American Express Consumer Reviews - Page 5

I have seen a number of unhappy American Express Card holders and I would like to add my two cents. Before I begin I would like this forum to know that the head of American Express, Kenneth Chenault received $27,327,318.00 in compensation for 2008. How did he obtain this compensation? On the backs of hard working Americans who pay their bills while AMEX plays Russian Roulette with our credit scores.

I have been a cardholder since 1978. Presently I have a Platinum account, an account that charges high fees. What do I get for my money, a greedy CEO with an Executive staff of liars. I had a credit line of $34,000 with a balance of $28,000. I pay my bills on time. My line waas lowered to $29,000 making it look like I was maxed out, lowering my credit score. I paid my account down to $19,000. Guess what they lowered my limit to $19,500, maxed out again, lowering my score, again. I forget to mention that I was told both times that when I got my balance down AMEX would re-raise my limit. I don't want to charge more, just get my limit back.

The excuse given by AMEX Executive customer service? I had too much credit and a past due per Experian. I ran my Experian report, I have a total of three credit cards active, all paid on time and above my min required payment. My total balance are around $29,000. For my income I owe very little. My Experian report, no late accounts. When I called AMEX they stated they don't have the full report only a condensed version. I told them I had no lates on my report, who's report were they looking at?

These people are liars and incompetent. It's long time members like me who have kept this company going. I'm very tempted to tell them to stick my $19,000 balance, write a letter to the three reporting credit agencies and walk away because AMEX damaged my credit score. I know this sounds somewhat drastic and foolish but I really can't stand these wortless liars. God help us if Mr. Chenault doesn't make his 27 plus million in 2009. If anyone files a class action lawsuit for lowering our credit scores please let me know.

I had three accounts with AMEX. Platinum business, blue for business and capital line. Currently, I use/process the cards to the tune of nearly $800,000 per year. No, never, ever been late on a payment. AMEX actually sends me yearly letters thanking me for my "significant" amount of spending. For my business platinum card, it made complete sense. Not only is easy to categorize purchases for accounting purposes, but the rewards program was second to none.

Of course, all this changed in November 2008 when AMEX decided to become a bank holding company. (Think Bear Stearns.) This is when the capital line program was eliminated. Of course, I was one of the foolish ones that actually believed that this credit line would be available during my slower business months. While I'm able to weather this poor decision by AMEX, there are tens of thousands of small businesses who have been severely crippled by this.

Fast forward to the past month. AMEX has lowered my limit on the blue card twice. (I've paid it off since and awaiting them to cancel the thing.) For my platinum card, the limit has been lowered to the average amount that I spend monthly (approx. 54k per month on the business card on a yearly average). For the record, last year at this time, my combined balances with this company were around 100k (and nobody blinked an eye). The irony here that I called last year and the representative who greeted me stated "Wow, this is a nice account you have with us."

In the past, the customer service was nothing short of phenomenal. Now? It seems that the 11000+ people that have lost their jobs with this company are the ones who were responsible for this being a formerly great company.

I'm through fighting with American Express. They've made it clear that they do not wish to continue with their business with me. My business (fortunately) has seen decent growth over the past several years. After analyzing my merchant account, it appears that usage of AMEX cards has decreased a full 20%. Not only that, but the average transaction per card is now much closer to the Visa/MC average than it ever has been. While the higher discount rate (3.5%) for my merchant account used to be worth it, those days are becoming numbered.

Quite frankly, I'm not sure what this means by the actions of this company. I do know, however, that my business has been cutting back its use on the card and I am sincerely considering to stop accepting the card entirely.

American Express canceled my Rewards Plus account a couple of weeks ago and seemingly zapped out my 51,000 rewards points (51,000 Delta miles or other possible rewards). I was really bummed until I read the following:

"American Express Changes Membership Rewards Policy By Kevin Gipson, New Orleans Consumer Attorney on Mar 31, 2009 in Credit Cards.

"American Express has announced a policy change regarding its Membership Rewards program. The policy change permits a cardholder that is in good standing at the time that his card is cancelled to redeem his Membership Rewards points for up to 90 days following the cancellation of his card. American Express did not define what the term good standing meant, but did state the change in policy was due to its recent decision to cancel the cards of members who were current on their payments but that were considered to be a credit risk.

"Before this policy change, if an American Express card was cancelled for any reason, the Membership Reward points were lost. American Express also announced its intention to honor cash-rebate cards. If the customer has an outstanding balance on his account, then the cash-rebate will be applied to the balance. If the balance is less than the cash-rebate, American Express will issue a check for the balance to the customer.

"Finally, American Express said customers who had their cards canceled recently, but before the policy change, can contact American Express Membership Rewards customer service for a case by case decision on whether the customer will be permitted to redeem the points."

I called and they instantly credited my Delta Sky Miles account for 51,000 miles. So I'm satisfied. They can give or deny credit to me - it's their money - but they can't take away points/miles I've already earned. That would be plain wrong. I'll take the miles and take my business elsewhere. I just wanted to make sure anyone else who has this happen makes sure to claim their miles with the rewards program asap!

