

Numerous complaints:
1) travel website does not allow you to reserve more than one round trip. Creates problem when you need flights within a trip. Can not get promised double points for booking on line. 2) amex travel agent was rude, rushed and sent us to a horrible hotel. Immediately went to another hotel in the uk in a bad neighborhood because the international tele number on my card was not able to assist me! (A service I pay extra for) 3) I was mugged in uk, lost all cash and 2 amex cards, called amex they could not relace my card for 7-10 days! Said I could take a taxi to the airport ($75.00 taxi ride) with having no cash and get emergenct funds. I spend 2 hours on the phone begging them to understand I had no money, no drivers license and no credit cards! I only carried amex because of the sense of security that came with my $150.00 card fee per year. 4) most businesses in the uk refuse to take amex for purchases.

My trip was ruined due to amex.

I have always paid my AE card off in full. My next payment was going to be due in 13 days. I had the payment scheduled. They called and said they were not going to allow anymore charges unless I paid the balance off in full early! What a way to get rid of a customer fast! I told them that was crazy! I offered to pay in full 2 days early but asked they continue to allow me to expend. They said no way. So, I cancelled the card. I can't imagine continuing to do business with them when they are obviously not there to suppor the very basis of what built their company --- small business'es just like mine!

I have read over several other complaints with the same basic heading and I guess I can just say DITTO. I have had my amex since college (which they practically forced on a college student--who has no income anyway). Anyway, for the past 20 years I have always kept up payments no matter what because I cared immensely about my credit score plus I felt privileged to have an American Express card. No longer.

I got into a little trouble (like others lately) but I made a payment plan with the Amex rep over 6 months. She never told me my card would be canceled or anything negative would happen. She said that it wouldn't even be reported to the crediting reporting agencies if I paid the debt. I was on the last payment when I got a letter in the mail saying that my Gold card was being cancelled. WHAT? Also, I have an American Express Blue which I had been paying on time (it can carry a balance with interest) and had not had any problems with it at all. BUT, they cancelled that card as well. Double WHAT.

When I called American Express, I also (like others) was answered by someone in a far away country but the accent was so incredibly difficult to understand. However, I could make out that he was telling me that he couldn't tell me why it had been cancelled. Well, I didn't think that was sufficient. Transfer me to a supervisor. I got cut off a few different times as well.

I have spoken with a few of my close friends (since this is an embarrassing situation) but have found out that it has happened to a few of my friends who didn't even have ANY negative actions on their accounts. It seems like American Express is just picking and choosing and axing those they just feel like letting go. Too bad because I had been an excellent payor (as I should be) for 20 years. Oh durn AmEx. I'll never go back. However, I have been sent several letters asking me to come back--for a fee. And yes, the fee varies per letter as well. It seems to me that American Express isn't the icon it once was and I wouldn't even feel proud carrying that card anyway.

I hope there is a class action law suit because for once in my life, I would actually sue someone.

As most folks American Express decided to one day just shut off our Platinum Card which was used for day to day business expenses and to accumulate points for Airline tickets and other things. We were on a flex pay plan that allowed us to carry a balance and pay less than the full balance, Mind you this is stil around $2500 a month to one card, They shut it down for no reason other than they screwed us out of 100k plus "points" And demanded we pay the balance immediatley, We refused for one becuase we could not afford to pay the balance in full. We still get calls from Natonwide Credit and they want checking information and payments of $1000 set up via automatic payments Iwas advised not to do this, Pay AMEX directly or ask for a settlement? Anyone out there go thrugh this>?

American Express boasts fraud protection. Have a bad charge, they'll take care of it right? Nope. I entered into a 100% money back guarantee, no questions asked service earlier this year. When I requested my refund the company refused. I tried 5 times to no avail. I then disputed the charge and provided AMEX with extensive documentation in emails and web site proving my claims. I was denied, twice. When I spoke with the dispute center the lady, very rudely, informed me all AMEX3e501 can do is request the vendor credit my account. She informed me they never could force the money back to my account (which is a lie). She told me to contact the company and request my refund. I should have used my Visa card. They certainly would have backed me up. Amex, that's twice in 10 years you've screwed me. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Never again.

