1
amex
amex
American Express Amazes Family After Cardholder's Death Abroad
By Laura Northrup on July 15, 2011 10:35 AM
54 Comments
Let's travel back in consumer history to 1989, a time before widespread Internet access, when she shopping and financial landscape was recognizable, but still different from what we deal with today. One thing that doesn't change is that true "Above and Beyond" service leads to customer loyalty, and reader Margaret remains loyal to AmEx because of how they came through for her family in a time of crisis and grief. More »
AMEX Unveils Low-Cost Prepaid Card Without Hidden Fees
By Ben Popken on June 14, 2011 5:00 PM
41 Comments
The prepaid card industry is notorious for preying on poorer consumers with hidden fees for just about every thing you use it for. There's even fees for not using them, in the form of inactivity fees. So it's an unexpected breath of fresh air that American Express is rolling out a new prepaid card with very few fees and a pretty straightforward approach, at least for consumers. More »
Amex Settles Case Alleging They Advertised BOGO, But Charged Double
By Ben Popken on May 23, 2011 11:45 AM
37 Comments
How's this for a bad deal? American Express Publishing Corp. had an offer for a "free" airline ticket when you bought a companion ticket and a subscription to Skyguide magazine. But a lawsuit brought by five Californian counties says that when consumers went to the website to buy their ticket, they were often charged double what the ticket would have cost them if they bought the ticket straight from the airline. Get it? More »
Amex's Platinum Business Card Promises Are Less Than Golden
By Laura Northrup on February 15, 2011 4:00 PM
42 Comments
Lois is a longtime American Express customer. She's had an AmEx card in her wallet for longer than most Consumerist readers have been alive. When she received a mailing offering 50,000 bonus reward points and extra privileges for upgrading her account to a Platinum Business card, she went for it. Except she never received the reward points. Or the airport lounge privileges. Or, apparently, the upgrade to a Platinum Business card. More »
American Express Offers Credit Card To 3-Year-Old
By Chris Morran on January 13, 2011 5:00 PM
64 Comments
If you needed any more evidence that credit card offers are on the rise, you need look no further than this story over at CNNMoney, in which the writer's 3-year-old daughter received a credit card application from American Express. More »
Add Discover To The List Of Credit Cards That Allow Minimum Purchase Requirements
By Chris Morran on September 2, 2010 7:59 PM
79 Comments
Yesterday, we told you how Visa and AMEX now allow merchants to require customers up to a $10 minimum for credit card payments and how MasterCard will soon be changing their policy to allow for the same. We'd naively hoped that Discover — who hadn't yet replied to our query — would be the lone holdout, but... not so much. More »
Help, Expedia Sold My Chargeback To A Collection Agency!
By Chris Walters on August 23, 2010 10:30 AM
129 Comments
Ed and his wife successfully filed a chargeback against Expedia for a canceled trip earlier this year. Now he's being dunned by a collection agency for the amount that Amex refunded him. More »
Someone At Duane Reade Needs To Learn How To Activate AmEx Gift Cards
By Laura Northrup on May 14, 2010 11:00 AM
36 Comments
Stephanie did a wonderful thing, and bought a $100 American Express gift card as a gift for her assistant this past Christmas. Unfortunately, she tells Consumerist that the Duane Reade store where she purchased the card did a terrible thing, and failed to actually activate it for her. Twice. Now her assistant was embarrassed when she tried to use the card at a spa and it was rejected, and Stephanie has had to pay $11.90 in card-loading fees with no working gift card to show for it. More »
My Friend Gave Me A Completely Useless AmEx Gift Card
By Laura Northrup on March 31, 2010 3:58 PM
56 Comments
Have you ever exchanged an American Express gift card for goods or services? Luke writes that he received one as a gift, but hasn't been able to use the card to make any purchases. All he's managed to do is prove the futility of giving people credit card-branded gift cards as presents. Cash, my friends. Think cash. More »
(Photo: inottawa)
JetBlue Takes 2 Hours And Charges $15 To Redeem Customer's Gift Card
By Chris Walters on March 17, 2010 12:02 PM
24 Comments
Angela won a "Wish List" contest from American Express, which let her buy a $100 JetBlue gift card for $70. JetBlue managed to wipe out that $30 savings and any good will Angela might have felt by making her waste 129 minutes trying to redeem the card—and then charging her $15 for the service. At the end of her letter to AmEx and JetBlue, Angela writes, "I don’t know about other AmEx cardholders, but spending almost two hours on hold in order to be able to use something you’ve already paid for is not on my Wish List." More »
Amex Gives You Money It Can't Explain, Won't Take It Back
By Meg Marco on March 8, 2010 2:44 PM
19 Comments
Reader Chad was deployed to Iraq from 5/05 to 6/06. American Express gives a special rate to service members when they are deployed, but apparently Chad wasn't getting it. They figured this out and let him know that they would be crediting his account with a mysterious number they couldn't explain. Then they credited all his accounts with this exact amount of money— even new ones he didn't have while in Iraq. Free money is nice, but he'd rather they just give him the right amount. More »
If I Can't Check ID's, How Am I Supposed To Prevent Credit Card Fraud?
