American Express Consumer Reviews - Page 5

American Express has to be the worst credit card out there! First of all AFTER you pay off your final bill, you think your interest charges are gone, but, NO, they get you again with another fee because you've paid off your whole bill. They absolutely will not listen to any excuses on a late payment.

I've had their card for over 5 years and NEVER make a late payment and they still added a penalty APR to my future statements. I also paid off my entire balance listed under the penalty APR and they continued to add interest at some absurdly high rate of 25% to what I'm sure was an arbitrary amount of my money. There are so many more reputable credit cards and companies out there. Please look into Amex before you get one of their cards, so you don't become a victim, also.

Using AMEX rewards points for travel is a scam. We recently booked a flight for our honeymoon and had been saving points to help mitigate some of the cost of the tickets to Turks and Caicos. Problem #1: when you are booking flights, the AMEX rewards website does a great job of confusing the user into thinking the prices shown are for ALL of persons traveling.

It is not until after you book that they divulge that all of the prices you are seeing are PER PERSON - and your final total is double what you though it would be. I use the internet profusely and trust me. They could be much more up front on what you are being charged. It's not a coincident - see problem #2.

Problem #2: Make sure you price travel on the 'open market' outside of the AMEX travel website for comparison purposes. After 'cashing in' over 75k points for approx $750 credit towards our tickets, we found that the 'balance' owed on the tickets was the same as if we had used Kayak.com or the airline's direct website.

This is an email I just sent to American Express customer service: Last night (5/3/09) at about 8:45 p. m., I routinely went to my computer to make an airline reservation on the American Express website. After I had entered all of my credit card information, I went to make the payment and was told there was some information missing. When I looked over the information, I discovered that the 4-digit code on the front of my card which I had previously entered was missing. So I entered it again, hit make payment, and the same thing happened again and again.

At that point, I called your 24/7 800 no. and was put on hold for 30 minutes before I finally spoke to Stephen, who said he couldn't help me but someone would call back in 2 or 3 minutes. When no one had called back in 20 minutes, I called again and was again put on hold. At that point, I decided to go on the Yahoo Travel website to make my reservation. I encountered the same online problem re the 4-digit code but when I called the Yahoo Travel phone no., someone answered in a couple of minutes and was able to help me! They took my flight information over the phone, waived the phone reservation fee, and I am all set.

I called your customer service dept. this morning and spoke to Veronica who is a supervisor and the best she could offer was "Give us one more chance". Why do I have a Gold American Express card if I am going to get this shabby service? It took me two hours for a transaction that should have taken 15 minutes! Incidentally, no one ever called me back last night from American Express.

FT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA -- Doesn't matter how long you have been with American Express. Doesn't matter how much membership fee you have paid to them at present. We paid $180.00 a year. They without permission go to the credit bureau report and without checking with you they make their own decision in lowering your credit limit. They have the nerve of stating because you "have too much credit."

What a nerve. If you're in business you have too much credit... It's useless talking to them. They just don't care about anybody. They think they are number #. Capital one is a better card with no membership, high credit limit, sometimes some memberships... Nice customer service, helpful.

American express you suck... You have no right on going to your card member bureau report without permission especially for no reason. My account is not past due. Has never been past due... Maybe someone in your office is stealing info... After all the credit bureau contains a lot of info...

I have been a Costco Member since 1993 and until now have been very pleased with my American Express True Earnings Card. Recently, however, when I called American Express to cancel my membership, explaining that I no longer live near a Costco, (the nearest one is 40 miles from here) the representative told me that I was still responsible for paying the bill.

I responded that since I never requested a membership renewal, I felt that I was not obligated to pay for it and that if I wanted to make purchases at Costco, I still had a Costco Gold Star Member Credit Card. Finally, he said that I could dispute the charge, but needed to call Costco at 1(800)7742678 and tell them that I wanted to cancel the membership, which further upset me.

Reluctantly, I did call and after waiting over 11 minutes on my cell phone to speak to a real person, I was cut off and sent back to the initial recording to begin the process all over again! Now REALLY annoyed, I called 1-888-246-1076 (customer care) once again, explaining what had just happened and was again met with yet ANOTHER arrogant and rude and very hostile representative!!! WHAT is going on there that an excellent customer should be treated that way?

FISHERS, INDIANA -- What gives? I was doing great without any interest being charged to the card as I pay the entire balance showing on the billing statement before the due date. I recently received a statement showing an interest charge. When I phoned the customer service representative was immediately on the defensive and suggested I don't take it that way even though I gave her no indication that I would. I simply asked her for a reason why I was being charged an interest when I never received one before.

She stated I am always being charged an interest but it will not apply if I pay the balance in full by the due date. I agreed with her and asked again why I'm now being charged interest. She repeated her statement about it not being her opinion and that interest is charged all of the time.

When I read the definition of interest posted on the back of the billing statement and specifically the part where I would not be charged interest if paid in full by the due date she again went of the defensive and said I would be charged interest no mater what. Knowing I wasn't going to get anywhere with her I simply thanked her for her time and said that due to her customer care I would be cancelling the card after I speak with Costco. Keep moving forward.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- I was given a free pass to the American Express Centurion Lounge in Las Vegas. The man at the counter did not run my card and I was told I needed to pay $50. He also said I needed to pay $50 for him to answer a simple question. I have been given an offer for my brother to attend the lounge for free because of the way I was treated. I am going to cancel my card and never attend that stupid lounge. Some employees at American Express treat their customers differently depending on a variety of factors I guess. I will not continue to give business to a company that discriminates.

SALT LAKE, UTAH -- I opened a high yield savings account in March. I got a statement that they received my initial deposit. I didn't get any more statements so I decided to call and check on my balance. I was surprised my account had been closed. They said they thought it had been compromised. I asked why I wasn't notified, they tried to make excuses.

I asked for my balance and for them to send me my money back. They said it would take several days to figure it out. After waiting a week they called me back and left a message. I returned the call and left a message. After waiting all day, I called again. I was put on hold for a long time while they looked for my money. I told them to send the money overnight delivery. Finally think the check is in the mail. Very scary experience.

USA, HAWAII -- I called American Express today to use my points for a flight I just booked for my husband and they told me I could not redeem any points as I have never been signed up. I had been using my card but only getting points on my husband's card and asked why they would not debit my card points and they said that it was because my husband never asked to have my card in the rewards program and only HE could authorize that!!!

What a stupid thing - someone is actually going to refuse their spouse the benefit of having something given back to them as a bonus rewards program Really? So for the past 10 years that we have had this card and NOTHING has been accumulating points and I use the card every month for my business and nothing was going towards the point system!!!

Someone at some point should have asked me or my husband to sign up for the benefits. I don't understand what kind of customer service this is but I can tell you that it is an awful sneaky and low way of doing business. I have American Express at my store and unless this is corrected I will be pulling it out of my store also.

I've been charged $25 late fee on a $41.32 bill. This is no surprise as any company would do the same. I called two days after the due date, requested the fee be waived and after 45 minutes on the phone, failed. I've been granted this simple courtesy many times before by numerous credit card companies and been successful every time as I have always had immaculate payment history and never left a balance on ANY credit card.

I've been tricked out of over 100,000 AMEX points in the past when an associate CALLED ME and convinced me to switch to AMEX blue, without informing me that I would lose all my points. Those points were the whole reason I signed up to the card and after trying to get those points back for YEARS, I've been receiving NO RESPONSE to my letters!!! UNBELIEVABLE how this company has been treating me worse and worse as I become a more senior customer!!! This company does not deserve more business!