CHARLOTTE, VERMONT -- It is no small wonder American Express Company is looking for bail-out $$... they treat their loyal and good-paying customers like criminals! My husband went to pay something with our Amex card, and it was declined... strange the bill had just been paid in full! When we got home I called to make sure there wasn't some kind of fraudulent activity or whatever, and to my shock and dismay was told our account had been cancelled on January 10th... the day after they processed the full balance of our statement's payment! They said there were problems with my credit report from Experian, and that my OTHER credit card balances were too high...

I called back this morning and was told there were "negative impacts" on my credit report, high balances, delinquent accounts, and "too many credit inquiries"-- 3 in the last 30 days. I called Experian. They were incredulous! Turns out 2 out of the 3 "inquiries" were THEIRS, and this is very routine for credit card companies. There are NO negatives in my report, ALL of my accounts are in "Good Standing" (no great surprise since I have never been late on a payment, and always pay more than the minimum balance). They could not fathom what bone American Express would have to pick with it.

So where does that leave someone other than in an embarrassing situation of having a card declined for NO GOOD REASON, and be unable to get a straight answer out of the customer service people... who told me I could "reapply after I fixed the (nonexistent) problems!! Yea right. To boot they now will not pay me the $250 cash back reward to use at Costco because my account is cancelled! Sounds a might fishy to me... Needless to say I will certainly NEVER use one of their cards again.

HOUSTON, TEXAS -- I have been an American Express card member since 1976. For much of that time my experiences were positive. It was around the late 80's that suddenly more than a few merchants that excepted the card began to perform in a less than agreeable manner, and it didn't take long to figure why they were so sure they could get away with it.

The Amex dispute program during this time period that Amex was falling behind in competition with MasterCard & Visa, seeing their larger share of revenue coming from their merchant accounts began screwing card members on these disputes. I actually once lost a dispute to a man who was in jail for fraud. Accepting the situation I became more careful where and how I used the card.

My true disgust with American Express came in 2005. At that point during my entire 29 years of membership, I have never defaulted on any agreement or payment to this company, and as a result I had always been treated with acceptable level of respect with exception of the bogus dispute department. My home was trashed by Hurricane Katrina, for a few weeks after the storm I was moving around between friends & hotels figuring out where I was going to live being that New Orleans was wiped out at the time.

Because of these overwhelming issues I was experiencing I received compassion from the most unlikely places, my Citibank Mastercard, Chase Visa, and Discover card excused me from making monthly payments on any outstanding balances for 3 months. American Express despite the fact that my account was perfectly "Current" as it had been since the account was opened, placed a hold on any charges until I paid a balance of a statement that had not yet printed, or mailed.

When I contacted them and asked why they did this, they said it was because my spending habits had changed that month. Since then every 2 or three months they continued to placing holds on my charging without notice, I would find out by my card being declined. The amount they deemed acceptable for me to charge would also vary and did not seem to be based on anything tangible.

I didn't want to close the account because that can adversely affect your credit, I changed from a Platinum to a standard Green card, at least that way I only have to pay them $35-50 annually, they certainly weren't worth $500 per year, they never were. I have stopped using the card. The TV advertisement American Express has stating that their card is superior to Visa because it has a pre-set limit, yes it does, and as long as you pay your bills a Mastercard & Visa will work every time, not so with Amex.

American Express professes to offer a Fraud Protection guarantee, but this guarantee appears to be meaningless. I recently had three fraudulent charges against my American Express card over a period of 4-5 weeks. As a result I had my card suspended and I did not accept the offer from American Express to issue a new card.

In each case I called the phone number provided by American Express for reporting fraudulent charges and I gave their customer service people the information they requested. I was told in each case that they could not put me directly in touch with someone from their fraud prevention department because they were unavailable. I was also told each time that a case would be opened to resolve the issue, and that it would take 6-8 weeks to be completed.

After receiving no response for some time, I called again and this time I was able to speak with someone from the fraud prevention group. I was told at this time that there was no pending case related to my charge card (apparently the customer service people didn't take the time to follow through on my previous calls).

However, they assured me that a case would be opened, and again told me that it would take 6-8 weeks to resolve. Afterwards I researched these fraudulent charges on the internet and was surprised to learn that several other American Express card holders had also incurred fraudulent charges from these same companies, that they had reported these fraudulent charges to American Express, that the companies had been identified as bogus (apparently set up by cyber-mules for the express purpose of collecting fraudulent charges), and that in some cases the charges had already been reversed by American Express.

If the fraud protection group was already aware of these bogus companies at the time of my phone calls, why wasn't I informed of this? Why would it take an additional 6-8 weeks to investigate a report of fraud against companies that were already under investigation?

Why was American Express still accepting charges from these companies long after they had been identified as bogus companies? The internet research disclosed that there are several of these bogus companies in California, with overlapping ownerships, all listed as owned by people with Russian names. I can only conclude that the American Express fraud protection and detection is not particularly effective, that American Express is not very forthcoming with its customers, and that the American Express customer service group exists primarily to deflect customer complaints, not to resolve problems.

