American Express Company Complaint

American Express raises interest rate - American Express Blue

cleanhonda's Picture Reviewed by cleanhonda
Complaint
 +1

I just spent 63 minutes on the phone with American Express (most of the time on hold) trying to get someone to explain why 1) they lowered my credit limit and 2) why they raised my interest rate by 3%.

I was told that my credit limit was being decreased because I wasn't making large enough payments. For the past five months, my minimum payments totaled $829 while my payments totaled $1200. The customer service rep I spoke with, Kimone, informed me that the amount I paid was not enough to prevent my credit limit from being lowered. When I asked how much was enough to keep it from being decreased, she told me she didn't know but that "the customer is supposed to know to pay more." I fail to see the logic.

After having the second customer service rep, Darnell, keep me on hold for over 30 minutes in order to verify that American Express was raising my interest rate, he then transferred me to the third rep, Shanaine, who when asked why my interest rate was being raised replied "it's hard to say." World class customer service!

I must say I have been an American Express card holder for over 6 years and have NEVER had one problem. It's sad that they have decided to make the "little guy" pay for other's financial mistakes. I plan on taking out a personal loan and paying off this account (the same as I did with Discover - at a much lower interest rate).

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AntiAmericanExpress says: (3 weeks ago)
 0
American Express Rip-off are just a bunch of thieves. After 20 years with the, they increased my rate from 10% to 28%. Thinking of not paying any of the balance, no reason to pay to this mafia company.

omniohl1 says: (1 month ago)
 +1
August 9, 2009

To: Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Chenault, American Express
Executive Offices 
American Express Company 

200 Vesey Street

New York, New York 10285

212-640-2000

From: Dr. Curtis J. Ohl American Express member since 2002
61000 Gold Business Account
34002 Platinum Account



RE: This is a letter seeking redress of our $40,000 credit limit reduced to $6,000. Please read our letter and we await your timely response.

Time to leave home without American Express!

As long time customers of American Express let us share our frustration and disappointment in the way this company has been treating us and indeed many card members during this past year. Our cascading grief is over American Express reduction of our credit limits, and raising credit card interest rates. American Express is reacting to the financial crisis out of fear. The financial damage to American Express will be long lasting and far-reaching.

Let us give you a little history as to what type of customers we have been. Our payments are always on time to all our creditors. Our story is like so many other card members. We have two open accounts with American Express. We have been members for seven years, perfect credit with long established payment history, FICO scores over 800 but only Amex has tampered with our credit limits. Only Amex has seen this pressing need to reduce our credit limits. We called Costco and took off the auto renewal for Amex, we no longer want American Express to continue any further unilateral credit damage to our pristine credit portfolio. American Express can no longer be trusted with our credit. We have stayed the course but American Express has run into the economic ditch!

We have called several times, talked to numerous staff, those who survived, faxed our request with supporting documentation and now we are writing to you for redress. In the past it was a punishment to raise interest rates for those who could not pay their debt on time. Is this our reward for being loyal card members with established credit histories, to raise our interest rates for paying our debt on time? We suggest, just as American Express looks ever so closely at our credit worthiness, we look to the executive board and CEO for leadership worthiness!

These actions take us back to a time where perhaps Pony Express might be a better company name. American Express is in total freefall. American Express is failing to provide customer service with a total disregard for ethics and indifference to the many card members. It seems we are going back in time with Pony American Express. 


We just recently read of American Express filing a lawsuit against the infamous Courtney Love. Legal papers showed the rocker owes $352,059.67 in unpaid charges and fees on her Amex Gold Card – which has since been suspended by the company.

So let us understand, American Express trusted a well-known drug addict, notorious for her litigation in not paying bills and American Express extended credit on a gold card for $350,000 but Amex cannot restore our previous credit limit of $40,000? We pay all our bills on time, never been late on any of our payments and we are not drug addicts, in fact we do not even use drugs, not even the good kind!

American Express will never need to file litigation against us but we know so many who want to file a class action lawsuit against American Express.

