American Express Blue Cards Consumer Reviews - Page 3

I have had a Amex clear blue card for last 9 years. I have excellent credit history and have a rather high revolving credit line on my Amex card. I have never been late on payments and I have ALWAYS paid in full every month. I do use the card to a good extent. I recently initiated an online chat with a Amex representative. She just left the chat without even waiting for my response or asking me if she could help me with anyone else. This is so rude especially when you are talking to a long time member. I wish someone at Amex would read this!

We all know Amex is in big trouble, but be aware that they apparently feel their customers are the ones that have to pay for it. Two months ago I noticed a note telling me that important information about my account was included with my bill. I finally found what they were referring to in the fine print on the reverse side of one of the extraneous pages they always include.

They were raising my rate from 9.99% to 12.99% on all future and past balances as of a date about 30 days from the date of the bill. Having been a 10 year plus customer who uses their card as my primary credit card and our exclusive travel card (cruises, airline tickets etc.) There was no way I was going to accept this at a time that the prime rate was dropping like a stone. Since I couldn't understand why Amex would think I was stupid I figured I'd call and give them the opportunity to keep me as a customer.

I couldn't believe it!! All they tried to do was "sell" me on the great benefits of their card! Their explanation of the rate increase was that they were doing that on "a lot of their cards". At that point I told them to cancel the account and they connected me with the cancellation dept. (I think the business refers to this area as "retention").

When I was asked why I was canceling I told them I was outraged by their rate increase. This was met by silence. There was no attempt to retain a profitable account held by customers with an over 800 credit rating from all three credit bureaus (I keep track of such things)!! In addition, since this card is used for world travel it often carries a $6,000 to $8,000 balance for months at a time - making it a very good deal for Amex.

Card is cancelled and outstanding balance will be paid in full within 30 days. As you may have noticed it's no big deal to me - card was replaced instantly by another credit card. But here's the problem. These idiots are now receiving taxpayer bailout dollars to try to stay afloat while running their business like it's amateur hour!! I'm furious that people like Chennault are held totally unaccountable for the mess they've made of their companies and customers and taxpayers are expected to foot the bill. Amex will make no more profit on my family. I wish I could say the same for the American taxpayer.

ILLINOIS -- The worst card ever! I've applied for American Express Blue Card on June 2008 getting promotional rate of 0% for 12 months. The problems began immediately after receiving a card: I was not able to set up an online account for my husband who is primary card holder and had to add the card to my existing AE online account which I've had since 2004 for my AE Costco card (the Blue card was entered as supplementary).

The customer service remained completely clueless about cause of my husband's problems, but assured me that I will be able to see the activity of the card, and make the payment online for this account by having this Blue Card enrolled into my existing account. I was spending money for my personal and company needs and paying them back, until in September 2008 I've got a first big issue. When I went online to make my monthly payment, it has not showed me any amount due at this moment (in fact - it showed "0" due), and has not let me to post the payment online. I've decided to go back in few days, however got the same results.

One week later we received the phone call from American Express that "our payment is past due and subject to finance charges of $38 and loss of promotional rate". I immediately went online and indeed saw the past payment due screen (miraculously: few days ago the amount due was ZERO!). Then I went into my other online account -Costco card, which I paid off just month ago, but since that I've had a new charges in amount of $620 (marketing expenses) applied to my account. And I saw another miracle: payment due was ZERO, as well as card balance (and I knew that balance was indeed $620).

After weeks of phone calls, emails, hours on line with customer service representatives who were acting either rude (even screaming on me) or clueless, and conversations with customer service supervisors, I made them to admit the AE mistake and refund me back all late charges. However it has been my second phone to AE management within the last two weeks and second promise from upper management to "return my card an original promotional rate of ZERO due to the company misprint".

Few weeks ago, they assured me that everything is taken cared of and my interest rate has been changed back to zero. However after the first promise I've received a letter from American Express telling me that my dispute for $0.02 adjustment has been resolved!??? This company is full of crooks, causing fraud with customer's accounts and making you pay dearly for their ignorance and unfair practices.

I had a revolving balance of $9000 on my AMEX Blue card and I paid off every penny last month out of my business income. In addition to this credit card payment, I repaid $21,000 of other credit card balances. This meant that I reduced my utilization of revolving credit from around 90% to under 40% in a single month, based on my business cashflow. Within a week of fully repaying both of my AMEX cards ($11,000 in total), AMEX Blue increased my limit to $16,000 from $9000 and AMEX Hilton Platinum increased my limit from $2000 to $5000.

THEN... I requested that AMEX reduce my Blue interest rate from the existing rate of 30% (!!!... Aren't there laws against usury?). They begrudgingly complied given that I was clearly not a 30% credit risk... BUT then AMEX reduced my limit from $16,000 to $500. Come on... Just because I called them on usury and they complied with my request to reduce my rate, they cut my limit by 95%!!!

I cannot believe that American Express would behave this way. I have since decided to never use my AMEX cards again. This is now the second time they have cut my limit after REPAYING a significant revolving balance!!! Do not trust American Express. I have paid 8 years on time with them and when I repay significant balances they cut my limit!!! WHAT THE HECK???

Clearly, I am a conscientious manager of my credit and I am now in a much stronger financial position and I will be debt free by September. However, I find it amazing that AMEX reduces my limit, which clearly has a significant negative impact on my FICO score, just when I repay their card and request a reduction in my interest rate. It seems that they are telling consumers that don't want to be ridden for 30% APR -- "piss off, we only want to do business with people we can charge 30% on". I am also highly disappointed because my FICO score will decline materially as a result of AMEX reducing my limit -- just when I repaid over $11,000!!!

