Posts about American Express
(qbubbles)
(pnoeric)
(Jay Adan)
(opacity)
(Photo: inottawa)
(NY1)
*
A shopper just told us that
—>Consumer advocates have long been critical of gift cards that carry hefty fees and expire without warning, leaving you with a worthless hunk of plastic when you find a card in your sock drawer two years after receiving it. American Express, until now a culprit when it comes to fees, has just ditched the $2 monthly charge recipients had to pay for the privilege of keeping a card for more than a year. Unfortunately, buyers of Amex gift cards will still be saddled with upfront fees ranging from $2.95 to $5.95 per card. More »
—>We're no longer indignant about Amex's weirdly lax security policies anymore, we're just confused. Why would a major credit card company cold call new customers and insist they give up bank and address info over the phone, or email sensitive data to strangers? Or, we just learned, demand that you use a lame password that isn't case sensitive, is only 6 to 8 characters long, and can't contain special characters? More »
—>Chuck lost his job several months ago and wanted to continue his American Express membership, but had trouble justifying the $50 annual fee in his limited budget. So he launched an Executive Email Carpet Bomb, started his own anti-AmEx blog and started picketing... More »
More »
—>Starting Oct 1, AMEX Blue is raising rates on all customers, INCLUDING on OLD balances, AND they are telling customers that you can't just opt out and cancel the card (like normal). Turns out that opt-out we all took for granted was only by the credit card companies' good graces. More »
—>American Express and Discover will no longer bill customers who exceed their credit limits, according to company spokespeople. The creditors aren't eliminating the fees because they care about their customers. No, they're providing what American Banker calls "the first concrete examples of how a new law will restrict issuers' abilities to turn a profit." The new CARD Act that Congress passed in May requires consumers to opt-in before they can exceed their credit limits. Since overlimit fees, which can reach $39, aren't very profitable for creditors, they decided to ditch the fees altogether. More »
—>It's not the responsibility of a credit card company to take care of you in an emergency, it's true. But amid the many reports of canceled cards and slashed credit lines we've been receiving was the story of Elizabeth, her dog, a veterinary emergency, and a most inauspiciously timed credit line cut. More »
—>We think AT&T just stole about $157 from commenter Spoco. They applied the payment as always via his Amex card, but then said that it was declined and auto-debited it a second time a month later (+ late fees, of course). The only problem is, it wasn't declined, and Spoco has proof. He just can't get anyone at AT&T to care. More »
—>Last week we mentioned that Costco has a habit of backdating the starting date for lapsed membership renewals, which prompted Monica to write in and let us know of another issue they seem to have with billing. If you renew your executive membership with Costco but then apply for the Costco American Express card, Amex will charge you the membership fee a second time. Monica says the Amex CSR who fixed the problem told her it happens all the time. More »
—>American Express won't reactivate the charge card Xiyang closed more than two years ago until they get a note on letterhead confirming the source and amount of his annual income from an "accountant, broker, or attorney." Two accountants and a lawyer each told Xiyang they never heard of such a request, and said that it would be a "HUGE liability" for them to verify his income. Xiyang offered to send in pay stubs in addition to the IRS documents he already submitted, but AmEx won't budge until they receive their verification on letterhead. More »
—>American Express hit Mike with a finance charge because his Blue card had a balance. A negative balance. Incredulous, Mike called and said, "so you dinged me for carrying a balance and not making a payment, even though it was a negative balance?," to which AmEx replied, "Right, even negative balances." More »
—>Angela can't get a new American Express card because Amex can't verify her Social Security number. They have to verify it because of 9/11. Since they can't, they've canceled her application. Because of 9/11. More »
—>We're starting to think Amex doesn't take this whole "data security" thing very seriously. First they confused a customer, and us, a few months ago with their random confirmation phone call, where they demanded a customer turn over bank account information over the phone without giving him a way to verify they were really Amex. Now a reader says the company has "for years" been sending him someone else's account info via email, including the customer's name and the last 5 digits of his account number. J.R. writes, "Seriously, I've seen better security on a video game forum." More »