American Express cancelled my credit account without notifying me. I have consistently paid my balance in full each month, and have never missed a single payment. When I tried to pay for dinner the other night, my card was declined. I was sure there was some mistake, so I paid with my Visa and planned to call AmEx the next day to see what the story was.

After two days of getting the run-around on the phone, I finally spoke to someone who told me that in light of my recent credit profile, I was deemed to be high-risk and my credit account was cancelled. For the record, my credit score is waaay above average and I have no deliquencies on my report. The rude customer service rep told me that a letter was mailed out to me seven days after my account was cancelled. I never received this letter, but that matters not. I am sympathetic to lending agencies given the current economic situation, but the way American Express treats it's customers is infuriating. My suspicion is that because I pay my balance off in full every month, they are not making enough off my account in the way of interest.

My main concern is that this event will negatively affect my credit rating. As far as the account goes, I am happy to be rid of it and will vigorously campaign against American Express for their unfair business practices.

American express used to be a great company. Lately — i've had to report them to the ftc and am about to report them to other banking and credit agencies as well. Why?
For several months, they have been advertising (With multiple fliers in the mail, at least two times monthly) — suggesting I accept an offer (Due my great credit history and scores) to accept terms to 'carry-over monthly balances over $100). After much disregard, I finally accepted, after agreeing to open a secondary account with amex in light of the 'new' fico scoring system this year. (The second card was not mandatory, it was for purposes of 'spreading' out available credit to debt for several types of business charges as required with my profession and privately owned business.)

Low and behold — within 2 months of owning the secondary card — the 'offer' they gave me was rejected with a simple letter stating I was a credit risk because there were too many inquiries on my credit report (Only 3 in 6 months — (2) of which was by american express for the second card, and to see if I still 'qualified' under their creditsecure program, which I also happened to accept at the beginning of the year). Not only that, they had already reduced my 'no preset limit' option internally with a $20k limit that I had to coax a nicer rep into disclosing (They were not supposed to disclose the amount to me. Previously, I was truly not under a set limit.)

Worse yet — when the second payment for the second card came due — I sent payments for both accounts to the same bill payment receivables address in one envelope. There is no stipulation by amex under any circumstances — that we cannot send payments in one envelope. They also state they support green and other environmental programs — so I assumed saving an envelope and stamp would be fine.

The following week, while checking my balances — I noticed the second card bill was 'unpaid' and almost overdue. They were not going to notify me until it was later. I immediately called to find out what happened — as they had already cashed the check for the other account payment (Both were 'overpayments' to cover new charges as well.)

I was informed the check was destroyed because it was in with another check in one envelope. I was told if I did not pay again, immediately — (My responsibility, not theirs, of course) — I would be penalized. So they suggest electronic payment.

I am with a credit union for 'real' banking — so I requested amex notify me if the routing transaction did not go through correctly on the first try.

An entire business week later — I find out amex has suspended all of my cards, and I am about to be penalized for their ineptitudes — because they did not notify me about the payment not going through. They claim it was because they found out after hours on the friday night. However — they have 24/7 customer service. Instead of alerting me, per request — they put a 'stop transaction' motion on all my amex cards. (Even though they still have $50 additional overpayment on the primary card.)

They also erased the fact that they lost the original payment on the second card from my records (Since they claim they don't have proof.)

I worked hard to have an extremely high credit score. Now — amex is about to destroy it because I trusted them.

This complaint will be posted on every possible consumer notice and federal trade notice site I can locate, as I am not willing to be a casualty in the credit scams and fall outs that obviously has affected amex more than they are willing to admit. Amex also reported to the media and the federal and stock boards they were tightening up their structure because customers were having trouble paying last month.
I wonder what the truth is — their faulty mail receiving program and lack of warnings and disclosure regarding such, or their refusal to work with customers in a fair and honorable manner?