By Ben Popken on February 18, 2010 11:59 AM
260 Comments
We've told you that it stipulates in the contract between merchants and credit card companies that stores aren't allowed to force you to show ID when you buy stuff, but what about the other side of the story? Alex is a 26-year old small business owner and Consumerist lover, but he doesn't know how he's supposed to prevent fraud if he can't check people's ID's. Contrary to what some commenters assume, when a stolen credit card is used, the money gets yanked out of Alex's bank account and he is unlikely to get it or the missing merchandise back. He gets jacked twice: once by the fraudster, and once by the credit card company. What should he do? Switch to cash only? His story, inside... More »
(acaben)
Steve Jobs Doesn't Trust Consumerist
By Ben Popken on February 16, 2010 10:23 AM
98 Comments
Rob emailed Steve Jobs to tell him that until Apple fixed reader Joel's account that had been billed $50,000 for iTunes purchases, he wouldn't buy another Apple product. Replying via iPad, Steve Jobs told him, "I wouldn't believe everything you read from places like this." Ohhhh snap! But it wouldn't be Jobs who had the last laugh... More »
Revolutionary New Apple Service Bills Your AMEX Card For Nearly $50,000 In Music
By Chris Walters on February 9, 2010 7:03 PM
89 Comments
I think we can all agree that Jobs and his crew at Apple are a bunch of visionaries when it comes to gadgets, online stores, and now getting really, really screwed by an iTunes purchase. Joel writes, "I just got a call from American Express stating that my recent purchase for iTunes plus for my entire library (cost $146) has been charged to my account over 300 times and is currently still being charged. I have called Apple to have them stop charging me and they told me the only thing I can do is cancel my card. There is no number for iTunes and I have sent multiple messages to them without response via email." More »
(NY1)
Update On Woman Sent To Jail For Using Gift Cards At Best Buy
By Chris Walters on February 4, 2010 4:13 PM
248 Comments
Last month, New York City's NY1 news channel produced a news segment on the woman who was arrested for paying with AMEX gift cards at a Best Buy. If you read our earlier post with Ilona's email, you already know most of the basics, but you can see the problematic gift cards and hear Ilona describe the experience in her own words. It turns out that after she was released, she went back to Best Buy for either a refund or the DVD player, but had to leave without either one—she was told she'd have to contact American Express to resolve the problem. More »
Best Buy Sends Customer To Jail For Paying With AMEX Gift Card
*
A shopper just told us thatlast night last month at a Best Buy in NYC, she was taken to a back room, then cuffed by police officers and taken to a precinct for "further investigation," because she tried to pay with an American Express gift card her father had bought for her. More »
By Chris Walters on February 2, 2010 12:36 PM
296 Comments
Update: The news channel New York 1 has prepared a video segment about Ilona's experience with Best Buy and the NYC police.*
A shopper just told us that
Blogger To Amex: No, I Won't Pimp My Friends For Zync
By Marc Perton on January 6, 2010 12:14 PM
64 Comments
Peter Rojas, founder of Engadget and Gizmodo, and co-founder of gdgt, knows more than a little about social media and marketing. So, when he got an email from American Express' ad agency offering an "exclusive relationship" with Amex's new Zync card, he asked for more info — and learned that what Amex really wanted was for him to "give them advice and insight ... and then to wrap it all up I get to pimp out all my closest friends." More »
AmEx Sends Legal Notice Warning Of Random Denials
By Phil Villarreal on November 17, 2009 3:00 PM
39 Comments
—>Steve says American Express sent him an off-putting letter letting him know it could refuse to authorize his charge at any time. He writes: More »
American Express Wants You To Use Lame Passwords
By Chris Walters on September 24, 2009 5:32 PM
75 Comments
—>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 »
Let's All Judge Britney Spears' AMEX Bill
By Meg Marco on September 23, 2009 5:52 PM
208 Comments
—>TMZ has obtained documents from Britney Spears' court case that include her AMEX expenses for the first 11 months of her conservatorship. Let's take a look... More »