—>A system error at American Express led to their computers kicking out bills with $0.00 balances for accounts that were long ago closed...or never activated in the first place. If you receive one, don't be alarmed. Annoyed, maybe. More »
—>Jon, like many American Express customers, had his credit limit slashed without warning recently. What he did next makes us feel all warm and fuzzy about our jobs here, because he found the necessary contact info buried in a post from 2007. Here's his story, proof that sometimes persistence pays off. More »
—>Courey Gouker's recent experience with American Express encapsulates every trick the company has pulled in the past few months to drive away their customers, including dropping the credit limit, hiking the rate, and even offering him a cash bonus to pay off his balance in full. In addition, the company's CSRs made promises to him that they didn't keep, and notes on his account have gone missing. About the only thing they haven't done is email a photo of the CEO flipping him the bird. More »
—>Apple sold reader Melody the wrong AppleCare package, but instead of switching her to the proper coverage, they issued a refund and told her to re-purchase the warranty extension. They even gave her American Express transaction reference numbers so she could track the refund, but AmEx says the numbers are invalid and that they have no record of a refund posting. Melody's been out $195 since February, and thinks it's time for Apple to cough up her money. More »
It turns out that weird evening bank verification call from AmEx was legit. Brandon wrote back, "After reading all the comments on Consumerist, it stoked my fear of fraud even more, so I called Amex security. They verified the call was legitimate and was from American Express. It was just poor customer service after all." More »
—>Update: It turns out the call was legit. More »
American Express has given her an "interim" refund in full, pending a review that will involve the credit card company presenting to PIC officials all of Blessman's documentation on the services she feels she was denied. More »
—>We're doing two a day in the first round, people. It's madness! Stretch out your quads and get ready for #16 Amex VS #17 Peanut Corporation of America. More »
—>Traditionally, AmEx will send you a replacement credit card via overnight, but an insider tells us that as a cost-saving move, they've been trying to cut back on this. If you have low-balance, low-usage or are not an annual fee payer, they might not offer the overnight right off the bat, or may even deny it. Our tipster says there are some key phrases you can use to make sure you get your card lickity-split: More »
—>Tired of using a two credit card system to maximize his cash back returns, I did an analysis to determine the single best cash back credit card. Here's what I found: More »
—>Andrea, an American Express member for over 20 years, is upset because AmEx canceled her cash-back card two weeks before her $500 rebate check was supposed to arrive, and declared the rebate forfeit. More »
—>Here's an internal AmEx doc with what customer service reps should say when people call up asking about the $300 to pay off and close your account program, or, as they term it, the "Balance Down Initiative." The sheet was obtained exclusively by creditcarforum.com. My favorite part is the answer for if people who weren't chosen to participate ask if they can join. The correct response is, "We apologize, but we can only honor this offer for selected cardmembers. However, if you're interested in paying down your balance, I can help you with that." Full doc inside... More »
—>American Express is so desperate to clean liabilities off its balance sheet that it's paying some customer $300 if they will pay off their balance in full and close their credit card. The offer is only good if you get a card in the mail from them about it with a 14-digit RSVP code. Thanks for playing, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. More »
Several readers have pointed out that American Express has made some changes to its contract "in response to the challenging environment" — the most offensive of which seems to be a new clause that gives them the right to call — or text message — any phone you use to contact them including cellphones, for the purposes of offering you American Express products and services. More »
—>Ronnie Sue's recent trip to Germany was a financial nightmare. Though she warned her bank she would be traveling to Germany, when she arrived, she couldn't withdraw needed cash. The bank gently suggested that Ronnie Sue draw cash from her credit card, and even offered to refund any cash advance fees. It wasn't until Ronnie Sue whipped out her AmEx that she learned it had been silently canceled two days before she left... More »