We jumped through the languishing morass of the many hoops of fire and sent in our full credit report, tax returns and listed assets along with an overall financial statement.
We are writing to inform you that, after reviewing your letter of August 2009 denying us our credit increase, with obfuscated contrived reasons we will not accept this treatment from American Express.
We are financially solid and have not changed, we are not sure the same can be said of the financial hemorrhaging of American Express that will hold another round of layoffs, after cutting 7,000 jobs in October 2008, decimating its work force along with frozen salaries and good luck with that Courtney Love lawsuit. It was sadly, no surprise, when we read your computer-generated letter of indifference. The famous words of Thomas Jefferson rang so true “Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”
In July of 2009, American Express itself stated second-quarter net income came in at $337 million, down 48% from 2008 when the company made $653 million. This net income attributable to common shareholders was only 9 cents a share, down from 56 cents a share in the year-ago quarter, according to the company.
At the same time net write-offs for the company were 10% of total loans in American Express's U.S. card-services business in the second quarter. Loans that were at least 30 days delinquent represented 4.4% of total loans in the latest period, up from 3.3% a year earlier. We do read the Wall Street Journal.
Yet with all this bad news, there was one bright spot as stated by the financial leader of American Express, Chief Executive Kenneth Chenault:
“The number of card members who are falling behind in their payments, the volume of bankruptcy filings and the level of loan write-offs were better than we had expected.”
“If these trends continue, we expect U.S. lending write-off rates on a managed basis to be below 10% for the second half of the year, which is lower than the outlook we offered earlier this year,” Mr. Chenault added.
Yet American Express continues to punish us, the good card members, why? Is it out of fear that we might increase the financial bloodletting? I do not think you need our help for that! May I suggest a bold new direction, take care of the customer first and the bottom line will follow!
American Express appears, as a company, to be in poor financial shape, and undercapitalized. Since we take our financial life seriously, we cannot be associated with a financial company that manages to loose so many employees, assets and runs its own affairs so poorly.
We are not proud of our American Express relationship, are you proud of your leadership? In addition, American Express has too many bad reviews within the consumer community, and your overall rating on every consumer site, is a very poor rating.
I looked, in vain, for a POSITIVE review of your company from any person or news source, and could not find even one except for the mysterious award from JD Powers. Even JD Powers would not return my calls when I asked them to define further what criteria they used to base American Express only award of “good customer service.”
This recession will not last forever. When it is over, and people choose the few credit cards they are willing to use, there will be fewer companies and cards to choose from. The ones who will survive are the ones who realize that the only thing that keeps a credit card company afloat are customers who accept a card, use it, and pay their bills. The companies who will be in business then are the ones who take care of that good group of people today. You are clearly NOT taking care of your good customers today, so I don’t expect you to be in business then.

American Express has raised our interest rates on not only new purchases but on all existing balances. In fact when Congress passed the Credit Card Reform Act, this is exactly what they wanted to prevent Credit Card Companies from doing.

We also found this very interesting from Financial News USA. WASHINGTON (AP) -- American Express Co. spent $710,000 lobbying the federal government in the second quarter on legislation touching on an array of financial issues, a recent disclosure report shows. The article continues with American Express lobbied lawmakers on legislation related to credit card fees and practices, data security and consumer privacy.

American Express also lobbied in the April-June period on consumer bankruptcy, advertising and taxes.
 Beside Congress, the company lobbied the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, Office of Thrift Supervision, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Internal Revenue Service and Executive Office of the President, according to the report filed July 20 with the House clerk's office.
The $710,000 spent by American Express in the second quarter compares with $830,000 in the first quarter, and nearly $1.1 million in the year-ago period. We were amazed to find American Express on the fast track to being granted banking status in just a 30 day period. This usually takes much longer. Of course with this banking status, the company gained over 3 billion in TARP funds.
It was not so nice for American Express to get credit but deny the card members credit.
Our final question, was the $710,000 well spent for the persuasion of influence in Washington DC? While your company is loosing funding, market share, customers, bad debt write offs, against a backdrop of massive company layoffs and your increasing salary of over 42 million with a base salary, cash bonus, stock and other options was it all worth it? Just curious!
So Mr. Kenneth Chenault can you redress this issue with our credit limit or do we need to hold American Express accountable in the court of public opinion? The choice is yours.

Waiting your reply,


Curtis Ohl

tonyde says: (2 months ago)
 0
just got mine increased 3% because they wanted too. Called them and they said i couldn't opt out back in August because they won't let you pay off the balance at the old rate. I will pay this off and never have a American Express rip off card again. They say they can raise it at anytime they wanted. Watch out for AE

tonyde says: (2 months ago)
 +1
just got mine increased 3% because they wanted too. Called them and they said i couldn't opt out back in August because they won't let you pay off the balance at the old rate. I will pay this off and never have a American Express rip off card again. They say they can raise it at anytime they wanted. Watch out for AE

AzIndependent says: (3 months ago)
 0
And ... They are not offering an opt-out option.
Pretty low!

