March 2017 Complaints Against American Express

Compiled from Public Data by FairShake

If you have an issue with American Express, you’re not alone.

The US government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) collects complaints against financial companies.

In 2017, the CFPB received 2363 complaints against American Express. American Express ranked Number 15 among all financial companies for the most complaints.


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Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: March 28, 2017

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: AL

Product: Prepaid card
Sub-Product: Payroll card

Issue: Unauthorized transactions/trans. issues

Complaint Tags: Servicemember

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: March 28, 2017

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: MN

Product: Credit card

Issue: Advertising and marketing

Full Complaint:
I have an American Express Delta Platinum credit card, of which one of the advertised benefit is XXXX bonus Medallion ( Elite ) Qualifying Miles after {000.00} of eligible spend is applied to the card. I believe that I reached this threshold bonus in Calendar Year XX/XX/2016, but my bonus Miles never posted to my XXXX account. I contacted American Express about the problem back in XX/XX/XXXX and they opened an investigation which they informed me this evening had been closed with a ruling against me.

I was informed that the research department had determined that I had spent {$XXXX}. ( Other representatives told me that I had spent {$XXXX}, meaning that there is n’t even a consensus within the company of how the ” eligible ” spend is calculated. ) Most importantly, American Express includes a feature called a ” Year End Summary ” that is featured prominently in the online account portion of their website and shows all charges and categories of those charges made for the previous calendar year. My Year End Summary shows that I made charges totaling {$XXXX} in XX/XX/2016. If that number is calculated differently than the number for the threshold bonus, that is incredibly misleading.

If one or more of my transactions did not meet one of Amex ‘s apparently multiple definitions of ” eligible ” I could have easily completed additional spend, if I had been aware of the issue and had n’t been misled to believe that I had already met the threshold until it was too late. I believe that Amex purposely misleads consumers into thinking they ‘ve spent more than they have in order to avoid paying out such threshold bonuses.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with non-monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: March 27, 2017

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: NY

Product: Credit card

Issue: APR or interest rate

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: March 27, 2017

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: NH

Product: Credit card

Issue: Identity theft / Fraud / Embezzlement

Full Complaint:
I had fraud committed on my XXXX credit card account by my ex-wife. Charged over {00.00} by my ex-wife unbeknownst to me. I found out about these charges when I was refinancing on my house and the mortgage company went through my credit history. XXXX Company ‘s excuse was that my ex-wife opened the card when we were still married and decided to use the card after the divorce and I have the deeper pocket so I am responsible for the charges. There is no voice authorization said I accepted my ex-wife into my account let alone no written authorization. XXXX kept saying that because I was once married to her that I am responsible, and if I wanted to cancel her account or even my account so I do not do any more business with the XXXX ; I have to sign admitting that it ‘s my fault which is not! The company knows I am trying to keep my credit rating up so they are going after me even though it ‘s my ex-wife who charged all the money! I am the victim of fraud, and I advise everybody to not have this happened to them especially when you go through a divorce. Do not let this happened to you! Especially with XXXX Co. they are the worse customer service to deal with in fraud especially when you are the ACTUAL victim!

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: March 28, 2017

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: LA

Product: Bank account or service
Sub-Product: Checking account

Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: March 28, 2017

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: IN

Product: Credit card

Issue: Closing/Cancelling account

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: March 28, 2017

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: WA

Product: Credit card

Issue: Other

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: March 28, 2017

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: MA

Product: Credit card

Issue: Billing statement

Complaint Tags: Older American

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: March 28, 2017

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: CO

Product: Credit card

Issue: Billing disputes

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: March 28, 2017

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: VA

Product: Credit card

Issue: Closing/Cancelling account

Full Complaint:
I opened up a new American Express Business Platinum card on XX/XX/XXXX to use for business purchases. On XX/XX/XXXX all of my American Express credit cards were hit with an ” American Express Financial Review ” in which they suspended all of my accounts and prevented any charging from being done. Since that date ( XX/XX/XXXX ), until now ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I have been working with the AMEX Financial Review team to try and get any documentation required for the accounts. They requested tax documentation from the IRS and I did my best to get them the required documents. Initial forms were faxed to AMEX on XX/XX/XXXX with follow up forms mailed on XX/XX/XXXX. The process continues to this day ( XX/XX/XXXX ) with the final deadline being XX/XX/XXXX. During this time all of my American Express cards were in a suspended state and were unable to be used. Unfortunately it has come to the point where I have chosen to close the Business Platinum card. AMEX charged me an annual fee of {0.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. Typically, there policy allows for a full refund of the annual fee if closed within 30 days of the previous statement. Due to the fact that my card was suspended and charging was unable to be done I have requested they reimburse the annual fee after having closed the card today on ( XX/XX/XXXX ). I was able to ” use ” the card for XXXX days before it was suspended for the financial review – and having since closed the card I will obviously not be using it for the rest of the year. American Express used the suspending of my card and the ” financial review ” to insure that my card would age beyond the ineligibility window for an annual fee refund. It is unacceptable to think that they will try and charge me {0.00} for a card I was only able to use for XXXX days, then punish me and disallow a refund because I was trying to comply with their financial review process which took over XXXX months.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


FairShake accessed this complaint from the public archives of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). You can file your own complaint with the CFPB here.

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