—>Despite sending customers letter saying otherwise, American Express now insists that it never blacklisted cardholders based on where they shopped. Those notes explaining that "other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express?" Whoops! Just a big misunderstanding! Not unlike the comment they gave to ABC explaining that "shopping patterns" were used as a "contributing factor" in slashing credit lines, a statement AmEx later retracted. So what's really going on? Let's explore... More »
—>Last month we posted about Kevin Johnson, a 29-year-old self-employed businessman with excellent credit and an established history with American Express, who had his credit limit cut by 65% because AMEX said he was shopping at the wrong sorts of stores. Johnson has created a website called NewCreditRules.com to try to uncover what, exactly, he did wrong to fall under AMEX's high risk category. More »
—>It looks like American Express is still in the throes of its "risk management" craziness and closing accounts without visible reason. Did Chris, who was just left stranded while on a business trip, shop at the wrong store? Did he fail an internal financial review that nobody told him about? Whatever the reason, it's a good example of why you should have more than one credit account when traveling, so you don't have to rely on the whims of any single faceless corporation. More »
—>AMEX is now cutting people's credit limits for shopping at the wrong store. More »
—>The credit crunch is affecting all of us differently. Right now its affecting Nick as he sits in a hotel 3,000 miles from home. More »
—>CreditMattersBlog explains why that new AMEX contract language we wrung our hands over this morning is nothing to fret about. More »
—>American Express won U.S. Federal Reserve approval to become a bank holding company — giving it access to the bailout party as credit card defaults climb. Bloomberg News says that the Fed waived the usual 30 day waiting period because (in the words of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke) we're experiencing "unusual and exigent circumstances affecting the financial markets." Today, American Express has requested $3.5 billion in taxpayer-funded capital from the federal government, says the WSJ. More »
—>Consumer spending is down and credit card defaults are up! More »
—>According to the credit report, AMEX says Dan's father-in-law closed a credit card he had with them while he was in a coma. Now Amex is using that to come after the mother-in-law for $15,000. Read the rest of the story, inside... More »
—>Reader Pierre is a small business owner who has an American Express Business Account that used to have a $25,000 limit, but has now been cut to $1,800. He says his company's bill is usually around $12,000 a month, and it is always paid in full — on time. While Pierre is clearly upset with American Express, the Wall Street Journal says that all banks are cutting access to credit. More »
Highlights From Dealnews
- Graveyard Mall: Wooden Roll-top Desk Organizer for $9 + $6 s&h
- Amazon.com: Columbia Sportswear Men's Shoes from $19 + $5 s&h
- Amazon.com: Green Mountain K-Cup 50-Packs for $9 + $6 s&h
- Circuit City: Element FLX3711B 37-inch LCD HDTV $600
- American Express: Up to 5% Cash Back on Purchases with SimplyCash Business Card
- Geeks: Refurbished Dual AMD Opteron Rack Mount Servers from $200
- Hewlett Packard: $500 off $1399 HP Pavilion Notebooks w/ code NB0915
- Frys.com: Western Digital GreenPower 500GB Serial ATA/300 Hard Drive for $69.99 + shipping
- Edmund Scientific: $25 Off $50 or more w/ coupon code ES25
- Apple: Refurbished iPod touches on sale, 8GB for $180, 16GB for $240, 32GB for $320
- Amazon: Rewards points upgrade for existing Amazon.com Visa holders
- Apple: Free Select iTunes TV Shows in HD (requires iTunes 8
- Travelocity: United Airlines Sale: Round-trip flights from $108
- Amazon.com: Amazon.com Men's Watch Deals: Timex, Marc Ecko, more from $40 + free shipping
- Sears: Seven7 Women's Jeans for $18 + $6 s&h, more
- Budget Truck Rental: $50 Gift card when paying w/American Express
- Reverie: T-Shirt Sale: Buy 1 TEE get 1 free TEE
- BestBuy: Westinghouse 42" 1080p LCD HDTV and portable DVD Player for $749.99 + shipping
- Drugstore.com: New Customers: Save $5 or $10 off First Order
- Vann's: Panasonic FZ28 10.2MP Digital Camera $340 Shipped
- Amazon: Get Savings of up to 75% off Bargain Books
—>JD Power and Associates ranked American Express at the top of their 2008 Credit Card Satisfaction Study. Customers gave the company high marks in interaction, billing and payment processes, reward programs, fees and rates, and benefits and services, with the first three factors standing out in particular. Capital One and HSBC, which target revolvers with lower credit scores, received the worst marks. Oddly, Discover got second place. People must really like their two-cycle billing (see "Two-Cycle Billing And Why It's Evil"). Full rankings inside... More »