I signed a contract for a credit card with American Express that had a FIXED APR of 7.99%; all of the sudden "due to the economy" they have increased my interest rate to 10.99% with no opt out option. This leaves me paying 3% more for the balance on my account (all of this changed without my consent). I have never had a late payment, and they told me over the phone that my account is excellent; yet this is what they have done. I have one other credit card that is doing the same thing, but they are ETHICAL and have allowed me to cancel my account and continue paying the agreed interest rate until the balance of the account is paid off (Chase). I just wanted everyone to know that AMERICAN EXPRESS IS AN UNETHICAL COMPANY; they certainly have NO regard for their customers, nor do they abide by their contracts! Signers BEWARE!

I have been an American Express cardholder for 15 years, that is until I received a notice in the mail today that they had canceled my account. I paid my account in full on Feb. 18 and then on Feb. 19 they decided that I supposedly had some derogatory items on my credit report. Now mind you, I looked at my credit report and there is nothing save some medical bills which have been paid in full according to a payment arrangement that I made. For 15 years I have had this account and it has been in good standing. How's that for customer loyalty? They certainly didn't offer me any money or give me the opportunity to close my account.

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".

American Express is committing fraud in Canada. I am a perfect customer for all my credit cards. That means 10 years, no late payment and always over minimum. Amex Canada has changed the agreement we made in 2004 and reduced my available credit by 10 percent. They say it is because criteria have changed. Their investigators cannot find my income tax information so they can't prove the income I make regardless of the fact that I am never late on a payment.

People need to know what this is, it is extortion and treason. There are taking working capital from perfect customers off the street and burning it like all the bank have done, only now I have proof. They attempted to employ me without pay to do the job that their incompetent investigators could not come up with.

There is a reasons why Amex has never been allowed by me to have my bank information or my income information. Trust and security. I will not allow Amex to hold government data in duplicate in their computers. Why do I not trust a company to hold government or banking information? Because it makes fraud possible. Without co-mingled data in company databases, at that level of privacy, fraud is made possible by not only Amex but the credit reporting companies as well. The credit rating reporting agencies have had millions of file stolen and are circulating now.

Again how do I know? Because I am the freaken rich genius that invented the security systems for banks and I am the hack that gives the power to governments that rise an fall. I can write myself any income I like. And I do that offshore in safer banks where all bank executive and higher government elected and employed do. We only pay taxes on what is brought in the country and spent here. After all it wasn't earned here nor did anything from this country make my income possible, because I didn't learn here either, I am the inventer remember, other learn from me.

Amex has proven to me that the economic is a scam on everyone.

Right now if a bank makes you do something like purchase one product to gain access to another, that is extortion. In my case they attempt to hire me to investigate myself. They want me to stop work at 500 an hour, get my accounts and stop their work for this, then contact the lawyers to see what I am allow to expose. The fact is I am too important to Canada and America and I cannot let them have TAX info on me in their computers EVER. So I will have to go to war and destroy millions of dollars of AMEX capital to get even.

In addition they can see I save money by making prepaid payments and the reduced the limit in an attempt to make me go over the limit so that I would default and go over limit thus causing an automatic increase in interest, all from a PERFECT customers.

AS I pay the minimum I will destroy the company, by many means but mostly by automating a software robot of destruction that will get the message out to millions of people to be cautious with AMEX and expose their attempt to harm these two nations by stealing earned credit off the streets of our countries.

In the next few days the leaders of the investment world who worship genius (not that the working middle class don't appreciate extreme power wisdom and knowledge also) will remove millions and millions from AXP stock. Maybe they want AXP to fall more than it has? Maybe they think they will buy it back then?

My family owns the oldest banks in Europe and you DO NOT mess with me. I am so mad now, watch out that the crops don't fail, again like last time I was this mad. :-(

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!