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- I got approved for Blue cash reward with 10k credit line a week ago, not to mention I have been valid customer since 2003 - owned few AMEX cards including AMEX GOLD CARD, those are closed due to bad some experience with AMEX. Anyway this morning 8/2/2012 tried to order a PC (around $1500, just ordered another a day ago had no problem) from DELL and got declined, so called AMEX.

The rep, she told me that she will unlocked the card for me and let the transaction go through, after all the security questions I passed and 5-10 minutes hold then she came back said although I had cleared all the questions now account has been suspended and under financial review. WHAT??? I told her I need it immediately and I was in rush need for my personal business which she was promised that transaction will go through. :( WOW... not again. Seriously AMEX??

I have 200K in one of my bank account and a stable job. I use credit cards about 300K in 8-10 years period and assume they charge 5% fee to all the merchandise, how much money they lose if lose my account?? Last, I made the wrong choice to go back to AMEX. AMEX is a such unreliable company, now I will just stick with Citibank, Chase and Bank of America. I will never go back to AMEX again! I will not recommend to anyone including my family, fiends, coworkers etc!

First they raised my rates. I was annoyed but thought it was just the times. I didn't really care all that much. I paid my balance each month. But then they just send me an email announcing they were lowering my credit limit from 10K to 2K. Out of the blue. Effective immediately! Not a courtesy notice... Nothing. They effectively told me they cared nothing about my card membership. I was alarmed because I had just signed up some of my personal bills to be paid by my credit card and my balance was already almost 2K. So basically, I could very easily go over my limit in a few days and then they could charge me an outrageous fee. I can't believe this is legal.

Whoever is in charge of American express customer retention has got to be an idiot. They have immediately lost my loyalty. I can't believe the treatment I have received. The customer agent I called had not empathy at all and just kept repeating. It goes into effect immediately and they had just sent me a letter. Asked me if I wanted reasons. I finally said yes, but she never told me. I have such a bad taste in my mouth about how they have treated me.

NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA -- I just received my January credit card statement for my American Express Blue account and was disgusted to see that my rate went from a fixed 6.99% rate to a variable 9.99% rate! I was so irate that I had to call customer service to find out why. I have had this account for five years and have never had a late payment and have paid more than the minimum payment every month.

When I connected with an account representative, I politely inquired as to why my rate had increased and that I thought it must have been an error. She explained that I should have received a statement in the mail notifying me of "across the board" interest rate increases that had been made to AMEX accounts. I told her that it was unfortunate because I would not be using their card again.

Next month, this card will get paid off because I refuse to let this happen to me. I've been a good customer for five years and do not appreciate being treated in this manner. American Express has made money in the form of a low interest rate and I have mutually benefited from the convenience of a low interest credit card. It's the principle of this that really bothers me. Just one more way to cut off good credit to good people.

TEXAS -- Here is their letter to me via email: "We are contacting you to let you know that after a thorough review of your credit profile we have lowered the credit limit on the account listed above. We wanted you to be aware of this change immediately. Your revised credit limit for purchases is now $500.00. The new cash advance limit is $200.00. Please ensure that any additional card members on the account are also aware of this change."

This is not acceptable and I have no issues on my credit. Just checked. I pay my bills off and they can't make any money off me. That is why they did this. BTW my credit limit was 5,000. I work hard to get my credit right. Just got approved for any home I want in this economy! That isn't easy to do AMEX! Shame on you.

I have applied for AMEX Blue Cash Preferred card in July 2012 through AMEX website. At that time AMEX was offering a promotion, first year annual fee waived ($75)and $150 dollar points if you spent more than $1,000 in the first 3 months. This promotion was a strong contributor to my decision to apply for the new card. How surprised I was to find out after few months that apparently I did not check some box during the application process and for that reason I will not receive my bonus and I will be charged annual fee. After multiple phone calls with customer service I was simply told that I not eligible.

I wrote this to make as many people as possible aware how terrible practice AMEX is using to lure new customers, I feel very disappointed right now and I am seriously considering closing all my AMEX cards. FYI - I have tried to post my comment on AMEX website but surprisingly the review site is under maintenance and will not be available until "early 2013". How convenient... Please stay away from this company as they do not value their customers at all.

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- Like many others, I too have been exposed to this American Express "rip-off." It all started when I was making reservations on Jet Blue Airlines. At the end of my conversation they offered me "free" 10,000 air-mileage anywhere Jet Blue flies if I applied for the card. So I did, and within minutes "SHAZAMMMMM" I was approved for $5,000 credit limit.

While I was on my trip (Vegas), I used all but about $700.00 of the $5,000, well I guess AX didn't like that and they cancelled my card, because, their words... They receive "monthly" updates from "Experian credit reporting agency" and that my credit score profile had fallen below their acceptable limit. Never mind the fact that I was paying my monthly payment (actually over-paying with no late payments).

Now I am paying on a cancelled credit card and AX entry into Experian has given me my first and only "negative" entry on my credit profile. If you been ripped off, and from the entries I have read, there are a lot of us out there... Let not get mad... when we can get even!!! Let's use our "social-networking channels" and get the word out about AX and their questionable business practices YOU'RE APPROVED.... SORRY, YOU'RE CANCELLED! The fact that this company got a government bail-out of almost 3.4 billion dollars is insulting. Someone with some "clout" should investigate this company. See you on Facebook, Twitter, etc.