December 2019 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 2019, the CFPB received 2826 complaints against American Express. American Express ranked Number 11 among all financial companies for the most complaints.


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Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: December 20, 2019

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: AL

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose prepaid card

Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-Issue: Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online

Full Complaint:
This complaint is about the Bluebird by American Express prepaid card. I am not the only one experiencing this issue. Today I was scheduled to have my paycheck direct deposited onto my card as I have done for months, however the card website, smartphone app, and phone hotline are all down. I am unable to see my balance, use my card or even check to see if I received my direct deposit. This has been going on for hours, with no explanation from American Express. I have gone to their social media pages, mostly XXXX to ask about the issue and I have seen countless others experiencing the same issues – no access to funds, no login capability and generally no explanation or customer service. Customer service representatives do not know what is going on, what the time frame is to have the issue resolved, and have been extremely rude (even hanging up on callers). It is detrimental to my life and finances to be unable to access my funds, and I have no idea when and if I will be able to. It is 5 days before XXXX, I am a single mother living paycheck to paycheck and I am absolutely livid at this situation. I would like to at least have an explanation but the company only posts that they are “working to resolve the issue, and that we can use our cards in the meantime” – which is not true. No one is able to make any purchases or withdraw any funds from their cards. This is absolutely unacceptable. I am immensely stressed out about this, not knowing where my money is, not knowing when I’ll be able to use it. I feel like something needs to be done, the company should not be able to do this to people with no explanation.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: December 20, 2019

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: MS

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose credit card or charge card

Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-Issue: Account status incorrect

Full Complaint:
In XX/XX/2018 American Express failed to collect my online payment for my account. I have just learned of this since I am applying for a mortgage and this is negatively affecting my credit score.

I spent over an hour on the phone with different representatives trying to get this cleared up and I was provided inconsistent information by three different representatives.

The first told me they didn’t have data going back that far to check, the second told me that they did in fact have the data and that the data was correct and the third told me that the only way for me to escalate my complaint was to send a letter to Amex.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: December 20, 2019

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: AL

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose prepaid card

Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-Issue: Trouble using the card to pay a bill

Full Complaint:
On XX/XX/2019, I attempted to use my card and it was declined. Knowing that my payroll check was recently deposited, I attempted to check my card balance and could not access American Express Serve website. I tried calling and couldn’t reach anyone. I tried to access the mobile app and the app said it was down. I went online to investigate the problem and discovered that AMEX Serve is down without an ” ETA ” of when the problem will be fixed.

This is the second time in a year that this has happened. Also, an incident like this occurred last year as well. I can not access my money. I’m in urgent need of access to my money. My son is stranded in XXXX and I need to make arrangements to get him home for XXXX.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: December 20, 2019

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: NY

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose credit card or charge card

Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-Issue: Can’t use card to make purchases

Full Complaint:
On XX/XX/2019 I attempted to log into my Serve.com app to check my balance, and was unable to do so. Upon further investigation, I realized that I was unable to use my card, check balance or anything at all. This is the card that I use to have my paycheck direct deposited on, and being unable to access my funds is causing me financial hardship. It is five days before XXXX, and not only do I have bills to pay, presents to buy and children to feed, but I can’t even put gas in my car to get to work. This is unacceptable. As of this point, this is the first issue I have had with this company, but I am beginning to think I need to find another prepaid card to have my deposits added to. I would like compensation for my trouble and hardship.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: December 20, 2019

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: FL

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose prepaid card

Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-Issue: Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online

Full Complaint:
American Express Serve card has been in a total system outage for over 12 hours.Members cannot access their account information nor use the Card for purchases.Off-shore customer service reps are rude and non-responsive – refusing to answer questions, and often times outright hanging up the phone.No ETA for restoration is provided.Card is still offline.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: December 20, 2019

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: None

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose credit card or charge card

Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-Issue: Can’t use card to make purchases

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: December 20, 2019

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: NY

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose credit card or charge card

Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-Issue: Can’t use card to make purchases

Full Complaint:
American Express’s prepaid debit card services (Serve, Bluebird) have been completely non-functional since ~XXXX EST this morning, on Friday, XX/XX/2019. Users (including myself) are unable to log into their account on either the serve.com website or through the Serve mobile app. The app displays a message explaining the issue is due to maintenance. The website displays a message explaining that the site is down, but affected users’ debit cards can still be used. However, said cards are declined when used for transactions, both online and physically. When asked for comment, American Express’s officiaXXXX XXXX accounts (@AmericanExpress and @AskAmex) send generic, copied responses that explain little regarding the status of the problem (ex: “Thank you for reaching out, we are aware of the issue and we are working quickly to resolve it. We appreciate your patience. Your funds remain safe and secure. ^D”.) In the meantime, the @AmericanExpress XXXX account posted a tweet promoting a production of the theatrical play XXXX before acknowledging the ongoing issues on the account an hour later. The effect is worsened due to the outage occurring during the XXXX shopping season and on the day of the week that many working Americans receive their weekly paychecks, which American Express offers and promotes a direct deposit service for and is now unavailable to those using Serve and Bluebird debit cards.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: December 20, 2019

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: KS

Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-Product: Other banking product or service

Issue: Managing an account
Sub-Issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: December 20, 2019

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: NC

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose prepaid card

Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-Issue: Problem using the card to withdraw money from an ATM

Full Complaint:
I have been trying to check my account on the Serve App and the American Express website but the same message has been displayed since XXXX am and its going on XXXX pm now. I have called and spoke to 2 representatives, the first one told me that it wasnt a breach and that it would be resolved in 2-3 hours and the second person told me 3-4 hours. I received a direct deposit today ( well at least I think I did because I have no way of checking ) and Im trying to withdraw money but its saying insufficient funds. Todays date is XX/XX/2019

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: December 20, 2019

Company Official Name: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

State: IN

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose prepaid card

Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-Issue: Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with monetary relief


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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