AzIndependent says: (3 months ago)
 0
And ... They are not offering an opt-out option.
Pretty low!

AMEXCardHolder says: (3 months ago)
 0
THEY JUST RAISED MY RATE FROM 11% to 18%. WHY SHOULD WE HAVE TO PAY FOR OTHERS NEGLIGENCE. I WILL NEVER USE AN AMEX CARD AGAIN! THE EXECUTIVES CAN BE CONTACTED AT 212.640.2000 THIS IS RIDICULOUS!

AMEXCardHolder says: (3 months ago)
 0
THEY JUST RAISED MY RATE FROM 11% to 18%. WHY SHOULD WE HAVE TO PAY FOR OTHERS NEGLIGENCE. I WILL NEVER USE AN AMEX CARD AGAIN! THE EXECUTIVES CAN BE CONTACTED AT 212.640.2000 THIS IS RIDICULOUS!

AMEXCardHolder says: (3 months ago)
 0
THEY JUST RAISED MY RATE FROM 11% to 18%. WHY SHOULD WE HAVE TO PAY FOR OTHERS NEGLIGENCE. I WILL NEVER USE AN AMEX CARD AGAIN! THE EXECUTIVES CAN BE CONTACTED AT 212.640.2000 THIS IS RIDICULOUS!

amexsux says: (3 months ago)
 0
I just got my letter - raised me from 11.24 to 17.24 for NO REASON!!! I have been a GOOD CUSTOMER for 6+ years, have always paid on time, and have spent tons of money on which they have made tons with their fees. I am going to stop using it and switch my automatic debits to another card. This new rate is DOUBLE that of any other card I have! Are they stupid!??!

billp4444 says: (3 months ago)
 0
They did the same thing to me. They lowered my credit limit from 30K to just over what my outstanding balance was (4K) with no notice. I had the card for years, had a high balance of 16K, paid it to 0. They recently increased my limit to 30K until dropping it to 4.

I told them I really didn't care -- it's their card but I was immediately cutting up the card and sending in a check for the balance, which I did last night.

windego says: (3 months ago)
 0
AMEX just informed me that even if you close your account, there will be rate increases on balances in November!! Here's part of the email response I received about the rate increases and closing my account:

would like to inform you that the Annual Percentage Rate (APRs) will be revised with effect from November 2009. Therefore, you will be assessed with the new APRs if there is a balance on your closed account.

If you wish to cancel your Card, you may call the number on the back of your Card (24 hours/7 days) or write an email to us requesting a cancellation.

Alternately, you may send us a written communication requesting to cancel your account at the address mentioned below:

American Express
P.O. Box 981535
El Paso, TX 79998

Once we receive a formal notification from you authorizing us to cancel your account, we will proceed accordingly.

I wish to assure you that you are a Valued Cardmember and we are sensitive to your concerns.

Additionally, we assure you of our best attention at all times.

cleanhonda says: (3 months ago)
 0
I started this blog about 7 months ago when AE raised my interest rate by 3% for no particular reason. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to add their comments and experiences. At that time, I was told that my account would be reviewed in 6 months and my interest rate could POSSIBLY be reduced at that time. On August 5, I receive a letter informing me that they are changing my fixed rate to a variable rate, which equals 15.24% at the present time. I haven't made any major purchases and have always paid more than the minimum payment on always on time. This is the treatment they are giving their "good" customers? I don't get it. They were the best credit card company I have ever dealt with until the past year or so when they decided to get rid of me. Has anyone else received the "Important Account Price Increase Notification" letter???

wildamber says: (3 months ago)
 0
I have had Amex for 20+ years -- but same story... interestingly, got the notice of increase the month after I did the unusual and actually used the card for a large ($3000+) purchase. Hmmmm... I too plan to get off of credit cards entirely. If you cannot count on your yers of developing a good credit history in hard times, what's the point? Better off using (gasp!) a savings account instead.

meowdy says: (3 months ago)
 0
yes, I received a letter in the mail that Am Ex is raising my rate on my Blue card. I am in the same situation. Rate raised 3% with no explanation exceptto say it was across the board. I spoke with the manager of the cust svc rep who was of no help. Been a customer for 19 years & pay over the min. and always on time. They have lost a customer!

I asked AmEx to file a complaint and they did register it for me and told me I would be receiving a form or an email to do so, and today in my email i received a notice from an independent company to complete a survey about my phone call to AmEx Blue. It took about 2 minutes to let them know that when i pay off my Blue card I am never going back to Am Ex Blue.....if they mess with my Gold account , it will be the same.