—>Listen Vonage, Garry isn't your customer anymore. You need to stop sending him bills and let him go. Sure, he liked you back in 2004, but he found a better company at a cheaper price and he's moved on. Billing his AmEx every single month for two years after he canceled? Not cute. Sending his account to collections when his AmEx finally expired? Seems desperate. Please Vonage, get over Garry and move on with your life. More »
—> Once upon a time, Peter Finch won an Oscar for telling us to go to our window, open it, and yell, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore!" Now thousands and thousands of consumers are doing just that, but instead of yelling out their windows, they're yelling at the Federal Reserve in the form of a record breaking number of public comments about some proposed credit card reforms. Not as sexy as yelling like a madman, but far, far more effective. More »
—>Meet James Colliton, a disbarred corporate lawyer who served 19 months in jail after bribing a mother so he could sleep with her 13 and 15 year-old daughters. Colliton recently sued American Express for $4 million, claiming that he was captured because the credit card company told authorities that the fugitive gutter-cretin was signing for hotel rooms in Ontario. More »
—>We've posted a lot of stories of businesses requiring customers who pay with a credit card to make minimum purchases, or pay a surcharge, or show ID. And as we've repeatedly said, the businesses' merchant agreements with the credit card companies forbids these practices. A reader wrote in to argue that this might not be true, as many businesses contract with third-party credit card processors, and are not bound by the merchant agreement. So we did some investigating. More »
—>Joe wants to thank American Express for fixing an incorrect charge on his bill even though he completely forgot to send in the paperwork. Aw! More »
—>Perhaps this British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card's interest rate is in "metric" APR, but if not, no matter what side of the pond you're on on, or road you drive on, you must agree that a 43.5% variable interest rate is bollocks. Who cares how many bonus miles you get, they're just going to get devalued anyway. More »
—>Are you smarter than a credit card company? They've got billions riding on their belief that you're not. Check out these 10 methods, via the Americans for Fairness in Lending, credit card companies use to make extra money off you that you may not even be aware of, knowledge that could save you hundreds in extra fees. More »
—>Reader Brandon sent us this picture of a McDonald's violating its merchant agreement by charging a fee for using a credit or debit card. The text reads, "FEE ASSOCIATED WITH CREDIT/DEBIT CARD OF 25¢ WILL BE APPLIED TO CARD TOTAL." More »
—>Gregg wants us to know that Sears has just hung up on one of the last people in America who hasn't totally given up on them. He's spent quite a lot of time lately trying to give them $1500 for a lawn tractor, but they just couldn't figure out how to complete the transaction. Yes, Sears has finally gotten to the point that they can't take your money even if you want to give it to them. More »
—>Patricia closed her company's American Express Delta Sky Miles card six months ago, but the expired card unexpectedly sprang to life thanks to a supplier's accidental charge. American Express laughed off the matter, saying "this happens all of the time," adding that it's Patricia's responsibility to ensure that all vendors destroy her outdated billing information. More »
—>Bad Consumer Smith finally paid off her American Express Optima card after 14 years, but couldn't believe that Amex tacked on a $0.19 finance charge to her last bill. Smith summoned her lesser angels to work out a fitting response. Here's what she came up with:
I sent AmEx two checks for a penny each, one for two cents, two for three cents, one for four cents, and one for a nickel. More »
—>Georgetown law professor and Credit Slips blogger Adam Levitin is having trouble disputing an erroneous $176.96 charge on his Citibank Amex card from PACER, the federal court's online docket system, which he accesses for free. The professor is a consumer credit expert and should have no problem understanding and fixing the error, right? Fat chance. More »
My girlfriend and I had a layover at JFK last week. While I was waiting for her in the bathroom I started reading a poster that seemed to be prompting me to get a JetBlue American Express card. More »