INDIA -- Fraud in Car Loan and refusal to give N.O.C even after repaying full amount. Around 3 years ago I have decided to buy a luxury car and came across car loan advertisement in local newspaper by American Express (quoting 10.5% interest) or it's agent. I immediately called them and got the documented quote for 24 installments (2year car loan) with 10.5% interest rate per annum. I okayed the application and the very same agent made me sign all papers within few minutes, as he was in hurry without giving much time to me to read. It was around 100 pages agreement and I signed at around 40 places (all blank pages).

Also he bought a cheque book saying that "here is your new account" which comes to me free from American Express bank. (all pre-planned without giving much time to customer) I signed cheques (filled the amount this time) for 24 installments without realizing that I was being cheated in whole process of me being charged 14% interest rate (hidden) and the dealer discount given to buyer directly from car dealer was not passed on to me. I found all these abnormalities, me being charged excess to the tune of nearly Rs 45000/- including excess interest from what being quoted and dealer discount.

Few weeks later upon realizing all that, I tried calling American Express bank and made few visit to bank but no use. They did not give any responsible reply, stating that American express agent is responsible and he is being kicked out. Whereas every single rupee I spent was officially named to bank all by way of cheques. Later I complained to Banking Ombudsman whose officer assured me proper action against American Express bank realizing all the written quotes and well documented proof of cheating.

But somehow as everyone know Indian bureaucrats can easily be hired for little money, and same was made too by American Express bank staff to bribe those officers of Banking Ombudsman to drop my case. Till today I did not get any compensation from bank and I was forced to pay total amount including inflated interest plus dealer discount of around 16000/- was retained by them. Moreover even after paying fully with their current statement showing "no balance" I am not able to register that car on my name, as American Express Bank is holding back "No-Objection-certificate" (N.O.C)without any reason.

They are legally holding my car without any dues even after more than one year of settling all dues. I request every reader to be careful of such foreign banks who do open broad day light robbery and cheating without any obligation and respect to country and its citizen.

I was asked by AmEx to provide additional information as part of the application process, particularly "a letter on original letterhead from your bank confirming your home address, including their title and signature." I am not questioning the rationale behind having bank verifying my home address, there are lots of other ways to do it, the problem is with the "original letterhead." I visited 4 different branches of my Bank of America and talked to everyone all the way to VP of the branch and none of the reps were able to produce a letter on the letterhead. It simply doesn't exist, they don't have it and can't make one up, but AmEx is totally ignorant about this fact.

I have spent countless hours on the phone talking to different AmEx reps and like a broken record the response was: "Sir we need a letter on original letterhead." I sent them a copy of my bank statement with my address, all of my BoA accounts information, signature and stamp of banks branch VP and business card attached, so it has BoA logo, my home address, bank's representative title and signature. Guess what - it is not acceptable!?!?!? I even had a bank VP call them personally and explain that they don't make letters on letterheads, still no breakthrough as I am getting the same response from AmEx.

I actually got one of the AmEx reps acknowledge that they had the same issue with Bank of America before so my questions was why didn't you change your policy or requirements if you know that such problem exists??? This is so ignorant beyond belief. I understand that the policy exists to be followed and the AmEx representatives follow it well by being stupidly obeying, but if your policy doesn't work - you need to change it.

LAWRENCEVILLE, GEORGIA -- In August of 2011, I applied for an American Express/Costco card. My credit is excellent but the card was declined because I had a credit freeze on my credit account. I removed the freeze, the card was issued on September 19, 2011; as of this date, November 7, 2011, I still do not have it.

I called A/E many times in an effort to get the status on my application; on more than one occasion, I had to try to communicate with their representative who spoke in such heavily accented English, that I could not understand what they were saying. A/E told me that the card was mailed on October 20. Finally I called Costco customer support for assistance; I talked to supervisor, Judy ** who told me that the card was mailed on October 28 and that I should have it in about 10 days.

I called customer support about 8 days later, stayed on hold for more than 5 minutes. When the c/s employee answered, I told her I was having a problem getting an A/E card issued and wanted to talk to Ms. **. Her response, "Are you calling American Express or Costco?" In frustration, I raised my voice and said that I wanted to speak to a supervisor. The employee said she couldn't help me and broke the connection.

Subsequently, Ms ** called me and left word that the card was indeed mailed in Seattle on the 28th and I should have it by mid November. Mid November is 18 days from the date of mailing; she had previously told me I would receive it in 10 days. On November 5, I went to the Costco store at the Mall of Georgia; the store was packed with shoppers as is the case on weekends.

When I presented my membership card at checkout, I was told that it had been cancelled and that I would have to go to the service desk to have it renewed. I had to wait more than 20 minutes to be waited on, got the card renewed and had to go through checkout again. I am canceling my request for the A/E card. (:-(!!!