Well I have to say after my recent experience with Amex i will never again recommend them to anyone. And this is on top of the everyday spend debacle.
I have been a card member for 15 odd years. Started with a green, then was upgraded to gold, open a business card when they complained i was using the gold card for "business transactions" Plat credit card, and was recently upgraded to the business plat and charge plat. All my accounts are in good order too nothing overdue. I suspect this was caused by 1 card being paid the incorrect amount. Mind you this was fixed as soon as it was discovered, but the statement had already run so it was overdue.
Anyway without warning last Monday they put a hold on ALL of my cards. I got off the plane in CBR with a message to call them. I rang and they said they were doing a review of my account and the hold would remain in place until it was completed. They wanted things like bank statements, BAS statements, P&L, pay slips etc. I told them to get stuffed as i was away and after 3 phone calls during the day, i finally got the cards put back, And they would phone me on thursday to discuss it further.
There was no phone call on thursday (surprise surprise), and they put thr hold on my cards on friday. After more phone calls they claimed i was supposed to call them - when in fact they were meant to contact me.
So for the best part of a week my cards were useless, personal and business. I sent them a P&L and some pay slips on Tuesday and I received a phone call later that day saying a P&L was insufficient!!!!! They wanted bank statements and/or BAS statements to complete the enquiry. I spoke to the accountant who said no way, so I phoned up and said i wasn't going to supply them and to please cancel my business cards.
I have demanded back my membership fees on the business cards and ask them is this how they treat their "valued customers". Unfortunately the credit department has the final say on lifting hold on accounts etc so no one apparantly can do anything. And it seems that even if you are there for 15 years it counts for nothing, trying to explain what happened with the payment doesn't matter either. So stuff them. I would never get another business card with them ever again, and would be strongly advising anyone not to either. I told them this but they didn't seem too concerned.
I've also been hearing a few horror stories from other people with Amex just placing holds on cards and not informing people, changing credit limits, and even placing theoretical limits on charge cards. My business card turned over in excess of $600k per year. so I will send it to someone else now.
/end rant
Nick