—>American Express stock fell 7% after saying it would have to write off $275 million, thanks to more and more customers not paying their bills. What is probably happening is that people can't tap their home equity so they're going to the next easiest line of credit, credit cards, and failing to pay their bills there as well. In Walden, Thoreau talks about how early New Englanders would make their first homes by digging a cellar in the ground and putting a roof of saplings and bark over the top of it. My, that would make a mighty fine recession shelter. More »
—>Stores are violating their contract with the credit card companies if they set minimum or maximum charges, or force you to show ID in addition to your credit card (with the obvious exception being for age-limited purchases). Depending on your state and your card issuer, surcharges or "convenience fees" may be banned as well. The best way to straighten these guys out is to report them to the credit card company. People who have done so on the Credit Boards message board say that when they report a merchant, they get a letter from the credit card company and when they go back to the store, the shenanigans have stopped. Here's all the contact infos for the credit card companies to file a merchant complaint, as well as links to merchant agreements, in case you feel like standing up for your consumer rights. Someone better warn Amy's Ice Cream! More »
While the danger of someone long-distance slurping the account information communicating out the RFID chips being increasingly embedded in credit cards is, for the time being, remote, reader Eyebrows McGee reports success in asking AmEx to turn it off... More »
—>Free Money Finance has a good post on combining the cashback powers of American Express Blue Cash and Chase Freedom Cash Visa Credit Cards for maximum moolah back in your pocket. More »
—>Remember Richard? Microsoft and numerous commenters mocked him for trying to get his XBOX360 fixed under warranty repair because he had a random tech pry open the box, thus voiding the warranty. More »
I call (800-297-8378 if you want to try it for yourself). I get a recording welcoming me American Express and notifying me that the call could be recorded... then abruptly says: "The computer system needed to answer your questions is not available." And it hangs up. Chris says the phone number has been non-working for 5 days now and sure enough when The Consumerist called it a sing-songy computer voice cheerfully proclaimed the computer unavailable and unceremoniously hung up. More »
—>American Express truncated Ted's address and sent his account to collections when he never received or paid his bill. The card in question was a backup card Ted used once in May 2006. He called Amex when he didn't receive a bill in June. They told him a bill would only be issued if there were charges. He asked for one anyway, but they refused. Company policy.
Jump forward to December 27th. 8:30 AM. I get woken up by a collections agency telling me a) that I owe American Express for a charge from August, that b) I was obviously defrauding them, and that c) I was, to put it mildly, not being cooperative.Ted never received a statement. Ted never received a late-notice. Ted never got a call from Amex. So why was a collections agency on the phone? More »
Blueprint for Financial Prosperity reminds us that credit cards carry more discounts than we realize. Visa, MasterCard, and American Express all offer discounts for cardholders. Discover's discounts are limited to business accounts. More »
—>Thanks to the advice of The Consumerist and its readers, Shonda finally got a refund after Golden Touch Transportation car service ripped her off. More »
Once again, the American Express website offers cardmembers a chance to participate in the "My Wishlist" promotion, but what's it all about? More »
—>Shonda paid for a private sedan to take her to and from the airport during a recent trip to New York City, but instead she got a shuttle crammed with other people. More »
—>AmEx installed opened a special "member's lounge" this week in The Mall At Short Hills, NJ, aka, the epicenter of poop. More »
—>Choosing your first credit card is serious business. Reader Travis writes in with a question: How should he choose his first credit card? It's a good question. More »
—>AMEX announced it's getting rid of double rewards for certain venues and changing its annual fees. More »
—> More »
The ad by Wes Anderson starring Jason Schwartzman is pretty fantastic, and almost too post-modern for its own good. More »
—>The American Express RED card is a new, ostensibly fashionable, way to wear your charity on your wallet sleeve. More »
AMEX has a new card, "Clear," boasting "no fees of any kind." More »
What kind of credit card company lets an employee take home a laptop containing the sensitive financial records of 150,000 employees? Ameriprise, that's who. More »
UPDATE: Check out this year's post: AMEX's MyWishlist: Everything You Need To Know More »