HammerUK says: (6 months ago)
 0
It gets worse! I had a £10K unused limit and in November 2006 opted for an 'ongoing rate of 9.9%' All I had to do to keep this rate was to make payments on time! Amex wrote to me in December and said use the card or lose it... so I used £5K's worth assuming correctly that I was still on the 'ongoing rate of 9.9% and within a few weeks they then increased the rate to 14.9%!! I have had 2 letters confirming their right to do this, but the terminology in the offer is at best ambiguous and I am now considering legal action. Apart from the legality of the terminology within the offer I think its particularly bad of Amex to encourage use of the card without mentioning that they are going to put the rate up by 50%!! I think that if I consult the right people that they might get the card rate down to 0% or cancelled without debt... so why do they play hardball over this.

keithedwards says: (6 months ago)
 0
i closed my account 2 years ago and been paying on a 7000.00 balance they raised my rates to 27.4 percent at 168.00 a month just on intrerest. not sure if how they get away with that. when my account has been closed

TomT says: (7 months ago)
 0
American Express lost me as a customer! So did New York Life. Never again will I be a customer. 6 years ,always on time up 2 points . Then they say they notified us, ya through a advertisement type mail out. Sorry , I'm leaving the house without it forever!

lnorbe says: (8 months ago)
 0
Thanks all, I feel more comfortable now - originally felt I was singled out, in this tough economy not only do they raise the Inerest rate (12.99 from 9.99), but they increase the minimum due by 2% of Bal and then add finance charge on top of that (explanation done because customers wanted to pay off cards faster???). Blue has been my favorite card for almost 10 years, no longer... FYI, am also a Platinum card holder, might get rid of that as well

Trish719 says: (8 months ago)
 0
We noticed the SAME thing on our card.. We are NEVER late & have had the card for about 6 years! Our Available credit is 15K We have had some times in 2008 that we took 2 months to pay buy in August 2008 our VISA offered us a 5.9 Transfer rate so we paid off the AMEX. Then I noticed in the Feb 2009 billing they raised the rate to 12.99% and we have had a CREDIT balance for 2 months..this makes no sense Amex !!!
My other CC average 7.99%-9.99% everyone knows AMEX is now a Commercial Bank and as a commercial bank it draws $$$ out a .5% discount rate since former Secy Paulson enabled American Express to become a Commercial Bank and be eligible for TARP money.
This sucks AMEX... along with your higher then VISA/MC merchant rates...your card is becoming worthless as we speak. Going to move my Automatic Debits from the AMEX card.

tiltyourhead says: (9 months ago)
 0
I have an American Express Blue card that I have had for about 6 years. I think that the limit is about $5,000 and my interest rate has always been 9.99%. I never carry a balance of more than $1,000 and alway make payments of $200-400 monthly. I noticed today while paying off my blaance that my interest rate was 12.99%.

I called AMEX and was told that in November they raided the rates of almost every single card holder 3%. I was unhappy by this and the rep said that this was due to the ecconomic situation here in the U.S.

Some have posted that they are going to cancel their cards. I do not recomend this. Canceling a card that you have had for years with no late paymets will likely lower your credit score. Part of your credit score is based on the revolving credit that you have. By closing cards that are in good standing you are lowering your revolving credit. The lower your revolving credit, the lower your credit score. The best idea is just to pay off your balance and keep the card open. Just chare a tank of gas every other month or something to keep the card active. This will look better for your credit score than closing the card.

lcrx says: (9 months ago)
 0
I am in the same situation. Rate raised 3% with no explanation. Been a customer for 5 years & pay over the min. and always on time. They have lost a customer!

JoeYb says: (10 months ago)
 0
Same thing here, raised rates and lowered credit limit... I had 4 cards with them and closed all 4... Will pay off my debt and tell the to shove it... I am getting away from credit cards totally...

rusty says: (10 months ago)
 0
Same story here. American Express lowered my limit and raised my interest rate. I was never given a satisfactory explanation. I have always paid on time and when I can I pay more than the minimum. Doesn't American Express understand that angering all of their customers is not a good way to stay in business. Soon this recession will end, more companies will be offering loans and credit and people will just pay off their American Express cards and be done with them. That is what I plan to do

chadsimp says: (10 months ago)
 0
At first I thought I wrote this in my sleep. This describes exactly what is happening to me with American Express.




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